Chapter 31
Dante
Theo’s suspicious eyes dart over to me as we drive, lingering long enough that the silence starts to feel pointed. Finally, I heave a sigh. “Are you going to explain why you’re giving me the side-eye, or am I supposed to guess?”
“Guessing is always fun,” he says, full of sass.
“Well, you can’t possibly still be mad at me for the incident with your brothers since you promised you were over it.”
Despite the rocky start to our dinner with Sam and Devon, we ended up having a genuinely good night.
It gave me the opportunity to finally get to know them properly.
Theo is lucky in a way most people aren’t, because he comes from a family that has supported and loved him without hesitation his whole life.
He once told me the story of coming out to his parents, and it played out like a cheesy, perfect joke.
“Mom, Dad… I’m pretty sure I like boys. Does that make me weird?”
“Well, shit, son. Your mom likes boys, too… I guess that makes me the weird one.”
“Mom! Dad said shit!”
Life carried on exactly as it had before, only now with two older brothers who watched his back like hawks. The thought pulls a small, fond smile across my face.
“Earth to Dante!” Theo waves a hand in front of my eyes, snapping me back to the present.
“Sorry, what was I supposed to be doing again?”
“Guessing why I’m looking at you funny.”
“Right. Is it the bald spot?”
Theo barks out a surprised laugh. “Your whole head is a bald spot, so that can’t possibly be it.”
“Well, if you realized I left the house in your favorite pink thong, I can explain.”
“Oh, please do,” he says, with far too much glee.
I shrug, fighting a smile. “The vibes were immaculate.” He laughs again, deeper this time, and I reach over to hold his hand. “For real, though. What’s with the suspicious stares?”
“You wanted to go to the bar.”
I pause, waiting for him to finish his thought, before I lift a brow in his direction. “We’ve been going to the bar together for years. After half our gigs and practices.”
“Yes, but that was because you were secretly in love with me and wanted to serve as a cockblock.”
I grunt, not refuting his claim. “Was it really a secret, though?”
“No, it wasn’t. Not at all.”
“You always saw straight through me.”
“Everyone saw through you, babe,” he teases as we ease into the parking lot.
We spot two stools side by side at the far end of the bar and hurry over before anyone else claims them. Once the bartender sets our drinks down, Theo turns to me, lips wrapping around his straw in a slow, distracting pull that makes it hard to focus on anything else.
“Tell me something about yourself that I don’t know.”
I take a long swallow of my beer, letting the cool glass rest against my lips for a moment while I think.
“When I first started training,” I say slowly, “I was working as a debt collector and barely scraping by, living paycheck to paycheck. My trainer spotted something in me, some raw talent I didn’t even see myself, and he talked me into jumping into exhibition matches. ”
Theo’s eyes widen. “I didn’t know you’d fought in front of crowds like that.”
“My first match was against a heavyweight champion I had almost no business stepping in the ring with.” His mouth parts, eyes narrowing, but I push on before he can interrupt. “Then one day I ran up a set of stairs and realized I could do anything I set my mind to, and… hey!”
I bark out a laugh as his fingers dart to the ticklish spot on my side, pressing just hard enough to make me squirm.
“Funny, that sounds exactly like the plot to Rocky.”
“Does it?” I ask, feigning innocence. “What a coincidence. I hadn’t even noticed.”
“You ass,” he mutters, but there’s no heat in it. I can’t wipe the grin off my face, but the amusement fades when I catch sight of a man hovering just behind Theo’s shoulder.
I lean around him for a better look. “Can I help you?”
The guy wrings his hands in front of him, and when Theo turns, the stranger’s eyes go even wider. “Oh, wow…” he breathes. “You’re Theo, right? And… and Dante?”
My hands slide instinctively to Theo’s shoulders to pull him closer to my side, giving the man a cautious nod. “And you are?”
“Oh my gosh, I’m a huge fan of Falling Absent!” The words tumble out through the anxiety. “My name’s Jason, and I’ve been to every one of your local shows. It blew my mind to see you guys here. Would it be possible to get a picture with you?”
“Of course!” Theo lights up, already tugging the guy between us so he can snap a quick selfie of the three of us. We chat for a few more minutes until Jason walks away beaming, star-struck and clutching his phone like a treasure.
Theo turns back to the bar, wearing the same pleased grin as he reaches for his drink. A few curious heads have turned our way, but no one else approaches.
“How’d you like that taste of the celebrity lifestyle?” I tease, nudging his knee with mine.
“Might need to hire a bodyguard, eventually.”
