Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 85682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
“Looks like he’s staying?” I asked.
“Oh yeah. Since he’s seen you, there will be no getting rid of him.”
“Well, shit. Now we can’t walk around naked and fuck all over the house.”
“I’ll kick him out.” Emerson took a step, but I stopped him with a hand around his wrist, chuckling.
“Nope. We’re stuck now. Plus, I kinda like the idea of getting to know one of your friends.”
Emerson closed his eyes, dropped his head back and sighed. I could read the sound of his breathing, the tenseness in his shoulders, the words he didn’t speak. I might not be the smartest man in the world, but I knew and understood Emerson.
“This don’t make you that other guy anymore…this don’t make you Bentley, if that’s not who you want to be, but there was nothing wrong with him either. I know ya, Em. And I wanna know ya more. Even if this ain’t forever. Nothin’ I see is gonna chase me away until you make me go.” It was the truth. Why lie to him about it?
His gaze locked with mine. “I don’t know how you do that.”
“Do what?”
“Make everything feel better, even the stuff I’m not supposed to want.”
“There’s no supposed to. You’re not very wise for an old guy.”
He grinned. “You little shit.”
Emerson went after me, but I grabbed the hose. “We better clean off before we go in the house so we don’t make a mess.”
“You just want an excuse to spray me with the hose again.”
“Can you blame me?” I winked.
We didn’t play around this time, though. We rinsed the mud off each other, stripped out of our shoes and pants, leaving them on the railing in the back, and headed inside that way. If Charles hadn’t come, maybe we could have used the outside shower, gotten naked out there and fucked each other. Instead, we took one inside. It wasn’t until afterward, when we were both clean and drying off that I said, “I know you didn’t plan this. I don’t wanna overstay my welcome. Should I head home this weekend?”
He paused, naked, towel slung over his hair, which he was drying. “I’m supposed to want you to go, but I don’t. My weekends with you are my favorite time, don’t you know?” He returned the words I’d said to him earlier, and I knew right then, from the way my heart tried to break through my chest, the fullness I had there that I’d never experienced, the way I felt like I fit when I never had before, that I was in love with Emerson Fox and always would be.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Emerson
My past and my present were colliding, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
After our shower, I’d thrown the enchiladas in the oven for dinner. We visited until they were done, then ate, not talking about anything important. Charles was as charming as always. He had that it factor about him that attracted everyone to him. He made everyone feel as if they were special and the center of attention. He was doing it now with Sam and had been all evening—talking to him, asking him questions, getting to know him—because it was clear Sam was important to me, and that meant something to Charles.
Charles was sincere, not just with Sam, but with everyone he met. Where I’d been good at playing that game, at schmoozing people to get what I wanted in business, Charles was simply interested in Sam. He liked talking to people and learning about them.
I’d been with Charles the night I’d met Daniel. It had actually been Charles whom Daniel approached, flirting with and asking, “So, are you going to buy me a drink?”
We had never been sure exactly how it happened, but it hadn’t taken long after Daniel joined us for his attention to shift from Charles to me. I’d tried to ignore it at first because I hadn’t wanted to move in on my friend’s hookup for the night, but for whatever reason, Daniel and I had clicked, and before I knew it, Charles was sneakingly texting me that Daniel was all mine and there were no hard feelings.
We’d thought it would just be a fuck, but one had led to two, then three, our hookups turning into all night, both of us saying we didn’t want more and that it was just fun. Then suddenly we were together. That was something else I couldn’t say how it happened, but it had, and I’d been okay with it because Daniel and I had fun together and wanted the same things.
Until we didn’t.
Christ, being around Charles tonight was making me think of Daniel. Charles was so tied to that time in my life, it was hard to be around him. That was another thing I hated myself for because Charles was a good man. He’d been the best friend to me, both before and after Daniel. He’d never doubted me, not for one second, and I knew there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for me.