Page 33 of Spring Fling
I’d chosen the perfect moment to share that detail, as my brother had been sipping at a bottle of water and he spit it out all over the counter. “The rape what now?”
I clutched at my stomach as I laughed. It was maybe a little twisted to explain it that way, but I’d been dying to since the excursion. After I edited the pictures for Joe—where no one else could see them—I’d share the ones he took of me during that adventure. “Dolphins, Nate. Just dolphins. We got to go swimming with dolphins.”
“That wasn’t a funny joke.”
Chase chuckled. “It was a little funny.”
Nathan glared at him and instead of hanging around for more of their interrogation, I made my way back to my room. My phone sat face down on my nightstand and I couldn’t bring myself to pick it up and check it. There was a very real fear Joe hadn’t reached out yet, and I’d really made a fool of myself by thinking we’d had something special.
As if the universe sensed my hesitation, my phone vibrated, startling me enough to have me jolting across the room to check it.
Joe: I miss you, sweetheart.
My heart melted as I pressed the device to my chest. I wasn’t a damn sucker after all. My fingers flew across the screen as I typed out a response.
Me: Miss is an understatement. Pretty sure my bed feels a mile long. How the fuck am I supposed to sleep like this?
I attached a frowny face emoji before sending it.
There wasn’t an immediate response, but I was relieved to know that he’d sent me something. To know he’d been thinking about me. Tension uncoiled from my neck and shoulders as I sat on the edge of my bed, flipping the phone back and forth in my hand. When it became clear another message wasn’t coming, I set it back down and started unpacking my things.
Everything I pulled from my bag had some sort of wild memory from the last week tied to it. It was weird that the thought kept flashing through my head that I didn’t want to wash anything for fear that it would remove the sentimentality. It was so stupid.
Without another thought, I threw the dirty clothes in the laundry hamper and continued digging through my bag, pulling out the random souvenirs I bought for my family. When my hand hit my camera case, I froze. I wanted nothing more than to pull it out and load everything onto my computer. To relive every moment again. Especially that one on the beach. My dick gave a twitch at the memory, and I groaned as I closed my eyes. However, while my brother was still poking around, it was not the time to entertain the idea of pulling up any of the photos from the trip. It was a recipe for disaster.
A knock on my door snapped me from my thoughts, and I grinned when Chase slipped into my room. The door clicked closed behind him, and when I heard my mother lecturing Nathanin the other room, I knew I had a few minutes to talk to Chase by myself.
“Anything you want to report?” he asked.
My smile grew as I set the camera on my bed.
“It depends on how much you want to hear.”
Chase’s eyes widened in shock. “Shit, man. Really? He didn’t like freak out or anything, did he?”
I laughed at the question. “No. We both sort of agreed that it was a bad idea at first because of Nate, but...” I shrugged, looking at my closed bedroom door. “We were by ourselves for a whole week and what Nathan doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
Chase shifted on his feet, gnawing on his bottom lip. “Aiden, I’m happy for you that you were brave enough to take that leap, but you know I can’t keep that secret from your brother if he asks me about it, right?”
All the blood drained from my face. It was a little fucked that I wanted to ask him to keep things from his boyfriend, but it was my personal life. It had nothing to do with Nathan outside of Joe being one of his best friends.
“Chase?”
He held up his hand to stop me. “Don’t worry. It’s not for me to tell, but it’s going to kill me. I know something and can’t say a word. He’ll be pissed when he finds out I knew.”
When I sank back onto my mattress, Chase was at my side, a warm and reassuring hand on my shoulder. “It’s not like I havemany people to talk to about this. You’re the only one who has made any sense of what I was feeling. When I explained things to Joe, which was scary as fuck, he knew what I was talking about. He made me feel safe. Just like you make me feel safe, my brother should be that for me as well, but he’s made it clear he disapproves of the person I’ve chosen.”
Chase pulled me into a loose side hug. “It’ll be okay. Just give him some time and build him up to the idea of it slowly. It’s not like he really has a say at the end of the day.”
I nodded and prayed that Chase was correct.
Chapter 22
Joe
It took two days before I worked up enough guts to message Aiden again. It was a shitty thing to do to the guy, but I didn’t want to come across as overly clingy or risk his brother thinking something else was going on.
When the door opened at the top of the stairs, I jumped. Teresa was getting worse and worse at respecting my space, but it was her house, and I was probably pushing the limits on how long I was welcome to stay there. Even with as well as I was doing with my page, Seattle was expensive, and I didn’t want to settle. I needed a place that would be good for my set-up and recording. Saving up had been rough and splurging on the trip had only set me back more.
