Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 65346 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65346 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Rex walked in, a heavy-looking bag slung over his shoulder. I stood up, relieved to see a grin spread across his face. I had worried that he’d be just as upset as he’d been when he left hours earlier, or worse.
“Hey there,” he said as I hurried up to him, kissing him and feeling that delicious scratch of his beard against my chin.
“I’ve been worried, Rex.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I turned my phone off.”
“That’s fine, totally fine.” I held both his hands in mine. Even though I’d been home this entire time, it wasn’t until now that I felt comfortable. Like I’d been the one to walk through those doors after been years away (even though it had only been a few hours… I could be dramatic every now and then, all right?).
“What’s in the bag?”
“All my regrets and fears and doubts.”
“Looks heavy.”
“I had a fuckton of regrets and fears and doubts.” He smiled and kissed me again, the tips of our noses brushing together. “Come with me. Let’s go dump them in a lake and watch them sink.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said. We said bye to my sister, who had been focused on scrolling through her phone in an obvious attempt to give us some privacy.
We walked out of the house, and instead of heading toward the guesthouse, Rex grabbed my hand and led us to the stables. “What’s really in the bag?” I asked.
“You’ll find out,” he said, a playful tone sparking in his voice.
“Another surprise.”
“Another one.”
He let go of my hand, only so that he could give me a playful spank. I jumped, the jolt of his hand on my ass making me tingly.
“Saddle up Canyon. I’ve got Electra.” Rex went to work saddling Electra, who seemed just as happy to have Rex’s attention as I did. She batted those miles-long lashes and playfully nipped at Rex’s shirt, her tail swinging back and forth in a more-than-relaxed manner. I finished up with Canyon and hopped on, following Rex as he and Electra clopped out of the stable and onto the trail that wound off the sanctuary grounds and around the back.
“So what happened?” I said, spurring Canyon on to move a little faster so we trotted side by side. I tried keeping my tone neutral, but I’d been dying to know how his meeting with his dad had gone for hours now.
“We talked and we really made a ton of progress. Everything he told me sounded genuine and sincere, and I really believed him.” Rex looked over at me, his smile wide. “He came out to me, Benj. He’s gay. And he’s been eaten up about keeping it a secret for so long. He’s making a big speech about it this week, and he’s dedicating the rest of his career for pushing LGBTQ rights and equality.”
If I were driving a car, I may have steered it off the road in surprise.
Thankfully, Canyon had more of a brain to navigate when I started to go haywire.
“Whoa,” I said. “That’s… wow.”
“Yeah, pretty much my same reaction. I don’t think I ever saw it coming, but now that it’s out there, I kinda see hints of it from our past. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, but still, there were hints.”
“And how are you feeling?”
“About my dad?”
I looked ahead, to the leaf-covered path. “About everything.” I didn’t even want to bring up the sex tape, scared to hurt Rex by simply mentioning it.
“I’m feeling better,” he said, his chin held high. “I think the initial shock is wearing off. I haven’t looked at my phone at all, and it feels kind of liberating. Obviously, shit’s still out there, but I spoke to your brother, and he said he’s already hired someone to scrub the internet for it.”
“Jeez, Mav, what a hero that guy is.”
“He really, really is. I owe him a lot.” He looked to me as our horses turned, going down the narrow tree-lined path I had shown him earlier. “I told him about us, too.”
“You did? How’d he take it?” My heart started to beat a little harder. I loved my big brother, and I really valued his judgment and opinions. If he reacted negatively toward us, then—
“He was great about it.”
Oh thank God.
“Huh?”
“Oh. I, uh—” Didn’t realize I spoke out loud. “I said ‘thank God.’”
Rex chuckled and nodded, agreeing with me. “I didn’t expect him to blow up or anything, but still, he’s my best friend and you’re his little brother—it definitely had the potential of getting messy.”
“Mav is the king of mess. He probably feeds off it. Have you ever seen his room? His refrigerator? His hamper?” I shivered, thinking back to the times we all lived under the same roof. Even though he had a successful and glitzy life in New York City, it didn’t mean that my brother had changed very much from the sloppy but gold-hearted guy who had everyone else’s best interests at heart over his own.