Chapter 23
RILEY WAS FREAKING OUT, and he shouldn’t have been, but he couldn’t help it.
He wasn’t sure if it was a slip when Josh thanked him for his lunch yesterday. It had to have been a slip. He didn’t mean it like that. He said I love you all the time. He didn’t mean it that way. Right?
There was no way he was going to ask him to clarify, that was for sure. They had only agreed to exclusivity yesterday, so it must have been the I love you like a friend comment Riley was used to.
The thing was, he wasn’t positive. Riley and Josh had always had a friendship that was closer than most, but they’d always figured it was because they grew up next door to each other.
They’d said they loved each other for years, following their parents’ lead.
They were always quick to dole out affection.
They were so close he wondered how he could figure out if he wasn’t already in love with Josh.
How would he figure out when he was in love if Josh had always been the most important part of his life? How would he know when love became in love? At least that was something they could deal with together, but the closeness of their families complicated the whole situation.
They called each other’s parents aunt and uncle, so they were practically cousins. Oh shit, he had only been worried that their parents wouldn’t approve of their sexuality. He hadn’t even considered the fact they might be against it because they were practically family.
At least they had Sophie on their side. They’d have to make sure she was present when they told their parents. She was pure chaos, but it made her an excellent buffer for difficult conversations.
Yet again, Riley was having trouble focusing on his workout because of his racing thoughts.
He was standing in a tree pose but he felt more like a flamingo, as Chase led them in their regular Tuesday yoga practice. As he looked around he noticed everyone was a little less wobbly this week. Tobias was right when he decided to add this element to the gym.
When he looked in Josh’s direction, he noticed his eyes were shut and he had a calm look on his face that Riley could only describe as meditative.
He had a real knack for yoga. Riley wasn’t quite as confident, but he could feel himself improving each session, and he noticed a decline in his sore muscles throughout the week thanks to their cooldowns.
He used to leave right after their workouts, not bothering to stretch anything after.
Chase directed them into a downward dog pose, then flowed into a forward fold.
“Keep breathing, steady and even. We’re going to try an advanced move that’s not always easy to get on the first try, but the more we do it, the more comfortable you’ll feel.
Roll up, vertebrae by vertebrae. I’m going to demonstrate this for you first, since once you get into the position, it will be hard to watch me at the same time.
Everyone, move your ab mats so they are directly in front of you, maybe a foot in front of your feet, square to your body. This is called crane pose.”
Chase had directed them to make sure they had ab mats for that day’s session. They were all curious what they’d need them for. They were little arched cushions they usually used for back support when doing sit-ups, but they were clearly going to be used for something different today.
They all watched as Chase moved into a forward fold, slowly bending his knees and then his arms, standing on his toes until suddenly all of his weight was on his hands and his knees were somehow resting on the backs of his arms.
What the fuuuuck?
He even managed to talk while in the middle of the pose.
“You’re going to use your core to hold this pose.
Engage your muscles and make sure you keep breathing.
If you feel like you’re going to fall,” he paused and started to lean forward until his head made contact with the ab mat, “you’re safe to fall forward thanks to the mat.
And if you start to fall backward, you’ll land on your toes. ”
He pushed himself onto his toes and rose into a forward fold, rolling up slowly through his breaths.
Riley was gaping. He tried to exchange a worried look with Josh, but he radiated excitement. Tobias, meanwhile, had a serious and determined look on his face.
“Are you guys ready to try it?”
Josh shouted yes while the rest of them murmured in agreement, and Chase led them in the sequence.
As Riley moved into the pose, his body trembled and he could feel the sweat dotting his brow as he focused on engaging his core.
Slowly pushing off his toes, he landed right back on them.
It took him a few tries before he managed to get into position, and then he was falling forward, but thankfully Chase was right about the ab mat protecting his head, and he tried a few more times.
Eventually, he was able to hold the pose for a solid five seconds.
