Chapter 7 #3
True. He even brought a pair of garden sheers with him last week.
Scared me so fuckin’ bad I had to run and hide behind Bubba.
I should have been humiliated after the fact, but Ez didn’t shame me.
Bubba made him apologize for threatening to cut my nuts off, and then he skipped away like I didn’t just make a complete fool of myself.
He made it feel like it was natural. Like it was okay to be weird around him.
“Dammit, Johnny,” he mutters, and when I focus on his face, he’s staring off toward the sink. “Damn him. Damn him straight to the innermost pits of Louisiana.”
“Louisiana?”
He nods. “It’s literally hell on Earth, and Johnny deserves to eternally burn in its wretched flames for this.
” Ez aims the phone at the fancy, mint-green hand towel he keeps telling me not to use.
His finger comes into the frame, pointing at a large white speck.
“That’s either Johnny’s toothpaste or his cum.
Everyone else in this house knows not to touch my good towel.
It’s from Bed Bath it’s that I’m scared of finding out something new about myself.
Because the way Ezra looked earlier, stroking his little cock for us to see, had me feeling a bunch of feelings.
“You like him too,” Bubba whispers, and it feels like he’s just cold-cocked me right in the heart. “Johnny. Baby, look at me.” The endearment makes it feel like a bomb’s just gone off inside me, and it takes all my waning courage to look him in the eyes. “It’s okay to like him.”
“But …”
“But you also like me.” It isn’t a question.
I don’t think it’s ever been a question.
So, I nod. He lifts my hand and brings it to his mouth, giving me a tender kiss that takes my breath away.
As he kisses me, his eyes never leave mine, not even when he pulls away.
“Well, in case it ain’t clear, Johnny, I like you too. ”
“Yeah?”
His hand grips mine even tighter. “You bet your ass, I do. I’m going to make this work. I promise.” He leans over the back of his bench seat and kisses my forehead like it’s the most normal thing in the world.
“I’m so scared I’m going to get left behind. I don’t want to end up on my own while you two ride away into the sunset.”
“Never,” he swears. “Do you want me to call tonight off? We can just keep going on the way things are, if you’re not comfortable moving forward.”
“You’ll just start dating him anyway, then I’ll have to—”
“Jonathan,” he says, his voice firm. He’s only used my full name once, so the sound of it is foreign enough to snap me out of whatever the hell headspace I’m heading into. “I would never do that to you. To either of you.”
“Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” He lets go of my hand and reaches up, rubbing my bald head. “Well, if it isn’t, it will be tonight. I just need you to give me a few hours. Can you do that, bro? Can you be patient just a little longer?”
I nod, because I’ll do anything Bubba asks me to, without question.
“I’ll try.”
I look out the window and spot Ezra standing on the porch.
This is normally the part where he races to the pickup, crawls over me to reach Bubba, and siphons his attention away from me.
He ain’t doing that now, though. He’s just standing there in a pair of skin-tight shorts and a magenta button-up shirt.
Ezra’s even got a cute bowtie on and everything.
When his eyes lock on mine through the window, he waves.
Why is he being nice to me? He’s never nice to me.
And why am I waving back at him? When I realize what I’m doing, I yank my arm down, cheeks burning an awful shade of red, if my reflection in the rearview mirror is any indication, and Bubba’s just sitting there smiling at me like God looking down on his creation.
My heart flutters a little faster when I squint and see Ezra’s cheeks burning just as dark as mine. He has to be smiling at Bubba. There’s no way—and no reason—he’s blushing because of me. But is it bad that I kind of wish he was?
“Bubba?”
“Yeah, baby?”
I have to bite my lip to keep it from trembling. “Would you help me pick out something to wear? I want to look good tonight.” I clear my throat nervously and look away. “For both of you.”
“Yeah,” Bubba says. “You’ve got it. His hair sure looks pretty, don’t it?”
I have to look up at Ezra’s hair to realize what he means.
I didn’t even notice it at first. Now, where a pile of brown bluff used to rest, is the most beautiful hot-pink head of hair I’ve ever seen.
He’s fucking stunning, and he’s staring right at me like he’s waiting for my reaction.
I open my truck door and step out, making my way over to him.
Ezra is blushing like crazy, and it makes my knees go a little weak.
“Well? What do you think?”
Hesitantly, I run my fingers through his hair and scratch his scalp. “You look beautiful, bro.”
Bubba stands beside me, nodding. “He’s right. You look so sexy right now, Ezzy.”
He bites his bottom lip to hold back his smile. “‘Kay.”
Fuckin’ precious.