Chapter 12 Diego
Diego
Shopping took much longer than I expected.
When Lucas said all day, he meant it. I had to drag Hayden to at least six different stores to pick up packages and then three more to get the last pieces that Lucas needed.
Most of that time I spent either carrying bags or trying on clothes so Hayden could get an idea of how they looked.
I was a bit thicker than Beau, but we just bought a size down for him.
In any other situation, I might’ve been annoyed.
But modeling clothing for Hayden, having him circle me as he took in every angle, and that feeling when he reached out to adjust the fit…
it made me warm in all the right places.
More than once I think he noticed my excitement.
I was still trying to keep my dick under control though. I’ll admit, I was pushing Hayden to give me a chance, to let me in. But I think I did it mostly because I knew he’d say no. If he suddenly said yes… well, I don’t think I’d have known what to do.
When we finally stopped for a very late lunch, I’d worked up an appetite that rivaled my nervousness.
Hayden had found a rather fancy-looking sushi place that he said had some great reviews.
Sitting across from him in the dim restaurant, watching him study the menu with that intense focus, I had to remind myself to breathe.
“So… is it actually raw?” I asked, ignoring the menu full of Japanese words I didn’t understand. “The fish, I mean.”
“Some of it is,” he replied happily, as if it wasn’t the grossest thing ever. “But some of them are cooked. The tempura ones are really good and there’s no raw fish. Or you could get some vegetarian rolls or ones made with imitation crab…”
“What is…” I glanced at the menu. “Eye-nar-eye?”
“Inari,” he corrected with a grin. “It’s like a little pocket of deep-fried tofu filled with rice.”
“Ugh… tofu…”
Hayden dropped his menu and lifted and eyebrow. “I bet you’ve never even had tofu before.”
“I—” I started, wanting to argue. But then I thought about it and sighed. “I have not.”
“You’ll like Inari, I promise. It’s a little sweet, a little savory, and really delicious.”
“You know what, Freckles?” I huffed, pushing my menu toward him. “Why don’t you just order for me? I can’t pronounce any of this, anyway.”
Hayden’s face lit up with something that looked suspiciously like delight, and I realized I might’ve just made a mistake. “Really? You trust me that much?”
“Don’t let it go to your head,” I muttered, but the truth was, watching him get excited about something as simple as ordering food made my chest feel tight in a way I wasn’t used to.
He waved over the waitress, rattling off a list of items in surprisingly decent pronunciation. I caught maybe half the words, but the confidence in his voice was... attractive. Real attractive.
“And two hot sakes, please,” he finished, then looked at me. “Unless you don’t drink?”
“I drink.” I leaned back in the booth, trying to look more relaxed than I felt. “Just surprised you do. You seem like the type who’d order a fancy cocktail with an umbrella in it.”
“Shows what you know,” Hayden said, but he was smiling. “Tommy always said—” He stopped abruptly, his expression shuttering.
“What did Tommy always say?” I asked gently.
Hayden shook his head. “Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”
But it did matter, I could tell. The way his shoulders tensed, the way he looked down at his hands. This Tommy asshole had really done a number on him.
“For what it’s worth,” I said, “I think you’ve got excellent taste. In restaurants, anyway.”
He glanced up at me, and I caught a flash of vulnerability before he covered it with that defensive smirk. “We’ll see if you still think that when the food gets here.”
The waitress brought our sake, and I watched Hayden lift the small ceramic cup to his lips. There was something graceful about the way he moved, like he’d done this a thousand times before. Made me wonder what his life in California had been like, before this Tommy character broke his heart.
“So,” I said, taking a sip of the warm rice wine and trying not to wince at the unfamiliar taste, “how’d you know about this place, anyway? You been to Amarillo before?”
“Google,” he admitted with a laugh. “But I used to eat a lot of sushi back home. There was this place in Venice Beach...” He trailed off, that distant look creeping back into his eyes.
“You miss it?” I asked. “California?”
He was quiet for a long moment, turning his sake cup between his fingers. “Sometimes. The ocean, mostly. And the weather. But...” He shrugged. “I don’t miss feeling like I was never good enough.”
The honesty in his voice caught me off guard. “Good enough for what?”
“Everything,” he said simply. “Everyone in California has a dream to be somebody. But only some of them have the money, the looks, and the connections to achieve it. And I… I wasn’t one of them.
” Suddenly he seemed to realize how much he’d revealed.
His walls went back up so fast I almost got whiplash.
“Anyway, what about you? You ever been anywhere besides Texas?”
I could’ve pushed, but I recognized a subject change when I heard one. I took another sip of sake, letting the warmth spread through me. Maybe he deserved a bit of a break from my sass.
“I’ve been to Oklahoma,” I offered with a grin. “And New Mexico once. Spent most of my life bouncing around different parts of Texas.”
“That’s it?” Hayden looked genuinely surprised.
“Not all of us can be worldly California boys,” I teased, but there was no bite to it. “Some of us are just simple country folk. I just go where the cows are.”
The waitress arrived with a tray full of colorful plates, setting them down one by one. I stared at the array of rolls, some with raw fish draped over rice, others fried and golden.
“This one’s for you,” Hayden said, pushing a plate toward me. “Tempura shrimp roll. Fully cooked, I promise.”
I eyed it suspiciously. “And what’s that green stuff?”
“Avocado,” he said, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “And don’t tell me you’ve never had avocado before.”
“Of course I’ve had avocado,” I muttered, picking up a piece awkwardly with my fingers.
Hayden cleared his throat and pointed to the chopsticks beside my plate. “You might want to use these.”
“Right.” I picked them up, fumbling to hold them correctly. After a few failed attempts, I looked up to find Hayden watching me, lips pressed together like he was trying not to laugh.
