Page 6 of Bailey Bangs Her Brother's Best Friend
They both smile at me, and my cheeks heat, probably in a way that matches Silas’s pink-tinged ears.
He’s going to see you in your underwear.
Ugh, shut it, brain.
Our thighs are almost touching in the cramped booth.I shift slightly away, then worry that’s too obvious, so I shift back.Silas clears his throat and suddenly becomes very interested in peeling the label off his beer bottle.
Great.Now we’re both acting weird.
Hunter stares at me after I’ve settled into the booth.“Morgan and Kit rush to give you a hug and all these two get is a hey?”
Uh-oh.“Well, I was...I already saw them today.”
“She came by the office,” Quinn adds.I saw her on my way out, since she has an office space in the same building as Silas.
“Wait, what?”Hunter’s head whips toward me.“Are you looking at buying a house?”
Morgan whistles from the bar, and Hunter holds up a finger in his direction.
“Are you moving to Here?Oh my god, that would be so fucking sweet.”Oh my poor brother.Like there’s a chance in hell that I’d move back here.
Morgan’s whistle is sharper this time and Hunter’swait-a-minutefinger turns into afuck-youfinger.“Bailey’s moving here!”
There’s a general ruckus around the bar and I have to shout to get anyone to hear me.“I AM NOT MOVING TO HERE.”
Hunter sags, giving me puppy dog eyes.Patrons who looked our way at Hunter’s pronouncement turn back to their drinks with a grumble.
“I was just walking past,” I explain.Quinn gives me a look because she was parked next to my rental car when I left, digging something out of her van, and we had a chat, but thankfully she doesn’t call me out.
Silas shifts beside me.I can feel his eyes on the side of my face but I refuse to look at him.Hunter huffs and stalks away, swiping my beer off the counter and delivering it to our table.
I take a swig of the Call of the Wild IPA and sigh.I can’t get the local craft beer in the city, and there’s just something about it that hits the spot, making me nostalgic for a place I don’t even like.
Quinn asks about my trip up and Hunter expresses disgust that I’d rented a car in Hudson instead of called him for a ride.They catch me up on the latest drama between Herevians: Collin and Heather, a couple that’s been together since high school, are on the outs again; Miss Mullins is campaigning for a Pride parade; a vegan food truck passed through town and nearly a quarter of the Herevians showed up.
The first one is no surprise, but the last two are.I had known that the town had changed its slogan to “You Belong Here” a couple of years ago, but it’s a small town that never really had the pull of the other, more queer-friendly towns.Coming from New York, where I saw my first Pride parade at seventeen, it’s hard to imagine our town doing it justice.
As to the food truck, while there aren’t many food options in Here, the only place that has vegan dishes is Kinnara, owned by the Tran family for over twenty years.It’s the nicest place in Here, and it survives because Sirens Valley Lodge draws just enough people in the ski and leaf-peeping seasons.
Other nice restaurants have come and gone over the years, but there just isn’t enough business for two, and the Herevians are loyal to the Trans.
“That was a damn good Hot Pocket,” Silas says.He leans back with a dreamy look on his face, and his arm brushes against my sleeve.Just like when we were sitting together in his office this afternoon, Silas has on tan pants, a soft-looking blue T-shirt, and those damn slutty little glasses.He’s still wearing the suspenders, too, which are oh-so familiar.
They used to be paired with dinosaur T-shirts and corduroys, but grown-up Silas knows how to dress.The edge of his sleeve partially hides one of the tattoos that morphs him from nerd to downright hottie.
Yeah, this isn’t helping.
“You okay?”Silas asks.I’ve been staring.
“Yeah, just”—I gesture vaguely at his outfit—“the suspenders.Still rocking them after all these years.”
He grins and snaps one against his chest.“Some things never change.”
But you did,I think.You went from an awkward kid to this.
The summer after junior year of college, when I came back home to find my brother and his friends had grown up all of a sudden.It felt like overnight, they’d sprouted from awkward, gangly teenagers to eighteen-year-old men.I had crushed the hardest on Silas.But he was Hunter’s best friend, and I was leaving for the city again in two months.Nothing was going to happen.
When I focus on the conversation again, they’re still talking about food, and my stomach grumbles.I could wait until I get back to my parents’ place to eat, but I don’t really like eating with them.Every meal becomes a performance where my mom watches what I put on my plate, and my dad pretends not to notice the tension.