Riley heard shouts and groans around him as people struggled with the pose, but he dared not look around or he’d fall on his face.
It was nowhere near as fluid and graceful as Chase had been, but he was buoyed by how well he did compared to thinking he was going to immediately faceplant on his first try.
Chase led them through the rest of the session, They spent a quiet minute in corpse Riley's favorite because you kind of just laid there—and congratulated them on a great session.
Hunter was the first to speak once they’d finished. “How long does it take to get as good as you?”
“I’ve been practicing yoga since college, but I also work at Cherrywood Boulders, the rock climbing gym, and that uses a lot of bodyweight strength too.”
“What’s the craziest move you can do?” Josh asked excitedly.
Pink started to stain Chase’s cheeks as he thought about it.
“Uh, well, not a yoga pose, but the most impressive one is probably ‘human flag.’”
“So you wave at us? I can do that,” Riley joked, waving like royalty at Chase. The others chuckled.
“Not exactly,” Chase said as he strode over to the weight rack that stretched against the wall. He grabbed one of the poles and lifted himself until his body was sideways, completely parallel to the ground.
Human flag. I can totally see it.
“Holy shit, how’d you do that?” Cole yelled.
Chase lowered himself back to the ground as some of them rushed over to the poles to see if they could do the same move, but they all failed miserably.
Carson got the closest, surprisingly. Maybe because he was lighter than the rest of them.
His face went bright red from the attention, or from the congratulatory hug Hunter gave him afterward.
“Well, I, uh, used to take a pole dance class for a bit and picked up some things,” Chase said as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
Cole spun in Tobias’ direction. “Please, please, please, can we have a pole dancing class next?”
Riley expected Tobias to bark a loud “no” at Cole like usual, but the man was in a trance, staring in Chase’s direction.
After a moment, he realized everyone was looking at him and he shook himself. “Uh, no I don’t think so. Maybe. No.”
“Oh my God, Chase,” Cole crooned. “You broke Tobes.”
Riley bit back a laugh, but Josh and Hunter started cracking up, and the conversation broke as everyone started heading out.
Josh sidled over to Riley’s side and muttered under his breath so no one else could hear, “Maybe we should take a pole dance class, because that was really cool.”
That put all kinds of dirty images in Riley’s head.
Josh spinning around a pole.
Josh’s muscles rippling as he rotated.
Removing items of clothing as he danced—
“Maybe. For now I think we should head home. Shower. Stuff…” He trailed off, unable to think about anything else except getting Josh naked.
They needed to get out of there before his hard-on was obvious in his shorts. He’d never hear the end of it.
————————
Only twenty minutes later, Josh and Riley were making out in their shower.
They goofed around and took turns cleaning each other before Riley pulled Josh’s hard body against his and brought their mouths together, his hands traveling all over him.
Josh was on the same wavelength as they kissed fiercely, unable to separate their bodies to do anything except roll their hips against each other.
It wasn’t long before their combined come was sandwiched between them, their kisses slowing as Riley’s heart continued to race.
Riley pulled away so he could look at Josh. The dopey smile on his face had Riley melting with adoration for this man.
This chiseled, kind, perfect man who was all his.
He brought their foreheads together and basked in the comfort that was Josh’s arms.
“We should have been doing this years ago,” Josh murmured, his voice barely audible over the water.
A pang hit Riley’s heart. Everything about this was right.
“Better late than never, right?”
Josh placed a sweet kiss on the end of Riley's nose and beamed at him.
“Definitely. I’m so glad—ahh!”
The water turned frigid, and they jumped away from the spray, nearly slipping while holding onto each other for balance.
Once they were both sure they weren’t going to fall on their asses, they looked at each other and giggled.
Apparently, they’d been in there longer than they’d thought. It was so easy to get distracted by Josh. He was one of a kind and he’d always been Riley’s number one. There wasn’t anything Riley wouldn’t do for him.
