Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Skylar
While my friend Tiegan went on and on about his latest conquests—yeah, he was all about orgies—I lay on my couch, one hand tucked behind my head, and thought about Ezra.
I was maybe nursing a tiny crush on the man.
It was obvious that he wasn’t so great around people. I didn’t know if it was because he felt weird or boring or too much of a softie nerd about animals, or if someone had made him feel that way. He wasn’t rude or distant, it was more like it took a lot of effort on his part.
I wanted to find out, to learn more about him, but didn’t want to just pop up at the vet clinic to pester him with questions. If he were flirty or had an easier way about him, I totally would’ve already done that. It wasn’t even about the crush. Which was… new.
Maybe it was as simple as that I didn’t have friends here yet, so I was confusing a crush with the happiness of having a nice conversation with a man who had dark hair and dark eyes and a wiry body I had ogled very discreetly while petting his dog.
…Yeah, okay, it was more of a crush.
“Can you believe it?” Tiegan shrieked.
“That’s wild,” I said promptly, even though I had no idea what I’d missed.
“Please, bitch, I know you’re not even listening,” he whined.
Knowing I should feel at least a little bad, I admitted, “I’m daydreaming, sorry.”
“Oh,” Tiegan purred. “You had a rebound fuck? Good for you! Why didn’t you say so?”
Something in the area of embarrassment kept me from correcting him. Even though I didn’t have a reason to feel embarrassed, because I’d been an amazing, supportive boyfriend. Too bad all that my shitstain ex wanted to support were strangers’ balls on his face.
“Anyway, I need to go, I have a lot of work to do for school,” I said.
“When you’re done, reward yourself with another round with the rebound fuck—if he was a good fuck, I mean.”
My eyebrows rose and I said, “You know… That’s not a bad idea.”
“I’m amazing,” he trilled before ending the call.
Drumming my fingers, I considered the idea. Not the rebound fuck part, the part about how I should reach out to Ezra. After all, he’d told me to call with animal questions and there was no way he was the kind of person who’d say that if he didn’t actually want to talk to me. I couldn’t think of any animal questions, but I got another idea that was even better.
Flipping my cell over, I pulled up the vet clinic’s number and dialed.
Someone else answered and when I asked for Ezra, she put me on hold and I grinned ear to ear at the birdsong that played instead of regular, boring hold music.
“Peak Vet Clinic, this is Ezra.”
“Hi, Ezra, it’s Skylar,” I said. “I thought of a question for you.”
There was a pause, not the longest one he’d left between the end of something I’d said and whatever he was going to say back. “Hey,” he said slowly, “it’s good to hear from you.”
I tried not to let my dick notice how great his voice sounded over the phone.
Ignoring it, I got right to it, “Do you camp?”
“You want to know if a loner, who lives in Colorado and loves nature, camps?” he asked with a sexy dose of good-humored, self-deprecating sarcasm. “It’s a smart guess that I do.”
“Well, this seaside city boy most definitely doesn’t camp,” I rambled breathlessly, trying to play it cool, “and I want to try it. I want to see birds and deer and… buffalo? Are there buffalo? I know it’s stupid to go camping alone, and even if it were generally safe, I’d definitely die. So, any chance you have this weekend or the next free and would agree to be my guide?”
His reaction wasn’t the full-blown, warm belly laugh I’d gotten at the park last week. But it was a low rumble of laughter, the kind that rolled over my body like a sexy shockwave.
“My conscience would be so heavy if you died,” he admitted.
“Is that a yes?” I asked, hoping it wasn’t a squeak.
There were muffled noises like he switched his phone from one ear to the other, but finally he answered, “I usually have my kids on the weekends, but they do a million things now that they’re older. Let me see which weekend works better and I’ll, ah, call you back.”
Feeling like I was on cloud nine, I teased, “You can text if that’s easier.”
“Huh,” he said, sounding surprised. “I’ve never tried that.”
Sweet holy shit, this man was trying to kill me. If he had kids, then I felt confident assuming he’d had sex at multiple points in his life. But he clearly had no idea how that sounded to my crush-fueled brain. Phone sex , it was screaming at me. My dick was like an arrow that had just hit the bullseye, sticking straight out and quivering madly.
“Just don’t reply to my long texts with a ‘K’ or a thumbs up emoji,” I finally got my shit together enough to tell him lightly. “That makes people think you’re pissed off at them.”
“Good tip.”
I’ll show you a good tip , my brain flirted with him.
“Um, so, great. Just call or text once you talk to your kids. And your… ex?”
“Yeah, their mom’s my ex,” he confirmed.
It wasn’t the bitter or pining way someone who was still hung up on their ex talked, it was just a fact. I wiggled happily, even though I knew he would have reacted differently to my perceived flirting if he were also into men. Calm down, sex-starved libido.
“This will be fun,” he went on. “I haven’t gone camping without the kids in a long time. I used to go with my best friend all the time, but he moved to Denver, so…”
Huh.
My queerdar powered up.
Now that had been said with bitterness and pining.
But I bit back on my curiosity. “That sucks. Glad to give you the chance to go again, even if I’m not your best friend. Should I go to the… camping store and buy… everything?”
“No,” he said with another huff of amusement. “I have everything we’ll need.”
Oh my god, I just bet you do, you sexy man .
“Cool! Okay, well, talk to you soon, bye!”
I got off the phone as quickly as possible, because my dick couldn’t handle it anymore.
My air conditioner was on the fritz and it was ninety out, so yeah, I was lazing around in my underwear. Very convenient. All I had to do was shove my underwear down enough for my dick to spring up, spit on my hand, and go to town on myself, thinking about Ezra.
“Better pump this all out of my system before we go camping alone together.”