Page 56 of Spring Fling
“You stopped me?” Lines creased Joe’s forehead as his eyebrows lowered.
“I did. It’s not that I don’t want you to say it. Fuck, Joe. I’ve gone my whole teenage life thinking I was broken. What guy doesn’t want to jump and hump everything that moves? I sure as fuck didn’t. Then Nathan introduced us and... I don’t know. For the first time, I felt like someone actually saw me? You didn’t push or pressure me. We had fun just hanging out and even though I knew you had a reputation, it wasn’t like you rubbed it in people’s faces.”
Some of that tension in his face eased a little as I continued my speech.
“I didn’t know what to do. I was attracted to someone, and it wasn’t the type of person I thought I’d be attracted to. Most people don’t have someone to talk to about that, and I thankfully did. So yeah. I’m not broken. I just needed the connection that you were able to provide to me. The connection scares the ever-living fuck out of me because what happens if I lose you? What if you don’t feel the same?”
Before I knew it, Joe was across the room with his arms around me. The camera slid to the ground again, and I’d really have todo a thorough check of it later or at least get it into a repair shop somewhere.
“Damn, sweetheart. Don’t you get it? You’re the light of my whole world. What we do? I don’t do that shit with just anyone. Fuck, I’ve never done it before. Only one person has ever made me want to come back again and again. To keep pushing and trying to make them so damn happy. It’s you, sweetheart. It’s always been fucking you.”
Something about the moment screamed that hearts and rainbows should start shooting off around us. If that made it corny, so fucking what? All I’d ever wanted was for someone to act like I’d hung the moon and stars just for them. And now I was getting it.
As cliché as it was, Joe’s hand wrapped around the back of my neck, bringing me in for a hard kiss. The metal of his lip ring dug into my skin as our mouths pressed together and when I gasped into the contact, his tongue swept inside.
That was it. That was the beginning of Aiden and Joe. The official package deal. We weren’t just fucking around behind people’s backs and making sexy content for the internet. It meant we needed to be honest with our friends and family. We hadn’t treated Nathan fairly by blindsiding him.
When we broke apart, my face was hot. My eyes struggled to stay open, and I wanted to do nothing more than drag Joe over to my bed and keep going. As much of a fun idea as that sounded, we had other fish to fry. We needed to talk to people and make shit right.
“So, what’s the plan, sweetheart?”
A smile made its way across my face as I leaned into my boyfriend. Boyfriend. Fuck. I had a damn boyfriend.
“As much as I don’t want to leave this room right now. I think we have some people to talk to.”
Chapter 36
Joe
Mrs. Grant hadn’t even been surprised. No, I’ll take that back. What shocked her was that we’d only just defined what was happening. She’d been under the impression Aiden and I had been a thing since before I’d taken him to Mexico. That took a little explaining about how I’d started off as just his friend, but it had morphed into more.
We did not tell her about the videos or pictures. There were some things you didn’t need to tell parents about.
As we left the Grant house, it felt good to do it with Aiden’s hand in mine. We were no longer afraid of who might see us and get upset. The cat was out of the bag.
Thankfully, we didn’t have to go far to find Nathan. His car had been empty and still parked in the driveway. His moody ass had marched to the park a few blocks over. He was sitting beneath a tall cherry tree whose blossoms had just started falling. The entire park was awash with pink and white petals.
He looked up and scowled when he saw me holding his brother’s hand.
“What the fuck, man? I thought I told you not to touch him?”
When Nathan went to stand, Aiden stepped in front of me, placing his hands out as if he were attempting to tame a feral dog. Maybe he was. His brother was known to attack when provoked.
“Nate, just stop. If you didn’t figure it out back at New Year’s, I’ve been the one pursuing him.”
Aiden’s words did nothing to wipe the look of disgust off his brother’s face.
“You might have pursued him, Aid, but he should have discouraged it.”
I was done. There was no reason for any of it. I’d been nothing but a good friend over the last four years, and this was how I was being repaid. “Why? Why should I have discouraged it, Nathan? Because of some weird rule you gave me about not touching him? Have you ever thought about what Aiden wanted?”
When Nathan didn’t relax, I rolled my eyes and kept going. “For fuck’s sake, dude. He’s an adult. Perfectly capable of making his own damn decisions.”
Aiden crouched in front of his brother, resting his hands on his knees. “I’m sorry that was how you had to find out about things. We should have been upfront with you and told you about it, but you’ve always been this macho protector with me, and you’d already hit Joe once over the whole thing. You need to understand why we were reluctant.”
Nathan didn’t move. He locked eyes with his brother as they stared each other down. I’d give anything to know what they werecommunicating to one another. The stare-down continued for a few moments longer before Nathan finally broke eye contact and looked up at me.
“Just… fuck. Why him?”
