Page 29 of Sapphire Sunset

His father held up the remote, and Logan took one stepacross the tiny living room to get it.

He was scrolling through Netflix’s eight-thousand-millionviewing options when his dad let out a groan and straightened himself to aseated position with one arm on the back of the sofa. His metal crutches wereresting against the arm of the sofa next to him. Logan watched them closely tomake sure they didn’t fall over. “Hey, son. No offense, buddy, but the Sallything’s not going to work out.”

“Yeah, actually it’s working just fine. It’s not a fix-up,Dad. She’s supposed to watch you.”

“I know, but she’s a troubled woman.”

“You’re a troubled patient, so it sounds like a match.”

Logan’s phone buzzed in his pocket.

Chip flinched, balled his hands against his stomach.“Probably Sally, busting me on my ice cream intake.”

It wasn’t Sally. It was Connor Harcourt.

“Just going to pop in my room for a second.” Logan’s voicesounded far away, and he was almost to his bedroom by the time his fatheranswered.

“Yeah, sure.”

He was determined not to read the text until he had someprivacy, but his heart started racing when he saw how damn long it was.

Once he was leaning against his closed bedroom door, hesucked in a deep breath and picked up the phone and read.

Half of him was dreading some big, long apology that explainedhow last night was a huge mistake and he was sorry for doing anything thatmight get Logan in trouble at work, and the other half was expecting a raunch-filledsextathonfinished off by an ass shot.

What he got was very different.

Hey. So I’ve tried like ten versions of this text andthey all sound either trashy or basic. On my part, I mean. I was looking forthe way to say I can’t stop thinking about you when what I really wanted to saywas I don’t *want* to stop thinking about you. I was also going to say you blewmy mind, but the truth is you joined my body with my mind for the first time,and they both went to a place they’ve never been before. So anyway, I knowthat’s a lot and kind of intense, but not telling you how I was feeling todayfelt like a lie for some reason. Or maybe I just want you to know. Thanks foran amazing night, Lethal Weapon. Even if we didn’t exactly finish. : )

Logan only realized how much he was smiling when his facestarted to hurt.

His response was already forming itself in his mind. A textabout twice as long, a text about the things that had happened inside of Loganwhen he watched Connor dance, about how the room seemed to come to a stoparound them the way it sometimes did for people in movies, the ache he’d felt whenhe’d had to leave the sea cave. He wasn’t the biggest texter in general, butmaybe Connor would turn him into one. This would be the beginning of a long andillustrious career of texting Connor Harcourt.

But somewhere along the distance from his brain to hisfingers, this text—this perfect, desire-filled, honest, fearless text—died asudden death. As he raised the phone and prepared to type, the walls of the doublewideseemed to close in on him, and all he could hear was Donnie’s voice sayingRisky,dude.

What he typed was,Meet at Laguna Brew tonight at 6?

4

Once the two of them stopped squealing, Naseragreed to help Connor get ready for his date.

Once Connor gave him a rough sketch of what that wouldentail, Naser’s brow furrowed, and he got a faraway look in his eyes.

“Why do you need three hundred packs of Reese’s PeanutButter Cups?” he asked in a daze.

“Please drive me to Costco. I’m too excited to be trustedbehind the wheel.”

Costco had the peanut butter cups, but not the wire frame towhich Connor planned to fasten them. It was also possible three hundredwouldn’t be enough, so he bought an extra two hundred just in case. Then theyneeded a hardware store for the wire. Then it was time to buy some cowboyboots.

“Wait, cowboy boots?” Naser asked. “You don’t wear cowboyboots.”

“That’s correct, and I’m not going to wear them tonight.”

“Of course not. Why would anyone actually wear cowboy boots?They’re so much better as condoms. What’s going on, Connor?”

“Drive me to Spectrum and I’ll tell you.”

“So you’re going to put the peanut butter cupsinthe cowboy boots. Then what?” Naser asked once they reached the crowdedshopping mall.

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