Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Dex
E verything went black as Meyer yelled, but I followed his orders, covering my head as I crouched down and curled into a ball. Fortunately, I wasn’t buried. But the blackness could only mean one thing: the entrance was blocked. As soon as the racket ceased, and it seemed as if everything had settled, I took a chance and lifted my head, spitting out mouthfuls of dust.
“Meyer?” My heart climbed into my throat. I’d never forgive myself if my impulsive behavior caused him to be hurt. “Are you okay?”
Coughing sounded a few feet from me right before a flashlight turned on. “I think so.” He moved closer, shining the light over me as he looked me over. “Close your eyes. I want to check your head.” I closed my eyes again as he brushed my hair aside, which sent more dust everywhere. “Can you stand?”
I nodded, rising to my feet. He inspected me with the flashlight, patting me here and there. I couldn’t decide if my knees were wobbly from fear or from Meyer letting his hands roam my body.
“I’m fine, I promise.” That didn’t mean I still wasn’t kicking myself. “As long as we’re both okay, we should try to find Wildie. Make sure he isn’t hurt down here.”
“Yeah, of course.” Meyer coughed into his fist. He directed his flashlight over our surroundings. “Hmm. I don’t think we’re going to be searching for him anytime soon. Let me find my radio. I dropped it when I fell.”
Meyer was right. We were completely trapped. I ran my fingers through my hair, shaking out more dust and grime. Shit. Now what? I shook as I pushed down the panic rising through me. Who knew what would happen to Wildie or us?
Meyer made a small grimace as he crouched to retrieve his radio. My stomach clenched. The thought of Meyer being hurt did something to me. I didn’t have much experience in the romance department, but this hit different. As if he was mine to take care of, and I’d failed somehow.
“Dammit.” Meyer held what was left of the radio in his hand before tossing it back on the ground. “Well, I guess it’s better the rock smashed the radio instead of my head.”
I gritted my teeth. The visual his words gave me wasn’t helping.
“Won’t the guys from the station be waiting for an update and wonder where you are?”
Meyer had his phone out and was texting. “Yup. But all I said was we’d be checking out the situation. I’m assuming those kids will find someone in charge and let them know. I’ll text and hope we catch a signal at some point, and it goes through.” He pressed his lips together. “So far, nothing.” Meyer glanced up. “What about your phone? Can you get a signal?”
I fished my phone out of my jeans before checking different spots in the small area to see if I had any reception. “Nope. Nothing.”
He dipped his chin. “We sit tight then. I’m sure once the kids make it to the feed store and get help, help will be here in no time.”
The panic that had been building eased at his words. “That’s true. I’m worried about Wildie, though.”
“I know,” Meyer nodded grimly. “Unfortunately, we’re stuck here for now.”
“We could start digging our way out. We’re both young, strapping bucks. I bet if we put our backs into it, we can move some of these rocks out of the way.”
Meyer frowned. “No, we wait.”
“Okay, bossy pants. But why? You don’t think we can handle it?”
He shone his light on the area where the boulders blocking our escape had collected. “Something made those suckers come down. If we try to move them on our own, we could cause everything to crash in on us. We should prepare ourselves in case they have to bring in a small space rescue team.
My jaw went slack. “Seriously?”
He regarded me with a grim expression. “We might also want to consider keeping our activity to a minimum.”
“Umm…” I shoved my hands in my pockets so he wouldn’t see them tremble. “And why is that?”
“I’m sure everything will be fine, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful. Just in case.” He gestured with one hand, indicating the small space that couldn’t be larger than ten by ten. “We have no way of knowing how airtight this bubble is.”
Being trapped in a cave hadn’t been on my bingo card for the afternoon. But at least I was with a first responder and, even better, with Meyer.
“Pro tip. Got it.” I was leaning with my back against one of the uneven walls—or more accurately—the misshapen compacted dirt and rock surface that was passing for a wall. I did an ungraceful slide to the ground, fighting the ridiculous urge to hold my breath in case I accidentally used up all the oxygen. “But they’ll be here soon, right?”
Damn, but I sounded like a kid. Meyer joined me on the ground, sitting close enough that our knees almost touched.
He gave me a small smile. “I’m sure they will. This is only a precaution.”
My mind traveled to a dark place where Kayla would have her last immediate family member torn from her. Then there was the ranch. How would she handle that? What would Cal and his family do? I didn’t even have a will or trust or anything. I’d be leaving everyone with a big fat mess to deal with. What a fool I was. Why hadn’t I listened to Meyer when he told me to wait?
