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Grayson came down the stairs, pineapple print swim trunks hanging low on his hips. He stretched his hand out for Owen, clapping his fingers to get attention.
“Come on, Owen. On the way out, we’re going to talk about all the places you should never put your ass, starting with a stranger’s refrigerator.”
CHAPTER24
OWEN
Sunlight blastedthrough the guest room window, casting a golden glow across Archie’s bare chest. The sheets were tangled around his thighs, his half-hard cock resting thick and plump against his thigh.
And I was terrified.
The night before, and the very early morning, spent at Archie’s side and surrounded by his friends was a glimpse of a life that was so beyond out of reach for me. Tomorrow I would be on a plane back home and our lives would once again separate. The past days and nights with Archie would be memories, albeit nicer than the previous ones, but memories just the same.
It felt like it had been days since I checked my phone, since I’d even thought about my actual life back home. Rolling away from Archie, I climbed out of bed, careful to not wake him. He didn’t even snore or stutter, and I let myself watch the steady rise and fall of his chest while I put my pants on. My phone sat heavy in the front pocket, and I waited until I’d slipped out of the guest room to pull it out.
I had a couple text messages from Mandy, nothing urgent, and I answered her back, letting her know I was feeling better and that I would see her soon. I had another batch of messages from Frankie, and I offered him the same platitudes I’d sent my sister.
“You look stressed.”
A voice distracted me, and I fumbled my phone, barely managing to catch it before it landed on the floor. Getting my wits about me, I recognized Archie’s friend Flynn in the kitchen. He had on a pair of black basketball shorts and nothing else, just a messy mop of brown hair and some scruff along the angle of his jaw. He held a coffee mug in both hands, and his stare was narrowed in on me.
“I’m fine,” I said.
“Rob doesn’t keep spray cheese in the fridge like Archie does.”
I huffed out a laugh and looked down at my feet. Flynn stepped to the side so I could get to the coffee pot, and I shuffled toward him. I caught the scent of the pool on him and a hint of cologne that smelled like more money than I had in my checking account. It was a sharp reminder of just how different he was, how different Archie was…from me and the life I’d built in his absence.
“He used to make so much fun of me for the cheese,” I said. “He’d never eat it when I offered.”
“I don’t blame him.”
“I don’t know when he started eating it.”
The coffee pot whirred to life, warming the water and getting ready to brew.
“Probably as soon as he got to California,” Flynn said. “I’ve known him since we were in grad school and he’s always had a taste for it, but only when he’s stressed or sad.”
There was a part of me that hated to think of Archie stressedorsad, but there was a larger part of me that took some comfort in the fact that his abandonment had hurt him too. I’d always imagined that he left and never looked back for me because he didn’t care. Because I didn’t understand how someone could do what he did if you cared for another person? But with my return flight home so within reach I could see it, my perception changed. I was getting ready to leave him, and the distance would kill me this time.
For years, I thought he’d walked away from me because he was weak and scared, but as I readied myself to do the same thing, I knew better.
“If he would have told me about you sooner, I wouldn’t have spent a decade teasing him about his trash taste in cheese.” Flynn chuckled softly and the coffee pot finally started to spurt into the mug.
“Why do you think he didn’t?”
“Because he’s a fool for you. Absolutely head over heels, and he clearly always has been.”
“I doubt that,” I muttered.
“He’s gone for you now,” he went on with a shrug, like we were talking about something as casual as the weather. “It’s going to kill him when you leave.”
“This was never supposed to be a thing,” I said. “This was four days and…”
“You believe that?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know what your perception of us is.” Flynn stepped out of the way while I finished making my coffee. “But I can’t imagine you see us, see him, as anything other than millionaire playboys with too much money to burn and an endless waiting list of men to take to bed.”
