Chapter 1

1

Chad placed the last dish in the cupboard. It had taken a while, but the last item from their move was put away. The last box was broken down and in the garage, waiting to be placed out in the curb when recycling day came around. Whenever that came. He’d have to look up that information.

His phone vibrated.

It was Brick. Hey, babe, running late. I ordered pizza delivery.

Since they officially moved to Nevada only a week ago, right outside the confines of Las Vegas’s Clark County, Brick had been putting in extra hours. He complained that the promotion as managing partner of the Nevada law firm meant he had to learn the ins and outs of how this office ran. It was a big change for Brick, from trying cases to managing people. But the firm wanted to help him.

Chad wasn’t convinced it wasn’t to prevent Brick suing the firm once they had discovered his disability.

Chad texted Brick back. Thanks. Guess you read my mind, not in the mood to cook.

A thumbs-up emoji popped up on his phone, and Chad smiled. Even if Brick left the office in the next few minutes, the Las Vegas traffic to get to their house in the middle of nowhere would mean Brick wouldn’t be home for at least an hour.

Well, the middle of nowhere was probably an exaggeration. Their new house was completely different than the Cape Cod they left in the Chicago suburb. And the fucking weather was surely different, no more modern skyline, or maple and sycamore trees that changed with the seasons, now there was just this commonplace brown. Cacti everywhere, and where people in Chicago had lawns, nice green lawns, here people had rocks in their front yard.

Fuck.

He already missed the food.

Their new house near Henderson, Nevada, was on a cul-de-sac. The builders hadn’t constructed any houses yet on either side of them. It was just cacti, the occasional tumbleweed that drifted from a dried riverbed a hundred yards behind them, and the scorching sun. Brick promised that when it got cooler they would head to one of the national parks in Utah or Colorado to see aspens

But at least they were away from the snow and ice. Easier for Brick to maneuver.

Chad glanced at the pool in their backyard. It beckoned him to shuck his clothes off. He tidied up the stack of papers on the kitchen counter, but some fell on the floor.

His bare foot almost slipped on a pamphlet that Brick brought home. He’d found a gym nearby for them to join. If ten miles was considered nearby, anyway. Working out was something that Brick wanted to do still, and at a new gym, he wouldn’t be awkward around old friends who remembered Brick before the crutches. Before the wheelchair he sometimes had to use.

Good friends would still keep in touch, he knew. But the judgy friends that they both had back home in the outskirts of the Windy City, well, he wouldn’t miss them. And Chad wouldn’t miss some of his family either. The ones who had boycotted their wedding.

So yeah, distance probably would help them too. Moving from Chicago didn’t only mean a change in income, but it meant leaving their families. Away from Brick’s overprotective parents. God love them, Chad loved them, Brick loved them, but they hovered too much and over-worried to the point of controlling.

Brick and Chad had been worried about the changes, including being away from a small support group, but Chad agreed with Brick that the move would be good in saving their relationship.

Brick had warned Chad before they started dating about his diagnosis. Chad didn’t care. He had fallen in love with Brick two seconds after meeting him in the lovely confines of Champaign-Urbana. Brick was the beautiful law school student with blond, almost wavy hair, intense blue eyes, who graduated high school two years early. Chad was the college senior who was blown by his quiet, self-confidence. It wasn’t until their second date that Brick told Chad about his diagnosis. Brick had told Chad that any day their world could change.

Brick thought it would’ve scared Chad away, but it didn’t. But as the disease became more noticeable, the pain became more persistent, and after two years of marriage their intimacy suffered.

Counseling led them to this path. To leave Chicago.

“Be more free, be more open with each other. Trust each other,” their counselor said repeatedly. At first, they resisted changes in their lives. But the devastating musculoskeletal disorder that Brick inherited through both sides of his family was starting to take its toll on Brick. Brick wanted to make the change. He jumped at the chance of a promotion and the move to Nevada. Chad was the most resistant, but he eventually relented.