Page 25 of Uncharted
“Twinks,” I said with a snort.
“God, why do you know that?”
“Mika and Colin, and now Aidan aren’t the first gay friends I’ve had, Reno.”
“Fair enough.”
I squinted up at the stars, not wanting to look at him as a thought occurred to me. “Xander—”
“Is furious with us, so what?” Reno asked, and I smiled at his confusion.
“Nah.” I shook my head. “I meant…I bet he probably thought the same thing, ya know? Then Colin came along and suddenly Xander is seein’ things differently.”
“Do we actually know if Xander was straight this whole time, or did we just assume?” Reno asked.
“Nah, I asked Colin.”
“Of course you did.”
“Well, ya can’t know the answer to somethin’ if ya don’t ask.”
Reno rolled onto his side and smiled. “And that sort of thing is why I’ve told people you’re far from stupid. I guess that is the best way…wait, so he really was straight?”
“Apparently,” I said, wondering how that must have felt. To have been straight as far as you knew for over four decades, only to find yourself suddenly into some new guy who wandered into your life. Xander wasn’t good with change, so it must have been a mind fuck to discover there was apparently enough gay in him to be attracted to Colin. “He didn’t tell me what started it, though. I guess that was too private.”
“Probably too private for Xander, and Colin might blab his own business, but he would probably think it was tacky and disrespectful to tell Xander’s business like that,” Reno explained. “What is all this, anyway? Are you having some sort of gay crisis?”
“Is it a gay crisis if I haven’t done anything gay?”
“Straight crisis?”
“Is it a crisis? I don’t feel crisised.”
“That’s not an actual word, but fine, I give up.”
“I guess it just has me thinkin’,” I said with a thoughtful sigh. “I mean, I guess I’ve been wonderin’ about it ever since we learned those two were a thing. You tellin’ me it didn’t make you at least wonder?”
“Not really?” Reno asked as if apologizing. “Now I’m wondering about it myself. I don’t know what’s weirder, that it didn’t make me wonder when it probably made every straight guy here wonder at least a little, or that it happened in the first place. Like, was Xander secretly bi the whole time, or was there like some weird switch flipped in his head when he met Colin and now he’s like—”
“Gobblin’ cock?”
“You think he does?”
“Gobble? Nah, probably just sucks it like a normal person.”
Reno smacked my stomach, making me grunt. “You know what I mean.”
“Colin seems pretty happy and I mean…Xander might be a dick sometimes, but he’s not a prick. No way he’d be that selfish,” I said, then frowned. “And Colin wouldn’t put up with that kinda selfish either. Yeah, no. Xander definitely tries to get the job done.”
“From how weirdly happy Colin has been some mornings, I’m thinking Xander does more than just get the job done,” Reno chuckled.
“True, and I’m bettin’ Colin’s the same because have ya ever really looked at Xander when Colin calls him Big Boss?”
“Yes,” Reno laughed. “I keep thinking we should have Colin come up with a list of names he calls Xander when they’re alone so we can stop calling him that. I really don’t want to keep calling him Big Boss if it gives him a weird boner.”
“Probably gives him an anti-boner when we call him that,” I chuckled, Reno joining me. Silence settled over us as I stared up at the twinkling sky. It was just the two of us, which was one of my favorite ways to exist. I liked all the guys we worked with and I loved spending time with them, but there had been something special about Reno from the first time I’d met him.
He and Mika had shown up together, and he’d no sooner stepped foot into the main building and was heading up the stairs before he’d caught sight of me. Reno had told me later he’d been sleep-exhausted and hadn’t expected to be met with a giant on steroids. Whatever the case, his feet had twisted beneath him, and he’d fallen flat on his face. His bag had ripped open and scattered everywhere, and he’d just…lain there, staring up at me like he’d never seen another human before.
