Learning to Walk – The Education of the Heart Read Online M.A. Innes

Categories Genre: Insta-Love, M-M Romance Tags Authors:
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Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76523 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
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I wasn’t sure how I felt about the way Gareth immediately nodded, but he made the shit in my head even more confused when he jumped right into his next question. “Are you? He said we were doing this together because…well, something about family.”

What the fuck had happened?

“Do you want me to find him attractive?” That didn’t seem like a reasonable question, so more words just kept rambling out. “We don’t date the same people.”

Yes, we were both gay, much to our families’ frustrations, but we’d never dated the same people even accidentally.

Shrugging, Gareth didn’t seem concerned. “We don’t date at all.”

Okay, technically, he had a point.

“He…he seemed to think we were dating.” I wasn’t sure where I was trying to lead the conversation but that seemed to be important. “We’re not.”

Gareth just shrugged again. “I don’t think he’ll mind.”

What was going through his fucking brain?

Was it just the topic that made him so frustrating?

Had our parents ignoring us too much growing up finally fried his brain?

“Do you mind?” At the very least we needed to make sure the weird neighbor wasn’t going to fuck up our life too much before we went out to dinner with him.

No questions were worth screwing up our friendship…and Brady would tattle on us to his mother if we made everything all dramatic around the apartment.

He had no filter whatsoever.

“You’re my best friend.” Gareth frowned, not seeming to understand what I was worried about. It made me feel good and confused all at the same time. “I don’t mind not dating you.”

For fuck’s sake.

“He kissed us both.” God, I wasn’t any better than Gareth.

“He did.” Gareth nodded as he turned his head to look toward the door. He was quiet for a few moments as he settled back against the couch. “He asked permission, though. That’s good, right?”

Well, yeah.

“He was polite.” And he had soft lips. “Did you mind?”

Gareth shrugged again which made me crazy, but it didn’t take long before he started talking it out, which saved him from getting smothered by one of the decorative couch pillows Brady’s mother said were important to have to make our apartment a home. “He agreed that being fair was the right thing to do…if we’re both dating him, that seemed to be important. And it made him happy.”

Gareth was going to end up doing something stupid just to make the sexy weird neighbor happy. Fuck. I was going to have to date him too just to make sure Gareth didn’t talk himself into something ridiculous…like getting spanked by a stranger.

God.

“It did make him happy.” Yes, I was just going to focus on the most logical parts. “And I liked the way he didn’t leave either of us out. If he’s…well, if we’re both dating him, that seems like it’d be important.”

“So we didn’t get jealous or frustrated.” Nodding slowly to himself, Gareth kept staring at the door like he was still imagining the neighbor standing there. “I like how easy it is to make him happy. Like the jeans thing. Sometimes it’s hard to know what to wear.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong again.

“Yeah.” That was helpful. “And we know he thinks we’re attractive.”

I’d lost track of what was important and what was just stupid, but Gareth thought it was worth mentioning.

He even smiled. “Yeah, I like not having to guess about that.”

“He’s very…” I wasn’t sure how to explain weirdly open, so my voice just trailed off.

It made Gareth chuckle, though. “Oh yeah. But I don’t mind it?”

He more than not minded it, but I wasn’t sure it would be polite to mention.

“It’s helpful.” And kind of hot in a weird way-too-open-minded kind of way. “But I wasn’t sure what to say to some of it.”

I was hoping that by giving Gareth an opening he’d share more about what he was feeling, but it didn’t seem to work the way I’d intended. He just looked at me and frowned. “Do you think he’s going to be too bossy for you?”

Huh?

Okay, some of my dates had been controlling dickheads, but it didn’t happen that often…did it?

“He didn’t seem annoying, just weird.” I wasn’t going to lie about that part. “He also asked to kiss me. So he’s polite.”

God, we were going to end up dating a serial killer together just because he smiled and had good manners.

The way Gareth nodded said he hadn’t thought about how many ways it could go terribly wrong…but it was probably nice to talk to someone who could explain the spanking thing better than anyone else around us.

Jude was…well, he was only appealing to Brady, and Brady was…well, he was confusing on a good day…and I was an idiot.

Yep, I was starting to see how we’d gotten ourselves into this.

We should’ve done more internet searches and less worrying.

“Are you going to wear jeans?” Gareth didn’t seem to realize how many mixed signals he threw my way with that one question.


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