Page 93 of This I Promise You
“Damn, that’s it? I thought you were gonna rake his ass over the coals!” Jace says.
Dani shrugs. “Thought about it, but I’m hungry. And I wanna finish this level before we go.”
“Teenagers.” Jace rolls his eyes. “I was looking forward to that.”
Speaking ofJace, I roll my eyes too. “Since when are you and Lily BFFs?” I round on him.
Jace bursts out laughing and grabs a bottle of water out of the fridge. “Figured she’d text you. We dated for a couple weeks a while back. Didn’t work out, but we stayed friends. She keeps trying to ‘ink me’”—he uses air quotes—“but I keep telling her no. Then she asked what I was doing tonight and I mentioned you’re here, and she tried again. Not happening, dude.”
Huxley clears her throat behind me and I look back.
“Dani, Felix, I want you to meet someone very special to me. This is my best friend in the whole wide world, Huxley. Huxley, this is my little sister and brother, Dani and Felix.”
“Hi, Huxley!” Felix runs into her arms, going for a bear hug.
“Hey. Jace told us all about you, Hux,” Dani says without looking away from her game. She even went in for the nickname.
“You did?” I turn to face Jace with Felix’s arms still wrapped around Huxley like he doesn’t want to let go.
Jace puts up his hands in surrender and leans back against the counter. “Listen, these two ask a lot of questions! Especially Felix after I told him you were here.”
“Yeah,” Felix chimes in and looks up at Huxley. “So you’re my brother's BFF?”
“Hell yeah! The best of friends.”
“Not his girlfriend?” he asks, confused.
Huxley bursts out laughing then sobers immediately. “No, sweetie. Your brother has a boyfriend.”
“Is he here? I want to meet him!”
I wish he was here, and I can only hope he’ll still be my boyfriend after all this. “No, buddy, he’s not. He’s back in North Carolina where we live.”
“Oh. Okay.” He finally lets go of Huxley and comes over to me. “Do you love him?”
And oh how that makes me smile. “I do. Very much.”
“I want a boyfriend, but Jace won’t let me.”
My eyes go wide and I look at Jace. He shrugs with a smirk, drinking his water.
“You do?” I ask him.
“Yep! Girls are fine, like a friend. Like you and Huxley! But boys aresomuch cuter.” He drags out the so and he’s so damn proud of it. I envy him. I didn’t have that when I was growing up. The light in his eyes is enough to regenerate my cold gay heart. I hope he never loses that.
“Hey, what did we say about dating though?” Jace interjects. Ever the authoritative figure.
Felix’s face drops, then he rolls his eyes. “Not until I’m fifteen. I know, I know.” He throws himself onto the couch next to Dani to watch her play her game. Guess the conversation is over then.
I chuckle, watching them. There’s a bit of an awkward silence because I’m not sure what to do. Then Jace grabs his keys. “Who’s ready for dinner?”
“Me,” we all say in a united chorus.
* * *
After dinner, we settle into the living room to play board games. Dani is kicking all of our asses, Felix is so happy and hyper and won’t stop touching me or sitting in my lap, but I don’t mind. Jace and Huxley keep making eyes at each other and I already know where her mind is at. His too. Good thing they’re sleeping in separate rooms. I’ve been pretty quiet all evening as I soak in what little time we have together before Hux and I leave tomorrow afternoon.
We play two rounds of Monopoly—Dani won once, Felix and I the other—before I leave to meet up with Lily. I figured Huxley would come with me, but she decided to stay and hang out after Felix begged her to playSuper Mario Kartwith him.
