Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“What?” Nathan asked as we got into our own work van to head back to town. “I think Rush would be a perfect fling for Charlie. Neither one of them is ready for something serious. Charlie needs a palate cleanser to get him away from Jim. And Rush is the perfect guy for a hookup, fling, palate-cleanser experience.”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “I don’t know.”
“I mean, he’s absolutely awful for anyone who wants something long-term, and he knows it,” Nathan said. “He told me last year that he’d rather have a colonoscopy than a wedding. Basically the opposite of you.”
“How is that the opposite of me?” I protested. “I’m not wedding crazy.”
Nathan gave me a look. “I caught you browsing Google images for photos of gay mountain weddings literally a week ago,” he said.
“I forgot about that,” I muttered, looking out the window. “There were some really pretty pictures.”
“Charlie just needs a kick in the pants. Or a mouth on the dick,” Nathan said with a chuckle. “To get him out of the Jim-is-my-whole-world headspace. I’m a little protective of him, same as I am for you. You know?”
I toyed with a rip in the seam of my jeans. When I’d first come out in my late twenties, I’d been so desperate for male attention that I’d had some questionable, short-lived relationships.
There had been one guy who had gotten really drunk at the brewery, and outside that night, he’d actually slapped me in the face when I’d tried to kiss him. He’d told me he was gay, but he was still in the closet, and I hadn’t known it was off-limits to kiss him—even though he’d just blown me in the bathroom.
Nathan had been on the other side of the parking lot and when he saw the guy hit me, he’d flipped into full fierce, protective older brother mode.
Dad Mode, Protective Older Brother Mode—my brother had a lot of modes, and all of them were good-hearted. But he’d socked the guy in the face, and I was set back a good six months in my quest to figure out how the hell to date as a gay man in a small mountain town.
Nathan wanted the best for everyone. And he was right that Rush would be a good fling for Charlie. An ideal consensual, enjoyable hookup, with no emotional pressure. But the idea of Charlie getting with Rush made my stomach curl into a knot of jealousy that I knew I didn’t have any right to.
“Let’s just have a good time at the bar,” I said. “We don’t need to push Charlie into anything with Rush.”
Nathan snickered. “I know. Rush will do plenty fine flirting with Charlie on his own. He’s a fuckin’ seduction machine.”
My heart kicked in my chest again.
Goddamn, I knew exactly what he meant. When I’d gone back to Rush’s house last week, I’d felt the pull of his magnetic energy more than ever. I had to reluctantly admit that Rush was right when he told me we shouldn’t hook up, but it still nagged at me like a scab I couldn’t leave alone.
And I’d also jerked off to the thought of him multiple times this week. Sometimes twice in one day.
Nathan dropped me off at my house and we both showered off and got ready before carpooling over to the Fixer Brothers offices, just across the street from Jade Brewery. Rush was walking across the street as we pulled in.
“Am I finally going to get to see the famous Fixer Brothers Construction offices?” he said as he walked up.
My body lit up the moment he was near. He was wearing a fitted brown leather jacket and his hair was windswept in an infuriatingly hot way. His eyes landed on me and lingered a moment. “Hey, you.”
I knew I should have yanked him into the bed that night at his house. Now I was just going to have to deal with a life of always secretly wanting to kiss him every time I saw him, even though I probably never would again.
“The famous Fixer Brothers offices,” Nathan said as he unlocked the front door and swung it open. “Everything we’ve ever dreamed of, just… small. Pretty small.”
As we walked in, I flipped on the lights. After starting our contracting business five years ago, we worked freelance for a couple of years before finally getting a place of our own.
It had started out slow, but over the years, we had given our offices the same TLC as the houses we renovated. The floors were all glossy, dark hardwood, there were nice wood and stone finishes for the trim, and we’d installed modern industrial light fixtures. The place looked trendy and cool without being too flashy.
“This place looks fucking rocking,” Rush said, looking all around. “Do you know what this building was when I was a kid?”