Chapter Twenty #2
So, he knew all along that Evan didn’t ghost me, but he let me believe that anyway?
Furthermore, Colton’s worried about his dad hating him, and all this time, Kai knew?
Finding out that Kai is the one who dumped Evan’s mattress into the lake—because Kai is a stupid braggart who let that little tidbit slip—was one thing, but this is too much.
This goes beyond stupid pranks. Something’s definitely off with Kai, but suddenly I don’t have a single flying frick about going up there to address it. I don’t need him getting his hopes up that I actually am reconsidering my firm ‘no’ about us getting back together.
Evan’s voice steals my attention away from the closed door. “Yeah, then when I still didn’t hear back, I drove out to Ternbay myself. I need to get a new phone now, because I dropped my phone in the ocean while hauling Dad’s broken-down boat in.”
“Is he alright?” I gasp.
Evan nods, pulling me in close and wrapping his arms around me—like I’m his safety net. “Fine now, but he ended up having a heart attack right on the pier after we got his boat in the slip. Again. This was his second one. The fucking guy is like a rubber ball; he keeps bouncing back.
“But, for the record, I felt bad about how abruptly I left without saying anything. I fought tooth and nail for these apology flowers. If you think I’m bad, you should see the bee.” He chuckles. “In all seriousness, though, I was worried about Dad, but I didn’t tell you that, and I should have.”
I smirk. “So communication is a good thing, yeah?”
“Yeah,” he agrees with a small smile.
“I can consider forgiving you,” I tease. “The flowers help. I really appreciate them, Evan.”
My lips stay parted, wanting to say more—about how relieved I truly am that he’s not gone, about how I think I love him—but I know it’s too soon.
It’s insane, really, to think about how lost I was without him and how grateful I am that he's come back, seemingly with renewed purpose. I’m far too swept up in emotion, and that’s all this is.
All I’ll do is freak him out, if I say those words right now, though.
He pulls back, studying my eyes, running his fingers through my hair and planting a tender kiss on my lips. He smiles when he sees the look of relief that washes over me. He cups both my cheeks, tilts my head up, and leans in.
“You have no idea how fucking happy that makes me,” he murmurs, brushing his lips on mine.
For many minutes we lose ourselves in the give and take of tongues and tiny moans and whimpers.
This kiss doesn’t feel like someone who’s been gone for just a few days, it feels like two people meeting again after a lifetime apart.
When I finally peel away again, my lips feel just as puffy and swollen as his look, and I find that I’m now fully straddling his lap.
This man definitely does not lack depth, no matter what notion had previously been drilled into him.
“I told Wagner and Gan that I’m gay,” Evan admits. “Mom probably knows already by now too, if not seventy-five percent of the population of Ternbay.”
I brush my thumb over Evan’s swollen bottom lip, sucking mine in nervously. “And how did that go?”
He grins, and it occurs to me now that he usually looks like an ebony-haired Sam Hunt doppelg?nger, when he’s not potentially going anaphylactic on me.
And, let me tell you what, there’s nothing more that I’d like to do than study his body like a back road.
And, ugh, I wonder what Evan looks like with a guitar.
I know he plays, because Sully told me he’s caught Evan strumming his guitar over in their bunk room a few times.
“Actually, not as bad as I thought,” he tells me, pulling me out of my fantasy session. “Dad just said he wasn’t thrilled about it enough to throw me a coming out party, but that he wasn’t going to write me out of the will because of it. He wants to meet you.”
I scoff. “Yeah, because I’m just biting at the bit to go meet the father who isn’t thrilled about this—us.”
Evan just brushes me off. “You’d have to know the man.
Trust me, his reaction? That’s praise coming from him.
Wagner speaks his mind, but if he was truly revolted, he would’ve definitely kicked me out.
Turns out, he knew about Colton and Petro, too, and I honestly think that softened the blow for him to find out about me.
All he said about that was that Colt and I have always been two peas in a pod, so finding out we’re both gay wasn’t much of a shock. ”
“Oh yeah, speaking of that, you should definitely talk with your son. And by that, I mean really talk. Maybe tonight I can cook dinner and we can do it here. Together. Might go easier if there’s a buffer person in the mix.”
“That’d be good. I made him a birthday cake before I came back, anyway.
He was out kayaking with the campers when I got back.
And you’d be more than a buffer person, you know,” Evan replies.
“I want to tell Colt that I’m ready to start seeing people again—and that, for some unknown, fucking cosmic, reason—you’re the one I latched onto. ”
I grin. “Happy to be your hitching post,” I tease.
“Bullshit,” he says with a chuckle, squeezing his arms around my waist and nuzzling his face into the crook of my neck. “You literally made this huge stink about me wanting to date you.”
I nod, allowing myself to go boneless in his arms. “See, you should be glad I don’t have a backbone. I wouldn’t have ever caved, if I did. But! I’ll warn you now, if I’m allowing myself to swim here, you better be the best darned lifeguard and never let me sink, Evan Waters.”
I can feel him grin against my neck, the deep rumble of his chuckle reverberates between our chests. “Are you a farmer, Brooks Gallagher? Because that’s about the corniest line I’ve ever heard.”