If Josh called him and said he needed help moving a body, well, Riley likely already would have been with him. But he would help him bury it, no questions asked.
It was a ride-or-die friendship they could always rely on. Cole and Avery had been their close friends for years, but there was always a special connection Josh and Riley shared that eclipsed everyone else.
If Riley wasn’t already in love, it wouldn’t be long before he fell, because Josh was everything he’d ever wanted.
After drying off and throwing on some warm clothes to ward off the chill of the shower, they hunkered down on the couch and got to work.
Riley was in the middle of emailing client invoices when his phone buzzed on the arm of the couch, Garrett’s name appearing in his notifications.
A quick peek at Josh showed he was distracted by a logo he was working on for a local produce store, so Riley grabbed his phone to see what Garrett had to say.
He hated hiding things from Josh, but he was trying to protect him.
GARRETT: You gotta tell me where you found this document. I don’t need to know HOW, but where was it? It’s not in any of the police archives and all traces of the accident have been wiped from the system.
RILEY: Fuck, that’s weird, right? I found it in a database on your captain’s server.
GARRETT: Captain McUseless? That makes no sense. He’s a nepo hire that doesn’t do shit around here. Wtf was he doing with it?
Riley snorted. Garrett had complained about his boss—actual name Captain Graham McHugh—on multiple occasions.
They’d wondered how he’d gotten his job as the captain of Cherrywood’s police department until they found out he was the nephew of New Jersey Governor Neil McHugh.
That had to be the only reason he’d been able to keep his job all these years.
GARRETT: Well, things are weirder than I thought, but I’m gonna do some more digging. I’ll be in touch.
Riley sent his thanks to Garrett and put his phone aside.
Josh was still entrenched in his design and hadn’t noticed Riley texting, thank goodness. Once Garrett helped him make sense of this, he’d fill Josh in on everything. For now, he didn’t want him to worry when Riley didn’t have an explanation.
He took a moment to watch Josh work, his brow furrowed and the tip of his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth. Damn, he was cute.
Riley loved how light and positive Josh always was.
It was one of his favorite things about him.
But when it came to work, he was more like a machine, refusing to quit until he got something just right.
Sometimes it was difficult if they disagreed on a design, since Josh was a perfectionist and always had a way to make things better. Like how he made Riley’s life better.
Riley stifled a sigh so as not to distract Josh and his screen full of fruit.
“How’s that logo coming? Is it still completely free of any hidden erotic produce?”
Josh chuckled but kept his eyes on his screen.
“Going well. Still tweaking it a bit, but there’s something off. The logo mark is great, but considering the organic nature of the shape, I don’t think a display handwritten font works. It’s making it look childish instead of professional. That’s what’s causing the dissonance.
“If we swap the font to a modern sans serif, match the width to the logo mark, and space it the height of the text…
There! That's better. I could still see playing with the font weight a bit, maybe sending the client a few variations so they feel like they contributed. If they ask, though, I think the bold in that font is the right choice.”
Riley couldn’t help but smile at Josh’s explanation.
It was amazing how many people they’d interacted with over the years who thought he was as dumb as a rock, while he was anything but.
He’d struggled with math and history, always battling with memorization.
He did a little better with English, but where he really shined was in art and design.
Riley had some skills, but he wasn’t the artist Josh was.
Riley helped with design on occasion, but he mostly handled the business side of Jollywood Graphics, as well as maintaining some of their clients’ websites.
It’s what made them such a great team, since Josh couldn’t handle the business aspect and Riley wasn’t as skilled in art.
Josh had an eye for design that always made their clients happy.
And when they had a disagreement or miscommunication with a client, Josh had a knack for smoothing everything over.
It was like everyone he interacted with was a little bit happier afterward. Riley was so lucky to have him.
“It looks great,” Riley rasped, realizing he hadn’t said anything for a while. “I think the client is gonna love it.”
I think I’m gonna love you.