Page 102 of Class Clown

Ruby’s Truth: Sometimes your brother’s friend just likes you better.

“What do you mean you’re not coming back to Texas?” Cole asked Nico the next weekend as we stood in the gravel parking area near Bearadise Lodge, saying farewell to our final campers. “You have a job there. With me. Back at the rec center.”

Nico wasn’t waving, big surprise, but he was nodding at the campers that waved to him, which was something. His hands were loose in his pockets, and his shoulder brushed mine when he shifted.

Yeah. We were together out loud now and I was standing close. We were wearing our matching uniforms, and as we’d walked from our cabin down to the lodge, I’d told him that maybe we should become one of those couples that matched on purpose. He said we could talk again when we were ninety. I really liked the idea of being ninety with Nico.

“I’m going with Ruby to Utah to explore my options there,” Nico replied calmly. “You’ll replace me, no problem.”

He was much calmer than I was. I was a sweating mess of balled-up emotion. If I wasn’t only thirty-two I’d think I’d entered menopause and was having hot flashes and hormone imbalances. As it stood, I was still reeling from the night before when he’d pulled me outside after dinner and told me that he’d decided to come home with me.

After only three weeks of dating.

So much for us having a dialogue about it. I’d been totally blindsided, and for the first time ever, I’d been the one wanting a little more detailabout the plan. Wasn’t it a bit soon? I would understand if he wanted to do long distance for a while. Where would he live and work? How would he pay for things? Was he sure he wanted to follow me? Because I was really great at first impressions, but neither of us could predict how I’d be as a long-term partner.

He had answers for all of it. He had savings, he’d lived with me for several months now and saw no red flags, he could find work and had a lead on housing. In short, he knew what he wanted and that was in Logan, Utah. So, yeah, he was coming with me.

When he’d gone back to the lodge to finish prepping the final campfire program, I’d slunk off to the health center to stare at a wall. I was a chaser. I had no idea how to be chased. It didn’t take long to realize that this side of things felt pretty good and that maybe I could get used to it. I decided to forgive him for being heavy-handed about his announcement. He’d clearly thought it out and I was willing to let it play.

“Where are you going to live?” Cole asked, barging in to my thoughts.

“Meredith’s boyfriend has a spare room until I find a place,” Nico answered easily as he reached over to wrap his warm hand around mine.

He’d apparently exchanged numbers with Meredith when she’d come to visit, and they’d been plotting behind my back the past day or so. Steely, barbed-wire Meredith thought Nico was the best, and she’d never, not once, liked a guy I was with. It was the greenest flag in the history of green flags.

And honestly, having a guy secretly plotting ways to stay with you? Three cheers for that. I liked it a lot.

“What about a job?” Cole asked, going down the same list I’d had.

“I have savings,” Nico replied for the second time in twenty-four hours. “My salary from the military has been building up and earning interest. I never bought a house or anything, and was deployment enough that I wasn’t spending money. Plus, I’m thinking about using my veterans benefits to go to college. Logan has a great university.”

Cole looked at me behind Nico’s back. “You’re cool with him totally uprooting his life this way?”

I blinked, and scowled. “Am I not worth uprooting for?”

Cole shook his head, but Nico jumped in to answer. “If I had a life to uproot, you’d have a point, but I don’t. I haven’t lived in Texas for morethan a few months here and there for ten years. Right now, Ruby is the closest thing to roots I have.”

Cole’s eyes grew big, and I flushed.

“I’m your roots, man,” Cole retorted, clearly a little hurt.

Nico put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re right. Poor choice of words. You’re my roots, but your sister is my future.”

I had no idea he saw me that way, as a steady place. Had I ever been someone’s steady place? Had I ever been my own? It was both flattering and scary. I wanted to live up to that, but again, we’d only been together for three weeks. How could he already trust me that deeply?

“This is borderline disgusting talk,” Cole said jokingly, and I was grateful for the humor.

“I thought you wanted us to date?” I interjected, a little stumped.

“I do.”

Nico dropped his hand from Cole’s shoulder. “I guess you don’t want me to tell you that I find her incredibly attractive and I’ve been interested in her for a long time. These feelings aren’t new.”

“Stop it, now.” Cole wrinkled his nose.

“I sneaked a picture of her from your parents’ house and took it with me on my deployments,” Nico said. Cole groaned, but my breath caught and my head felt light. I looked to him to see if he was telling the truth, but he was still facing Cole. “She’s the most beautiful, interesting, talented, warm-hearted . . .” Nico started listing, and with each thing he said his smile grew, and so did Cole’s moaning.

“She gets feisty when she eats sugar,” Cole stated.

---