Page 29 of The Boyfriend Gamble

“You haven’t finished your drink.”

“It’s in a bottle, so I can just take it with me.” I eyed the sky with the slowly setting sun. “You going to be all right out here by yourself?”

“I’ve got a tent, an air horn, and bear spray.”

I didn’t like the sound of any of that. “Not a lot of help with coyotes.” Or determined bears, for that matter. “Are you sure you don’t want to come home with me? I’ve got a spare bedroom…”

“The insurance company says someone has to be on the grounds for the homeowner’s policy to be valid. Plus, I’d hate to have someone come along and steal everything.”

I wasn’t positive about the insurance, but yeah, getting everything stolen would suck. Of course for someone to know there was stuff to steal, they would’ve had to be scoping out the property and, this far from town, that wasn’t really a thing.

After securing the cap to my soda, I rose.

Felix leapt up as well. “Here, take the leftover pizza.”

All of one slice. We’d devoured it. Well, I’d eaten five slices, and he’d eaten two. I comforted myself that he’d bought a medium so the slices were smaller, but the rest of me admitted I was starving and hadn’t been forward looking to going home alone and whipping up something to eat.

Probably would’ve done drive-thru.

Yeah, but thatcostmoney, and I was trying tosavemoney. “You sure you don’t want it?”

He glanced at the woods. “Better to not tempt fate. I’ve got a chocolate bar if I get peckish.”

I almost laughed at the wordpeckish. Partly because it was just so Felix and partly because I thought of the word pecker, which got my cock perking up and taking notice. Oh, that might also have been because of the super cute guy sitting next to me. “You’ll be okay?”

He nodded, meeting my gaze. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

Yet, even as I drove back down the long, winding driveway, I knew I would.

Chapter Five

Felix

Theendoftheschool year always made me melancholy.

Saying farewell to my students as they headed off to their summer break.

Saying goodbye to my fellow teachers as they scattered in many directions.

Saying adios to the administrators who held the place together.

Most of all, I disliked the idea of being rootless for two months. I’d applied for a school in the next town over that ran classes all year long with several weeks-long breaks scattered throughout the year. I hadn’t been accepted, but Cedar Street Elementary school had been happy to snap me up.

I’d landed where I was meant to be.

“Hey, Mr. Stevenson.”

Angus Braun, my favorite student, waved. Yeah, I wasn’t supposed to have favorites. But with kids like Angus, that adage proved difficult.

“Hey, Angus.” The young boy’s deep-brown eyes spoke of a soulfulness few his age held. His mother died when he was five, and then his father when Angus had been all of eight.

The handsome man who stood next to him was his uncle, Stanley. Both Stanley and his husband Justin were very involved in Angus’s education.

With my pupil being so bright, I’d chosen to give him extra work to keep his mind occupied.

Angus ate it up.

Stanley extended his hand. His brown eyes matched Angus’s, but his dark-brown hair was liberally peppered with serious amounts of gray. He held a young girl, maybe five years old, in his arms.

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