Page 21 of Game Changer
Kip felt a little sad for him. “Must be weird,” he said. “Everyone’s wanted a piece of you since you were a teenager. Probably never felt like your life was your own.”
Scott looked stunned.
Kip turned red—he’d crossed a line. “Sorry. Jesus, forget I said that, all right? I don’t even know you—”
“No!” Scott said. “That’s... It did feel like that. I don’t want to complain, obviously, but. Yeah.”
“You’re allowed to complain.”
Scott smiled at him. “I’m really not. It would get me despised by everyone.”
“Well, you can complain to me.”
The way Scott looked at him then, Kip would never forget it. If they were alone, and if he were someone else and Scott were someone else, he would have expected Scott to lunge across the table and haul him into a hungry kiss.
Instead, burgers were placed in front of them by a server and the moment was gone.
As they ate, Scott’s eyes darted around the small restaurant, and it occurred to Kip that he had never taken his winter hat off.
“Worried you’ll get recognized?” Kip asked.
“Not worried. I’m just...hoping I won’t. Not right now.” Scott picked up his burger, then put it down without taking another bite. He fiddled with his straw again.
He finally sighed, and turned his eyes up to meet Kip’s. “It’s just nice. Doing this.”
“Hanging out with someone?”
“With you.”
Kip was speechless. And Scott looked absolutelytortured. His eyes were pleading with Kip to understand him. To not make him spell it out.
“Oh,” is what Kip finally said.
Scott’s face relaxed a bit. “Um, I’m not...good at this,” he said. “It’s important to me to keep my private life private, and that’s increasingly hard to do. So I don’t ever...”
“Pick up guys?”
Scott flushed a little. Kip loved it. “Yeah.”
Kip could not believe that this thing that he had been trying not to pretend was a date wasactually a date. It was unreal. But suddenly he didn’t want to eat another bite of his stupid burger. He wanted to get Scott Hunter somewhere private and let him slam Kip against a wall.
He decided to be bold.
“Is there somewhere we can go?” he asked in a low voice.
“Yeah,” Scott said, his voice huskier than it had been a second ago. His eyes a little darker.
Kip wasn’t naive. He knew what this was. Hunter wasn’t out, and he had to get his action as discreetly as possible. Nothing serious or long-term; he just needed to get off, and Kip was more than happy to help him with that. He was honored that Scott felt he could trust him to keep a secret, really.
“Let’s go,” Kip said.
Chapter Five
They dumped the rest of their dinners into the garbage cans and walked out, saying nothing to each other. Scott pulled his phone out when they were outside, calling some sort of car service.
“Should be here in a minute or two,” he said after he hung up.
Kip just nodded, buzzing with anticipation.
