Guardian Angels - If It's Fated… (10)

Dom held back, studying Richard Lewis, who was watching Tim interacting with Cherie. "Look like he's good with kids," Dom commented.

Richard chuckled. "To hear Cherie tell it, he walks on water. It almost makes me jealous at times. I take it he's a friend of yours?"

"A new friend. We met a few days ago." Dom added, before Richard could make any wrong assumptions, "I'm new in town and Tim helped me find a place to buy furniture for my apartment and then volunteered to show me around a bit. Thus, the museums."

"Museums? Plural?"

"Yeah, we hit up the art museum this morning."

"So you've seen them all. What next, art galleries?"

"Maybe. Who knows?" Dom realized Richard was paying more attention to Tim than to what they were talking about at the moment, which puzzled him, so he did a bit of probing. Oh really? Why does he think Tim even swings that way? And more to the point, what can I do about it? I can hardly come out and say 'He's gay'. 

"He seems like a nice man," Richard said.

"I agree." Dom took a flying leap with his next words. "A bit of a loner, from what I can tell. I have the distinct feeling his life revolves around the library and… well, the library. I practically had to drag him out for a beer a couple of days ago, to repay him for his help with my furniture." He chuckled. "We ended up at a place called Maxie's. Do you know it?"

Richard nodded. "I've been there a couple of times."

"Apparently Tim hadn't. I think he was surprised it catered to both straights and gays."

Richard turned to look at Dom, frowning. "He didn't like the idea?"

"Oh, I think he did," Dom replied. Then with a grin, he lied, telling Richard, "He was checking out the men while I did the same for the available females."

"I… see." Richard turned back to look at Tim again. "I… we should get going, I suspect. Abbie will be wondering what's taking so long."

"You're wife?"

"What? Oh, no. Cherie's nanny, Abbie Norton. I've never been married." Richard must have realized how that sounded. "Cherie is my niece. My sister died in childbirth and I was her only living relative. Since she was single, I got custody of Cherie and ended up adopting her."

"Thus, the nanny."

"Exactly. She is undoubtedly pacing the floor, since we're supposed to be joining her for our normal Sunday dinner get together." Without another word to Dom, Richard went over to where Cherie and Tim were checking out the display of dinosaur eggs.

Dom could hear him offering his apologies to Tim for breaking up their discussion before he took Cherie's hand, reminding her they had to stop at the store to pick up dessert before going to Mrs Norton's. 

As soon as they'd left, Dom went over to join Tim. "So do you now know more than you ever wanted to about prehistoric reptiles?"

Tim smiled. "Pretty much." He hesitated momentarily. "You and Mr Lewis seemed to be hitting it off."

"He was asking me about you, so I told him. Did you know Cherie was his niece before he adopted her?"

"No. I guess I figured her mother walked out on them." Then Tim obviously realized what Dom had said. "He was asking about me?"   

"Um-hum. He seemed quite interested."

"Probably wants to make sure I'm not a pedophile or some such."

"Maybe at first but…" Dom shrugged. "What say we get out of here and go find some place to sit down? My feet are killing me."

"Wuss," Tim teased.

"A wuss who'd not used to being on his feet all day the way you are."

"So he really seemed interested in me? I wonder…naw."

"You never know." Dom grinned. "He did say he's been to Maxie's a couple of times."

Tim looked at him in surprise. "You asked?"

"I was telling him about how we met and my dragging you there. He said he knew the place."

"But…" Tim shrugged. "Fifty-fifty why he does, you know."

Dom nodded. "Still better than if we'd gone to a straight bar and he said he hung out there a lot. Right?"

"Right," Tim replied, his expression pensive. "He seems like a nice man."

"Which is exactly what he said about you."

"Not that I'll ever see him again."

"You never know." You will if I have anything to say about it. I may be grasping at straws, but I think there's a definite possibility the two of you could hit it off. After all, you have Cherie in common, which is a good place to start.