Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“You’re the one who wanted to come, Straighty.”
He’d gotten the best of me. Again.
4
Sean
There was something about Ethan I couldn’t wrap my thoughts around.
Who the fuck showed up at a guy’s place to return his driver’s license? It was nice of him, and I appreciated it. And it kind of made sense, considering he felt like I’d helped him out the night before, but that certainly wasn’t what I was expecting when I was about to head out to visit my brother.
I’d almost told Ethan the truth about my intended destination when he pressed, but since he kept trying to get at me like we were in competition with one another, I couldn’t resist the idea of seeing him lose his shit when he realized where I was taking him.
“You don’t do cemeteries?” I asked.
“Honestly, if you had asked me where you were heading, this was the last place in the world I would have guessed.”
“I guess I just keep surprising you then, don’t I?”
He stared at me blankly.
“What?”
“People rarely surprise me.”
“That’s funny because you keep surprising me,” I noted.
“What do you mean by that? Last night? That I didn’t go all Jackie Chan on the guy’s ass?”
“No. Oh my God. You’re thinking way too much about that stupid kid. I did what anyone would have done.”
“You know that’s not true, and you also know most people don’t fucking whip out crazy martial arts—”
“Karate. Black belt, thank you very much.”
“Whatever the fuck it was, you didn’t have to do anything.”
“No, I didn’t have to. There are very rare instances where people have to do anything. I made a choice.”
“And why did you make that choice?”
I rolled my eyes. “I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation. So I’m just going to say you’re welcome and let that be the end of it. Now you can come with me or stay in the car…or take an Uber back to my place, but I’m not gonna sit here and spar over you thinking I threatened your masculinity by doing what any decent person would have done in that situation.”
That quieted him.
I got out of the driver’s side, and Ethan got out on his side.
I was thinking he might head off, be done with me. Maybe that was for the best because I wasn’t interested in talking about what had happened the night before. Rescuing him didn’t feel all that miraculous, but it’d clearly gotten to him, enough that he didn’t mind having a three-way with me. I didn’t know what the fuck he was thinking there. That we’d tag-team some girl so he could prove to me just how manly he was? Whatever the reason, I was out. One thing I never did was chase after straight guys. What was the point of barking up the wrong tree? I’d seen some of my gay and bi friends get hung up on straight dudes—seen them try to “change” the guys. Never led to anything.
That wasn’t going to happen to me, even if the guy happened to be Ethan-level hot, which was about as fucking hot as a guy could be. The only shame was he knew it, but I couldn’t even fault him because how could a guy like that not look in the mirror and know what he had? Hell, I was no Ethan, but I knew what I had, and I always thought there was nothing wrong with using your assets to your advantage.
As we made our way along a concrete path, me guiding us to my bro’s grave, Ethan glanced around uneasily.
“They’re all dead,” I assured him. “They’re not gonna unearth themselves and start dragging their bodies toward us screaming, ‘Brains, Brains.’ ”
“I get that,” Ethan said, sounding annoyed with me.
“Okay, that was a joke to lighten up the mood. Sorry if you’re a little tense about dead folks. If I had realized you’d be this uptight about it, I would have said something. I don’t know a lot of people who are exactly excited about coming to a cemetery, but I guess I come here often enough that it didn’t seem as weird to me as it clearly is.”
His expression twisted up. “Why do you come here a lot?”
“This is where my brother is buried. He passed away when I was in high school.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s fine. You aren’t the asshole who was responsible.”
“What happened?”
It wasn’t something I wanted to share…but considering I’d hauled him all the way out here, I realized it’d be a dick move to make him visit my brother’s grave without being honest with him.
“He was at a bar and this guy was on this hallucinogenic drug and started freaking out. And my brother, being a decent human being, went over to help him when the guy pulled out a fucking knife and carved it into my bro’s throat.”