Rory's Rock

Chapter 2-3

Buying gifts for Debbie was easy. She’d never met a box of candy she didn’t like. So Rory crammed as many sugary treats as would fit in a flat rate priority box and stood in line at the post office to mail it out. All while buying the candy and standing in line, Zane asked Rory questions about Debbie, his time in the group home, and why he was there in the first place. This last topic was the hardest to avoid answering. Rory knew Zane was genuinely interested, not meaning his questions to be intrusive. All Rory would say was when his mom died, his dad wasn’t able to raise him so he had to go into care.

“You didn’t have any grandparents or aunts and uncles?” Zane asked incredulously.

Rory shook his head and said he was an only child. His mom didn’t have any siblings, and they’d lost touch with his dad’s older brother. Rory wasn’t in the habit of making small talk but thought if he started asking his own questions about Zane’s family, it would deflect attention from Rory’s own. “What about you? Are you from a big family?”

“Mom and Dad aren’t very tall. They keep saying they don’t know where I came from.” Zane laughed.

Rory smiled, both at the joke and the fact Zane had misunderstood his question. “Any brothers or sisters?”

“Sister, Betsy. She’s a few years older than me.” Zane smiled. “She’s short, too.”

Zane’s family sounded close knit. The family home was a couple of hours drive away and Zane visited his parents twice a month on his days off.

“Should have gone to see the folks today but…” He gestured towards the front door of the post office. Someone was just walking in, their clothes dusted with snow.

Finally it was his turn at the window and Rory quickly paid the fee—he’d already counted out the exact money—and they left the warmth of the post office. Sure enough, it had started snowing and the sidewalks were becoming slick. A group of rowdy teenagers pushed passed them, shoving at each other. When a snowball landed squarely on the back of one of the teens, he turned around to glare angrily at Rory and Zane. Rory unconsciously stepped closer to Zane and would have moved behind him if another snowball hadn’t struck the same teen, this time on his front. This was followed by laughter from the thrower and threats of retribution from the victim.

“You cold, Ror?” Zane asked.

Ror? That was new. Made him sound like a lion. Rory sure as s**t didn’t feel leonine.

Zane slung an arm around Rory’s shoulders and pulled him into the big man’s side. “We’ll go in here. Need some cheese anyway.” He guided Rory into Walmart, which was packed with shoppers, no doubt stocking up to weather out the storm. The aisles of holiday items nearest the entrance were particularly crowded. Rory hated crowds so was grateful for Zane’s reassuring bulk, even though the big man had withdrawn his arm. A group of six or seven Asian women were gathered at the head of one of the aisles, all were talking rapidly and Rory wasn’t sure if any of them were listening.

Standing almost a head taller than most of the crowd, Zane was easily able to look around. “Jimmy’s over there.” Zane moved Rory behind him and after a series of polite “excuse mes,” powered his way through the knot of gossiping women, who miraculously parted.

Fearing he’d either be left behind or swallowed up by the crowd, Rory stuck closely to Zane’s broad back.

“s**t, it’s crowded in here,” Jimmy told Zane and Rory. At a disapproving tut from a woman to his left, Jimmy touched the brim of his hat. “Sorry, ma’am. Miss.” He nodded to the young girl who had a fist tightly clenched in the woman’s skirt.

“Had any luck finding gifts?” Zane asked Jimmy.

Jimmy shook his head no. “There’s tons of red shi…uh, stuff,” his eyes briefly slid to the woman, who was moving away, “but I can’t find anything purple for Barry.”

There was a momentary gap in the crowd and Rory spotted a display of teddy bears of various sizes, each wearing a white T-shirt with a large red heart on its front and the words ”Be My Valentine. Rory pointed. “What about getting him a bear?”

Jimmy looked, then frowned and shook his head. “Not purple.”

“No, but you can probably buy purple ribbon here. You could then tie a purple bow around the bear’s neck.”

Jimmy mustered up a cautious smile.

Warming to his theme, Rory added, “And you must have a scrap of purple fabric back at the ranch, a bandana or something. You could cut out a heart shape and sew it over the red one.”

“Uh, not really.” He looked down at his hands.

Rory surprised himself by adding, “Or I could do it for you.”

Jimmy’s face lit up like a kid’s on Christmas morning. “You would? That’d be great!” He pulled Rory into a tight hug. “Thanks, man!” Jimmy pounded Rory on the back. “Promise you won’t tell Jake? Bet he won’t have thought of anything that clever.”

“Uh, no, okay.”

Jimmy then made a beeline to the bears, accidentally bumping the lady he’d earlier upset. But another touch to his hat and an apologetic smile seemed to mollify her. Jimmy bent down and grabbed three of the largest bears from the bottom shelf.

As they waited in line at the register, Zane nodded to Jimmy’s potential purchases. “Why three?”

“One for Barry, one for Jakey,” he smiled, “and one for me.” Turning to Rory, he asked, “You don’t mind sewing on two more hearts do you?”

Despite Debbie’s best efforts at teaching him needlecraft, Rory knew his sewing skills weren’t the best. But he couldn’t disappoint his boss and pretend big brother. “I’ll do my best.” He was about to point out he’d only need to create two fabric hearts because there was a red one printed on the shirts, but that wouldn’t look the same as the others, and that would be a potential source of friction, which he wanted to avoid.

Jimmy’s bag of bears was safely stowed behind the driver’s seat of Zane’s truck—Zane had agreed to transport the bears so Jake and Barry wouldn’t see them until Rory had worked on them.

“Damn, you forgot your cheese!” Rory exclaimed.

Zane looked momentarily confused. “Cheese? Oh, uh, it doesn’t matter. I’m sure Barry got some.”

Rory wondered if Zane hadn’t intended going into town and only said he needed something so he could take Rory. That made Rory feel warm and…He hugged himself tighter.

“Cold ?” Zane asked, reaching for the knob to the heater. “Sorry, it’s already on max.”

“’S fine.” Although the draft whistling through the slightly open passenger window didn’t help. Rory fiddled with the winder but the glass didn’t move.

“Sorry, keep meaning to get that fixed.”

Zane’s truck was old and not in the best shape. There were rust patches, the leather on the seats was cracked and stuck down with duct tape, but the thing that caused the biggest issue for Rory was the handle on the passenger door. It didn’t work too well on the inside so Zane usually had to walk around the truck to let Rory out. And the handle on the outside often stuck, so Zane usually freed it to let Rory enter the vehicle. The malfunctioning lock did allow Rory to imagine Zane was indulging in some old-fashioned door-opening chivalrous behavior.

Zane pulled over, stopped the truck, unhooked his seat belt, and began to take off his leather jacket. “You can put this on.”

“It’s okay, I…” Rory said, but nevertheless accepted the jacket, touched by yet another act of gallantry.

“You need it more than me.”

Rory attempted to put the jacket on.

Zane laughed. “Probably should undo your seat belt first.”

Rory felt his cheeks heat. “Uh, yeah. Sorry.”

The jacket was way too big, Rory could probably fit in it twice over, but it was warm and smelled strongly of Zane. Fortunately the jacket, when he wrapped it around himself, covered his lap and hid the growing erection Rory was sporting. He prayed it would go down before they got back to the ranch.