Page 39 of Between Brothers

“I think that sounds reasonable.”

“I’m glad, because I really, really like you Hayley. I have for a long, long time.”

There was a solid foundation of truth to his words, the sound of it a comforting thing, soothing, and I felt some tension bleed from my muscles as if I had set a heavy burden I hadn’t even realized I’d been carrying, down.

“You’re a lot braver and stronger than you give yourself credit for.”

“How do you figure?”

“To be willing to trust me, to do this with me after the things that have happened to you… to be willing to explore your sexuality with us… that’s kind of incredible, babe.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him I’d thought of that, and had already come to the conclusion that if things went badly, that the most likely outcome would be that just I was hurt again. I was sick to death of feeling so lonely and none of the guys who had hit on me at the diner were like Blue… none of them had ever given me the feeling that they could and would care back and I honestly didn’t want just sex. I wanted it all… a relationship and unconventional as it may be, Blue and Cell had offered me just that.

Well, at least Blue had. Cell was still a mystery. I couldn’t ever tell one way or the other just how he felt. He was hard to understand but I was betting that like Blue, and like even me, he had a history behind that.

“Turn out the light?” I asked.

“Sure, anything else?”

“Yeah, don’t let me go…”

“Hm,” the sound was amused, “Never gonna happen.”

I really, really, liked the sound of that.

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