“You’ve got me,” I grumble, brows knitting together in a scowl.
Theo’s face lights up as he twists in his seat to face me fully, that huge, incandescent smile breaking across his lips. “Dante Barrera, did you just puff up like a turkey?”
“No,” I mutter, even though I absolutely did.
“You did! You went all ‘I am strong man, must smash things!’”
I lean in close, brushing my lips along the line of his jaw. “Yeah? You want me to smash things?”
“You will not sidetrack me with horniness,” he chides.
I chuckle and ease back into my seat, and we fall into easy conversation as we order another round. The music shifts, and Theo turns those enormous baby blues on me—wide, pleading, and weaponized in the best way as he asks me to dance.
Some kind of quiet magic must be at work, because I can’t even form the word no.
I let him tug me toward the dance floor, though I do little more than sway to the music while he moves around me. My lack of rhythm doesn’t faze him in the slightest, though, and his grin widens every time our eyes meet.
His body is hypnotic—shoulders rolling in perfect time with the sway of his hips, arms and legs flowing together like he was born to the rhythm. A few heads turn, drawn to his easy grace, but his gaze never strays from me. It pins me in place even as the world spins around us.
As the slower song starts and Theo loops his arms around my neck, my hands settle naturally at his waist, thumbs brushing the warm dip above his hips.
He rests his cheek against my chest, right over the steady thump of my heart, and the rest of the room simply falls away until it’s just the two of us moving together.
In this moment, with his breath warm against my shirt and the faint scent of his skin mixing with the lingering trace of my own cologne, something inside me shifts. I feel lucky—truly, bone-deep lucky—in a way I’ve never allowed myself to feel before.
The world has never been generous with me.
I learned that lesson early, accepted it, and taught myself to carve out whatever small space I could claim and call it enough.
Not happy, exactly, but steady. Sufficient.
I never believed I deserved more than the bare minimum I could scrape together through grit and stubbornness alone.
Not until this.
Not until him.
The realization settles over me slowly, like sunlight finding its way through a crack I’d long since stopped noticing. I tighten my arms around him just a fraction, pressing my lips to the top of his head, and for once I don’t push the feeling away. I let it stay.
My fingers dig into his hair and tilt him up for a blistering, claiming kiss, and for once, he has nothing snarky or sassy to say. He simply smiles at me like I’m the only person he sees.
Sudden emotion clogs my throat. “I love you,” I murmur.
His smile is affectionate as he kisses me again, not needing any words as he pours his response into it. When the song ends, Theo presses one more sweet, lingering kiss to my lips. “I’ll be right back, okay?”
I nod, and he scampers off toward the edge of the dance floor, leaving me suddenly adrift in the middle of all the moving bodies.
Without him pressed close, self-consciousness creeps in fast. I shift my weight from foot to foot, arms crossed loosely over my chest, trying to look like I belong here while I wait for him to return.
Right as the DJ grabs the mic and his voice cuts through the speakers, Theo bursts back through the crowd, heading straight for me with an expression of such pure, uncontainable joy that a flicker of instinctive fear tightens in my gut.
Nothing good has ever followed that particular brand of happiness from him.
“Ladies and gents, we’ve had a special request,” the DJ announces. “This song goes out to Dante ‘Twinkle Toes’ Barrera, from your loving boyfriend.”
My mouth falls open as Theo throws his head back in a delighted cackle, and the unmistakable opening riff of the Macarena explodes through the speakers. He grabs both my hands and pulls me deeper into the suddenly lively swarm of people flooding the dance floor.
“Unbelievable!” I yell over the thumping bass and laughter.
“You said you know how to do this one!”
I roll my eyes for effect, then throw my arms straight out in front of me right on cue, following the choreography with exaggerated precision.
Theo laughs through the entire song, and I lean into the absurdity, making a complete fool of myself just to keep that contagious delight shining on his face.
A little extra shimmy on the hip roll draws a squeal and a burst of clapping from him, and as I watch his eyes crinkle at the corners in that giant, unguarded smile, the realization hits me quietly but with perfect clarity.
I have never been this happy in my entire life.
We leave the bar exhausted, legs heavy and cheeks sore from smiling, but I’m still drunk on the feeling as he threads his fingers through mine and leans over to kiss me at every red light and stop sign.
For the first time in longer than I can remember, the usual paranoia doesn’t claw at the edges of my mind. There’s no room for it. Nothing can touch the high he’s given me tonight, so I let myself surrender to it completely—lost in him, oblivious to the rest of the world sliding past the windows.
Nothing else matters.
Nothing else even comes close.