My throat closed up . Oh my God . Meyer. What would Lindy do? She’d already lost her husband, her health wasn’t the best, and now I was about to take her son from her.
My eyes burned. “I’m such an asshole.” The words flew from my mouth before I could bite them back.
He pinched his eyebrows together. “Where did that come from?”
I hung my head. How could I possibly look him in the eye? “I should’ve listened to you instead of being so pig-headed about waiting. Now I’ve put both of us in danger.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Dex. You were trying to do the right thing.”
“Maybe so, but it was the wrong thing. I screwed up, and now we’re trapped.”
“Stop it, Dex.” He patted my knee. “You get a hall pass for trying to help a hurt kid.”
I grunted. “Yeah, sure. I’ve been a real help so far.”
“Is this the type of stubbornness I have to look forward to?” he said with a stern tone.
I jerked up my head and was met with a wink. I let out a relieved chuckle. For a second, I thought he might be genuinely angry. The thought of such a thing tugged at my heart, and I had to wonder what we were doing. Not in the moment, but overall.
Ever since the day before in the rental, we’d been indulging ourselves in a flirtatious dance. At first, I thought it was me, that I was fantasizing about something—someone—I couldn’t have, that I was repeating what I’d done with Meyer in high school.
But now I realized that whatever this was, it had nothing to do with teenage crushes. This was two men sparking off of each other. We were big boys now.
I snorted. Meyer especially .
Meyer tilted his head. “What’s so funny?”
Picking up a loose rock that was about the size of a walnut, I started doodling in the sandy dirt. Looking him in the eye while I took a step into shaky territory wasn’t possible.
“Thinking about some stuff.” So far, so vague.
“Well, you’ve got my undivided attention, so out with it.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, I guess you can’t run from me.”
“You can’t run, either,” he said softly.
I lifted my gaze, too curious to see his expression to resist. He was gazing at me with… affection?
“I haven’t been…”
Okay, so maybe I had been—in my own way. I certainly hadn’t eagerly accepted Lindy’s idea of renting my place to him or jumped up and down with excitement over coming to dinner. But if I were ever to unravel the mysterious push-pull between us that was driving me up a wall, I’d have to make discomfort my friend.
This time, I locked eyes with him. “I need to ask you something before we dive head-first into baring our souls. Did you have an issue with being gay when we were in high school?”
Meyer tensed, frowning as if I’d just threatened him. “Where the hell did that come from?”
I let out a groan. Sure, the question has been burning a hole in my brain ever since I found out about Meyer’s ex-boyfriend. But perhaps I shouldn’t have led with it.
“It’s just…” Words, Dex. Use your words . “You were such a dude . A total jock. And you always acted like I had some sort of mysterious disease whenever you were around me. At the time, I assumed it meant it was because I was gay. But then you tell me about your ex-boyfriend, so now I don’t know what the hell to think.”
“Good lord. So that’s what’s been eating at you.” Meyer dragged his fingers through his tangled hair. “Ever witness me pawing the cheerleaders in school?”
I drew my eyebrows together as I ran some of my many Meyer memories through my head. “I detected no pawing.”
“What about inappropriate locker room jokes or rude comments to the hot chicks regarding their anatomy?”
“Pawing wasn’t inappropriate enough?”
He gave me a fake punch in the arm. “You know what I mean. And who did I take to the prom?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “How should I know? I was too young to go, didn’t care anyway, and was doing my best to banish you from my thoughts. I certainly wasn’t ruminating on who you were dating.”
He gave me a wry smile. “That’s just it. Had you taken the time to ruminate, you would’ve realized I never, ever dated a woman. I took my bestie to the prom because her date crapped out on her at the last minute.” Meyer groaned. “Listen, Dex. I’ve known I was gay since I was, like, ten or something. Mom always knew, so it was the most uneventful coming-out announcement ever.”
My gut tightened. What the actual fuck? How did I not realize this? I used to hang out at his house with the guys after practice, mooning over him and wishing he was gay. My entire high school experience was a filthy lie.
I straightened. Wait a sec . “Then why were you always treating me so shitty? If it wasn’t homophobia, does that mean you can’t stand the sight of me?” I narrowed my eyes. “Maybe it’s not such a great idea for you to rent the guesthouse after all.”
Meyer held up his hands, palms out. “Whoa, don’t jump to wild conclusions.”
“Wild? Treating me like I had the plague, constantly benching me, barely speaking to me…how is that jumping to conclusions? You even told me not to keep coming to your house anymore after the final game. I’d say it’s pretty clear you didn’t want a damn thing to do with me.”
Meyer let out an aggravated sigh. “You really are a dolt. An adorable one, but a dolt nonetheless.”
