Page 22 of Sapphire Sunset

Out came the entire story, every word of it, from the momenthe laid eyes on Connor dancing, up through the scary-ass meeting with RodneyHarcourt, to thekindadouchey text he’d sent the guythat morning.

“Dude,” Donnie said when Logan finished, and for a second,Logan thought he was going to make apornycomment aboutall the sexual descriptions Logan had included.

“What? Just say it, whatever you think.”

“Dude,” Donnie said again. “The owner’s grandson? That’sfuckin’ risky, man.”

“What happened tothe boner points the way to the heart?”Logan asked.

“I said that once, and that guy was a gymnast,” Donnieanswered.

A silence fell, then he heard clicking sounds.

“What are you doing?” Logan asked. “Wait. You’re Facebookstalking him?”

“I’m googling him. You have to actually be into somebody toFacebook stalk them. That’s you, dude. I’m conducting some basic research.”

“No, don’t. I don’t want to hear you say it. You always—”

“Oh, yeah, there he is. Yeah, totally. He’s totally yourtype. He’s got that grown-up Tintin thing you love.”

“Will youstopsaying that? It’s disgusting, and itmakes me sound like apedo.”

“It’s true.”

“Tintin was a boy. And what does that make me, the captain?That’s fucking twisted, Donnie.”

“Well, you don’t have a beard. Yet.”

“Why am I friends with you?” Logan asked.

“Relax, Murdoch. I saidgrown-upTintin.”

Neither of them said anything for a while, and in thesilence that followed, he could hear TV sounds from inside the trailer.

“I don’t know what you should do, man.” Donnie cleared histhroat, and from his huffing breaths it sounded like he was running his palmsover his face. “That’s a tough one.”

The fact that Donnie, the king of jumping in balls first,was freaked out by the implications of what he’d done with Connor was certainlyclarifying. But it made the weight in his stomach feel even heavier.

“He just texted you once, right?” Donnie asked.

“Yeah. And I thumbs-upped him.”

“So maybe he got the message,” Donnie said.

“Okay,” Logan asked. “There’s a message?”

“I don’t know. You need to let this go, maybe? I mean, yourjob. Your health insurance. Your dad’s bills. So the cave thing was hot, but isit really worth the risk? Like have you met a lot of really awesome richpeople?’CauseI haven’t, to be frank.”

Donnie had endured some painful experiences with successful boyfriendprospects who’d only seen him as their dirty little porn secret, something thatonly came clear once it was obvious they weren’t willing to introduce him tomost of their friends. It was bad and it was real, and it had happened morethan once, but it also left him biased on the subject of guys in higher taxbrackets.

“The party…” Logan said, but the rest of the sentence didn’tcome.

“What about it?”

“It said something about him. He could have made it abouthim, but it was about the guests.”

“Uh huh.”

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