Page 2 of Once Upon An Ever After
It was platonic. They were friends. The deep connection he felt to the man at his side was normal. The fact that his heart raced whenever Beau was close enough that he could feel the heat of him wasn’t anything to worry about.
Only, worrying was what Dawson Frost did best.
He had spent more than half his life worrying about his family. He’d worried that Gibson was going to work himself into an early grave. He’d worried that Bran was going to go too far and overdose or disappear off a boat somewhere in the middle of the ocean because he was too stoned to stay upright. He had worried that Roman would give in to his demons and survivor’s guilt and take a one-way ticket to the other side. He had worried and fret and stressed about every single member of his family dying, just like his parents had when he was a kid, but he didn’t have to worry about them anymore.
They were all happy. They were in love. They were building lives with the men that had given them a second chance at being the people they were always meant to be.
Dawson loved Felix, Ash and Julian. He was happy to have them as part of the family. But his family’s happiness meant that Dawson had a lot of time on his hands now to worry about his own life. These days, that meant worrying about how tangled, twisted and intertwined his life and Beau Beaumont’s had become. He worried they were growing so close that soon they would become one entity and at the same time he worried that trying to extricate himself from their bond would destroy him entirely.
The thing was… he had feelings for Beau. Deep, complex, hard to understand feelings. And he didn’t know what to do with them.
He was straight. He knew he was straight. He’d had girlfriends over the years. He’d had sex with women and enjoyed it fine. He knew what it meant to be bisexual because both his brother and uncle were bi. He knew they were attracted to both men and women just like he knew that he wasn’t.
He had never looked at a man and wondered what it would be like to trace his stubbled jawline. He had never thought about how it would feel to have hands as large as his own on his body. He had never fantasized about being with another man, any man, at any point in his life.
Until Beau.
And fuck if that wasn’t messing with his head.
He knew he needed to talk about it with someone. He knew he needed to say the words out loud and hear them for himself. He needed to admit that there were feelings he didn’t understand and an attraction he was finding it harder and harder to ignore. But the person he talked through his problems with these days was the same man who was turning his world upside down and he wasn’t sure he could handle the smug knowing looks his brothers would give him if he went to them.
Dawson jolted when his phone rang loudly, pulling him back to the present. He hadn’t been paying attention. He had come here to talk to Felix about the last-minute wedding preparations that he and Beau were making. Gibson and Felix were getting married in three days and there were a ton of things still to do. But while Beau and Felix had been talking he had completely zoned out, focused only on the heat of Beau’s thigh against his, the smell of his cologne and the warmth and comfort that he felt being so close to the man he called his best friend.
“Sorry.” He muttered, reaching into his pocket to pull out the phone and frowning when he saw the name on the caller ID. “This is Uncle Roman so I should take it. He wouldn’t call unless…”
“It’s fine.” Felix waved him away. “Go ahead.”
“I’ll just step outside.” He shot Beau a look and received a warm smile in return. “Be right back.”
“Sure. No problem.” Beau nodded.
With the phone still bleating loudly he turned and went around the small wall that separated the living area from the dining room. There was a side door there and he opened it onto the patio and stepped outside. It was early-December and colder than the North Pole, but he welcomed the freezing air into his overheated lungs as he answered the call and spoke to his uncle.
Roman. He decided while his uncle told him about what was happening at his house, aka the venue for the upcoming ceremony. He would talk to Roman. Roman would know what to say and what to do. Roman would tell him how to handle the fact he was growing more and more convinced his feelings for Beau weren’t simply platonic. Yes, he decided. He would talk to Roman and figure everything out.
Everything was going to be okay.
He wasn’t going to do something stupid and risk ruining the greatest relationship in his life just because his dick had decided it liked Beau as much as his brain did. He was too smart for that and he was old enough to control himself. Wasn’t he?
Chapter Two
Beau Beaumont watched the man he loved walk out of the room and sighed. Everything inside of him yearned to go after Dawson but he held himself firmly in place. The urge to trail after the man like a lost puppy seeking affection was strong and had been since the moment they met but he wasn’t quite that pathetic.
Yet.
He turned back to find Felix watching him with a pitying look and he groaned. Felix had known him longer than anyone and as his boss, they spent most days together working closely. Beau swiped a hand over his face, knowing it was no use. Whatever Felix had seen there couldn’t be wiped away that easily which meant he was going to be forced to have the same conversation they’d been having for months.
“It’s not what you think.” He sighed.
“Oh? And what is it I think?”
“You think we’re together because everyone that sees us thinks we’re together, but we’re not.”
Felix smirked, “Maybe try a little bit harder not to sound like that’s absolutely killing you.”
“How am I supposed to sound?” Beau shrugged. “I know what you saw because I see it too. The way he looks at me. The way he always finds a reason to be touching me. It looks and sounds like flirting but it’s not.”
“But…”