I was about to tear into him over the dolt remark, but then adorable jolted me out of my rage.
“I’m so confused.”
Meyer shook his head. “Clearly. Don’t you get it? I had it bad for you. Wanted you more than anything and was tormented by the realization we could never be together.”
Mind. Blown. Maybe I’d been hit with a big rock after all and was hallucinating this entire conversation.
“Whoa. Didn’t see that one coming.” I tilted my head. “And why couldn’t we be together?”
Meyer rubbed his forehead and sighed as if I were giving him the biggest headache ever. I’d been known to do that to my sister on many occasions, so it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.
“I was eighteen, graduating high school, and leaving for college. You were still only fifteen.” He arched his eyebrows. “Speaking of inappropriate.”
“Well, yeah, but…” I snorted. “It’s not as if half the class wasn’t already having sex.”
Meyer let out a small growl. “You were having sex?”
I had to admit the growl was pretty hot, but that was irrelevant to the subject at hand. “No. Not even close.” I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t exactly in demand.”
He gave a dip of his chin. “Good.”
“Gee, thanks,” I said with exaggerated sarcasm.
“You’re missing the point,” he said with a frown. “That’s all I was ever doing back then. Protecting you.”
“Ha!” I huffed. “You barely noticed I was alive when we weren’t on the field, let alone protecting me.”
“Dex. Look at me.”
When I didn’t respond, he placed his knuckle under my chin, encouraging me to meet his eyes. I was still irritated, although the closer he scooted toward me, the less angry I was. I met his gaze. Was there hope for us after all? I’d clearly missed a crucial piece of information about him from high school. And, of course, he was right about our age difference back then. What was no big deal now was like an eternity when we were teens.
“I’m looking, Meyer.” I swallowed hard. He needed to own up for real. Otherwise, if we ever got out of the mine alive, I planned on keeping him at arm’s length from now on. “I need the truth.”
“I’m serious about my desire to keep you safe. Believe me; don’t believe me, it’s your choice. Even if we couldn’t be together the way I wanted, I could still watch over you.”
“I never asked for that,” I huffed.
“I know, sweetheart.” Meyer smiled as he tucked a bit of my unruly hair behind my ear. “But I couldn’t help myself.”
I fought to keep my attention on dragging the truth out of him instead of aching for another endearment. “And benching me? You used your position as captain of the football team to keep me from playing in almost every game.”
“Yup.” He shrugged. “I couldn’t take the chance you’d get hurt.”
I was back to being irritated. “Thanks, Mom . Didn’t have much faith in me, huh?”
“Dex…” Meyer shook his head as if I was the one being irritating. Perhaps I was. But that still didn’t mean I wasn’t pissed off. “Do you recollect what you looked like when you were a freshman? All gangly limbs and skinny frame, every bone in your body waiting to be snapped in two by the hulking beasts on the opposing teams. I used to lie awake at night coming up with excuses to keep you off the field.” He pressed his lips together. “To keep you safe.”
My jaw was hanging open, so I snapped it shut with a clacking of teeth. “For real? You’re serious?”
He smiled at me in a way he never had before. “Very. I never meant to make you feel bad, Dex. But not only couldn’t I risk hurting you physically, I couldn’t trust myself to get too close, either.”
“What about now?” I blurted. “None of those reasons apply anymore.”
This time, his mouth stretched into a grin, and without thinking, I grabbed his face between my palms and kissed him the way I’d always fantasized I could. I took his mouth over and over as we fought for dominance over the exchange, Meyer clutching my shoulders as he shoved his tongue past the seam of my lips, tasting me again and again.
I grabbed his biceps, and he grasped my waist, yanking me closer. I could barely breathe, but I refused to stop. I needed this moment, needed to feel the press of his solid frame against mine, his strength and warmth grounding me. I had to be sure it was really happening and that I wasn’t hallucinating after all.
We both froze, the kiss abruptly ending as dust and pebbles started shaking loose near the blocked entrance. Meyer clutched my arms, and I tensed.
“Is it going to collapse?” I was likely giving voice to his own thoughts.
The notification on his phone sounded, and he released me to retrieve his cell from his pocket. Meyer let out a whoop.
“They’re here.” He smiled, rubbing his thumb along my cheek. Meyer glanced down at his phone as another ding sounded. “Holy cow. Wildie is all right. He got out of the mine before we even got here.”
I let out a long breath, my body shaking from all the adrenaline coursing through me. We were being rescued, Wildie was okay, and Meyer should definitely win awards for his kissing skills.
“So,” I said. “Whaddya say we pick up where we left off after this?”