Chapter Seven #2
“Just let me tell you what happened, and I might answer all of them.” Happiness bubbled inside Tyler like he’d taken several swigs of Coca-Cola, but instead of a burp, he blurted out, “I love you,” again. “This will take all night at this rate.”
Owen laughed and kissed Tyler. “But you promised forever. No take backs.”
The light banter and happiness radiating from Owen made Tyler’s pulse gallop, and he pressed a hand to his chest.
Owen watched the gesture with a puzzling expression on his face. “You only do that when you’re stressed.”
Tyler shook his head. “My pulse is racing, and it feels like my heart is trying to escape.”
“I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, but even I know that’s impossible.”
Tyler hated when Owen made derisive comments about his intelligence, but previous attempts to change the behavior smashed into a brick wall of pure stubbornness.
He either deflected or doubled down on his lack of education.
Tyler couldn’t just let the remark go. “You’re the wisest person I know. ” And he meant it.
“And we’re getting off topic.” And deflection it was. “Tell me about the eye-opening conversations.”
Tyler had a stubborn streak of his own, though he rarely displayed it.
Was it the right time to dust it off and stand his ground?
He wasn’t sure how much longer Keegan’s therapy session would run, and he didn’t want to halt this conversation midway through.
So, Tyler reluctantly left Owen’s self-deprecating remark alone to have the conversation that felt most critical.
And if he wanted Owen to believe him, then Tyler couldn’t pull his punches to soften the blow.
“Watching you dance with Keegan really got to me. There was nothing especially sexy in the way the two of you moved, but you shared an experience with him that you didn’t feel comfortable sharing with me.
It hurt me in some ways that made sense and others that didn’t. ”
Owen’s expression softened, and he inhaled slowly. “But now you know why I could never have danced with you, right?”
Tyler nodded. “But it took those friendly chats to help me get there.” He chuckled when he recalled Hope’s blunt remarks.
“Okay, one of them kinda kicked me in the balls.” At Owen’s scowl, Tyler reached out and cupped his face.
“Verbally, and it was the best thing to happen to me since meeting you.”
Owen narrowed his eyes, and it was obvious he still wasn’t convinced, so Tyler told him about Hope joining him on the front porch.
He snorted when Tyler repeated the part about Mistress Divine.
“Oh man. It’s been a while since you mentioned her.
” Tyler must’ve made an irritated expression because Owen leaned his head back and laughed.
The joyful noise filled the truck cab and infused Tyler’s soul with sunshine, but he aimed the darkest scowl he could muster at Owen. “I regret telling you about her.”
Owen wiped the tears from his twinkling blue eyes. “You just regret telling me what she was really selling in that tent.”
Tyler’s mother hadn’t told him about Mistress Divine’s second room for more private readings, but he’d overheard her telling his father that the fortune teller propositioned an undercover officer.
“Are you finished yet?” Tyler asked when Owen gave in to another fit of laughter.
“Because you’re not inspiring me to share my deepest secrets with you. ”
“Sorry,” Owen said, holding up his hand as he stifled his mirth and worked to bring his laughter under control. “I would’ve loved to see your mom’s face when she found out her innocent, precious boy sought a reading from Mistress Divine.”
“Anyway,” Tyler said to steer them back on course, “I teased Hope about her vague crossroads remark, and by god, she hit me between the eyes with a truth bomb.” Just recalling the shock made his pulse leap.
“What exactly did she say?”
Emotions swelled inside Tyler that felt too big to contain as he repeated the conversation he’d had with Hope.
He lifted his hand to rub his sternum, but Owen got there first. He closed his eyes and took a shaky breath before looking into those midnight eyes he adored so much.
“Gary came looking for her because he wanted to dance with his wife. I followed behind them after a bit, still full of denial, until I saw you slow dancing with Keegan. I imagined myself in your arms, and the yearning was so strong it scared me.”
“I bet,” Owen said, his voice warm and tender.
“I didn’t even know that level of desire existed.
” His previous conquest amounted to losing his virginity on his seventeenth birthday.
His girlfriend had been a year older but lived in a stricter environment than his.
Their encounter was a clumsy fumble in a pitch-black room with only the necessary clothes removed.
It was over before it began, and the only impressions Tyler had from his first time were embarrassment and guilt.
He’d hooked up with a woman on the rodeo circuit once, but he’d been too high on pain meds to remember much.
He woke up sometime later with his jeans pulled down to his knees and his spent dick still in a condom.
“Nothing and no one ever prepared me for the way you make me feel.”
“Christ, I wish we were back at the ranch,” Owen said huskily.
“But the rest of our conversation would get delayed.” But he pressed a quick kiss to Owen’s smiling lips. “Anyway, I saw you dancing with Keegan, and I thought my revelation came too late. I moped into the kitchen and started doing dishes.”
“And Nick came in there to talk to you.” When Tyler only stared at him, Owen added, “I always know where you are. I knew Hope had followed you outside, too, because she beat me to it.”
“I’m glad she was the one who stepped onto the porch,” Tyler told him. “I would’ve arrived at the truth eventually, but we might’ve wasted six more years like Nick and Cash.”
“Is that what you talked to Nick about?” Owen asked.
“Yeah, some of it. I’d recovered a bit after Hope’s truth bomb, but I was feeling raw after watching you guys dance.
I told Nick I felt like a third wheel and didn’t want to make things harder for you and Keegan to be together.
He flat out told me you two weren’t together.
He said that wasn’t what love looked like, and I started asking myself what it would look like.
” Tyler paused to take a deep breath. “And then I saw love reflecting at me in the mirror in the booth. You have a smile that you only show to me, and your eyes don’t twinkle for anyone else.
And I started thinking about what it would be like to touch you and kiss you.
Then you made my dick hard when you kept grinding against me.
” Tyler cupped Owen’s face and ran his thumb over firm lips.
“Then you kissed me.” He inhaled deeply as emotions surged inside him again.
“I love you. Not through power of suggestion or because of a jealous, knee-jerk reaction. I love you because you’re my person.
” And just like that, the riotous emotions inside Tyler quieted.
Owen didn’t react for several seconds, not even to blink. “I’m dreaming, right?”
Tyler shook his head and kissed Owen, long and deep. “Not a dream,” he replied once they separated.