“Need help?” he asked, eyes dancing.
“I got it,” I insisted, finally managing to grip a piece of sushi between the sticks. I popped it in my mouth and... damn. It was actually pretty good. The shrimp was crispy, the rice was sticky and slightly sweet, and the avocado added a buttery richness.
“Well?” Hayden leaned forward, a hint of eagerness in his expression.
I swallowed, trying to play it cool. “It’s alright.”
His face fell slightly, and I immediately felt like an ass.
“Fine, it’s delicious,” I admitted. “Happy now?”
The smile that spread across his face was worth the admission. “Try this one next,” he said, pushing another plate toward me.
For the next half hour, we ate our way through the assortment of sushi.
Hayden explained each roll, patiently showing me how to dip them in soy sauce, but not too much.
And he taught me how to use the wasabi, which I decided was the most vile thing I’d ever tasted.
I caught him watching me with something that looked almost like fondness as I tried each new piece.
“So,” I said, after we’d demolished most of the food, “do you think it’s about time we started heading back to Sagebrush?”
Hayden glanced at his phone, and I caught the way his face fell slightly. “Yeah, probably. It’s already getting dark, and we still have an hour drive back.”
He signaled for the check, and I noticed how he automatically reached for his wallet before catching himself. The gesture made my chest tighten. He’d been worried about money earlier, but here he was still trying to pay.
“I got this,” I said, pulling out my own wallet.
“You don’t have to—”
“Lucas is payin’ me back for all this anyway,” I lied smoothly. “Consider it part of the shopping expenses.”
Hayden looked like he wanted to argue but eventually nodded. “Thanks.”
I paid the bill, we took our last sips of tea, and slid out of the booth.
On our way out I noticed several people huddled at the bar, looking up at a news report on the television.
But I was so distracted by Hayden and how content he looked that I didn’t even pay attention to what it was about.
Nothing was more important than this sandy-haired boy that I was quickly becoming infatuated with.
Until we stepped outside.
“Oh…” Hayden looked up, a smile on his face as he held out his hand. “It’s snowing! I didn’t know that happened here.”
I stared at the white flakes drifting down around us. “That fucking asshole…”
“What?” Hayden asked, his head cocked to the side like a puppy.
“Lucas…” I shook my head. “He told me it wasn’t supposed to snow until this weekend.”
“Okay. What does it matter?”
“Just a second.”
I pulled out my phone, navigating to the road conditions website.
As I waited for it to load, I noticed that it wasn’t just snowing, but it was coming down hard, and the temperature had plummeted in the past few hours.
Not only that, but at least half an inch was already accumulated on the road.
When the website finally loaded, I saw exactly what I expected.
“Fuck,” I grumbled, shoving the phone back in my pocket.
“What?”
“The snow… we’re not gonna make it home tonight.”
“Why? What’s the big deal?” Hayden asked, his arms crossed over his chest to ward off the cold. “I can drive in it if you like. I’ve done it before. It’s just snow.”
“It’s just snow anywhere else,” I replied, heading for the truck. “But in Texas, it means the whole damn county shuts down. Including the roads.”
“What?” Hayden just scoffed. “They can’t shut down the roads!”
“They can and they have,” I replied, pulling open the passenger door for him to climb inside. “And since I don’t want an expensive ticket, we’re gonna find a hotel right now.”
“A hotel?!” He stared at me like I was crazy. “I can’t stay here for the night!”
I cocked my head to the side, a grin pulling at my lips. “Why? You got somewhere else to be?”
“N-No… but I… I told Dolly I’d help with things around the diner tomorrow.” It seemed like a weak excuse. “Besides, you shouldn’t have to pay for a hotel just because of a little snow.”
“Oh, don’t you worry about that,” I said, shutting his door and going around to my own side. “This is going on the company card. Lucas can pay for it since he’s the one that gave me a bad weather report.”
“That’s not fair to Lucas,” Hayden protested as I climbed into the driver’s seat. “He’s not a meteorologist.”
“No, but he watches the weather like a hawk. Trust me, he knew this was coming,” I said, starting the engine. “This has Lucas Greene written all over it.”
I pulled out of the parking lot, the truck’s tires crunching over the freshly fallen snow. The flakes were getting bigger by the minute, sticking to the windshield faster than the wipers could clear them.
“What do you mean?” Hayden asked, his brow furrowed.
I sighed, focusing on the increasingly slippery road. “Lucas is playing matchmaker. He knows exactly what he’s doing. Getting us stranded in Amarillo together? It’s not subtle.”
Hayden’s cheeks flushed pink, and I couldn’t tell if it was from embarrassment or the cold. “That’s... that’s ridiculous. Why would he do that?”
“Because he thinks we’d be good together,” I said bluntly. No point dancing around it now. “And because he can’t help meddling in everyone’s business. It’s like a hobby for him.”
Hayden stared out the window, watching the snow fall. “Well, he’s wasting his time.”
That stung more than I wanted to admit. “Yeah, I figured you’d say that.”
We drove in silence for a few blocks before I spotted a decent-looking hotel. Not too fancy, but not a dive either. “This’ll do,” I said, pulling into the parking lot.
“We could just... keep driving,” Hayden suggested half-heartedly. “How bad could it be?”
I pointed to a digital road sign we’d just passed. “Road closure in effect as of six p.m. That’s in twenty minutes. And trust me, the Texas Department of Transportation doesn’t mess around with snow. They’ll have troopers out ticketing anyone who tries to drive on closed roads.”
Hayden sighed dramatically, slumping in his seat. “Fine. One night. But I get my own room.”
“Of course,” I replied, though the thought of sharing a room had definitely crossed my mind. “I’m not a complete Neanderthal, Freckles.”