Page 17 of Solid Foundation
I shook my head. I was getting ahead of things and I needed to stop feeling sorry for myself. Who was to say that Max would be interested enough in me to make coming out a thing?Besides,a voice whispered in my mind.Aren’t you tired of being alone?And that was the core of it. Iwastired of being alone.
In an attempt to clear my mind, I grabbed my phone and opened my texting app. I stared at my messages with Axton for a long time, an internal debate raging over whether to reach out or just wallow and be alone. Nothing productive would come of wallowing, so I braced myself and typed out my request.
Jake: You busy?
Axton: Nah, what’s up?
Jake: Can I come hang?
Axton: Of course. Come on over.
With a sigh, I clicked my phone screen off and tucked the damn thing in my pocket. The messages weren’t terribly out of the ordinary, but I didn’t often drop by Axton’s house alone. Despite the fact that he was my best friend, we rarely hung out alone these days. I needed to get out of my reclusive rut. I also wanted to soft-launch this not-straight thing, and I had a feeling he’d be the most easygoing about it.
A little while later, I was in jeans and a T-shirt and pulling my truck into Axton’s driveway. I took a few deep breaths before getting out of the truck and making my way up the sidewalk. I knew what I wanted to do—but could I find the courage to do it?
Axton was once again tinkering with his Mustang when I walked up. “Took you long enough,” he called from under the hood. He emerged from the car and closed the hood. “Now, what’s going on?”
Deflect,my brain said. “What makes you think something’s going on?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “I’ve been your best friend for twenty years.”
With a shrug meant to be casual that probably looked forced, I pointed at the pool table. “Just came to hang. Let’s shoot.”
He grinned and lifted his chin. “You’re on.”
A few minutes later, we each had a can of beer and Axton was racking the balls. “How’s the job going?”
Panic hit me. “Fine. It’s fine. Moving along just fine.” I couldn’t possibly tell him what had happened between me and Max, considering I didn’t know what I was thinking about it yet myself.
He looked up at me and smirked. “So it’s… fine?”
I let out a breath and laughed weakly. “You could say that.”
“What’s it like dancing around a film crew all fucking day?”
My face heated as the idea of dancing with Max flew into my mind, uninvited. The idea of us with our bodies pressed together made my breath catch in my chest. “It’s—”
“I swear to God if you sayfine.”
I laughed and felt the tension unravel a bit. “I was going to say it’s not bad, really.” I hesitated, the words on the tip of my tongue, but when I spoke, my brain redirected the conversation. “How’s work here?”
He took a shot and sank the ball he was aiming at, a solid. “Hell yeah,” he muttered before lining up his next shot. “Good. Can’t complain. I stay busy. It actually looks like I might need to hire another mechanic sometime soon.”
“That’s a good sign.”
“It is,” he said, taking—and missing—his next shot. He swore under his breath and looked at me. “You’re up.”
I stepped up to line up a shot, sinking a striped ball in a corner pocket easily. “How’s the girlfriend? Amanda, right?” Axton’s partners rarely lasted long enough for me to remember their names, but Amanda had been around for a few months.
He scoffed. “We ended things a while ago.”
“Yeah?” I sank my next shot as I asked. “Flying solo then?”
“Not really. His name is Trent.”
I slipped and missed my next shot by a mile. When I spoke, it was slowly, hesitantly. “Trent?” I’d known Axton to date people of many genders, but in the past few years, he’d stuck with female-identifying partners.
“It’s not a problem, is it?”
