Page 47 of Never Will I Ever

No.

It’s knowing the offer I just made…is one I hope he takes.

Fourteen

Avery

Things with Kaleb are far less tense the following morning.

I’m not sure what I was expecting to happen. I knew going into it, he’s not exactly the type to make a bunch of flyers and staple them to every available surface about what I’d told him. After what I did last year—and after how he turned me in for it—outing me would be the last way he’d retaliate.

But bare minimum, part of me still expected a fair amount of animosity between us. Maybe some awkwardness lingering in the midst of the dissipating tension.

Yet instead, when I gather my half of the kids from the bathhouse and drag them to the lodge for breakfast, I’m greeted with a sight I could’ve never imagined: Kaleb offering a slight nod and a smile from where he’s seated between his brothers at one of the dining tables.

And my stomach starts doing gymnastics because of it.

Loading my plate and heading toward an empty table, I make every attempt to keep my gaze away from his side of the table. One little heart-to-heart doesn’t make all the bullshit from the past automatically disappear. Like I said last night, at the very least, it’s a step in the right direction.

“You seem to be in a good mood this morning.”

Glancing up, I find Elijah sliding onto the bench beside me, his tray loaded with two bowls of…oatmeal, of all things.

I shrug while taking a sip of my orange juice. “Just another day.”

“Nope,” he says, shaking his head. “Something’s different.”

Realistically, I know there’s zero chance Elijah can justtellI’m gay. Admitting it aloud to one person, even if it’s for the first time, doesn’t automatically put a flashing neon sign over my head that readshomosexual crossingfor everyone to see.

But even that sound bit of logic doesn’t stop my stomach from swirling in panic while I slowly set my glass back on the table.

“Uh, I’m not sure—”

“You didn’t shave.”

I glance at the kid, cocking my head. He’s right, I didn’t shave this morning. But I’m not quite sure how he made the leap from not shaving to me being in a good mood.

“Uh. No, I didn’t.”

He nods while chewing the bite of oatmeal he just shoved in his mouth, waiting until he swallows to speak. “Makes sense. I’d be happy if I didn’t have to take a razor to my face every day too.”

My lips twitch into a grin.

God, this kid.

There’s something to be said about how unabashed he is, at least around me. While he might have a shyness about him when it comes to the kids his age, that seems to disappear when the two of us talk. He says the first thing on his mind without a second thought.

It’s refreshing.

Fuck, maybe there’s a lesson for me to learn from him too.

A sudden burning on the side of my face has my attention shifting from Elijah, subconsciously moving toward the source. Sure enough, Kaleb’s eyes are already locked on me, and when our gazes collide, the slightest smirk pulls at his lips again. Not the devious kind that would make me wonder what sort of evil plan he’s concocting in his head. It’s the kind that two people share when they know something no one else does. Like an inside joke.

Or in my case, the secret I’ve been harboring since puberty.

And while it’s terrifying to have this kind of trust in someone else, I can’t keep myself from returning his grin.

Because I was wrong about Kaleb LaMothe; that much has become blatantly obvious.

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