Jay gritted his teeth.
I gestured him out the door, pettily pleased that this meant he needed to turn first, which meant he also had to break our stare first.
This was the sort of person I became when Jay was around: overwhelmingly irritated and childish.
We clomped down the wide staircase side by side, and the heavy tread of Jay’s boots mimicked the heavy beat of my heart. I tried—and failed—not to notice how the air between us crackled or that Jay smelled faintly sweet, like honey and citrus.
I frowned. I didnotwant to notice what he smelled like, damn it.
I’d spent way too many years comparing every potential romantic partner to Jayd fucking Rollins and having them all come up short. One woman might have green eyes, a guy might have a killer smile, occasionally someone would have his sense of humor. No one else had his voice, though, and no one else had ever looked at me like he knew me and liked me better than anybody either.
And no one else had ever fooled me as completely as Jay had because I’d never let them get close enough to try.
Jay pushed open the rec center door, and we stepped into a wall of heat and sunshine.
For the first couple of seconds, the warmth and humidity felt amazing after the chill of the air-conditioning. But like all good shit, that feeling was fleeting, and I quickly had to pull my sunglasses out of my pocket before the brightness seared my retinas.
I folded my arms and planted my feet. “Okay, that’s far enough. What’s this about?”
“It’s about Aimee. Why is she—”
“Ai, Dios! Jay! Jay, is that you? Mijo, como estas?”Lety Irvine yelled from the front door of the Concha, waving broadly.
Jay waved back hesitantly.
I groaned. There was no such thing as privacy in this town, and as much as I didn’t want to have this conversation with Jay, Ireallydidn’t want to have it in front of everyone. I dug my keys out of my pocket and headed left down the sidewalk, toward my truck. “Come on.”
“Uh, hello?” Jay gestured right, toward an Escalade with Florida tags that probably cost him more in daily rental fees than I’d earned in a month doing boat tours for my family business. “My car’s here.”
“My truck isthere.” I pointed to the gleaming silver beauty.
“Your truck doesn’t have my guitar and all my shit in it, and I’m not leaving my possessions parked on the street, waiting to get stolen.” He bleeped his locks open. “I’m driving.”
“Stolen? In the hotbed of crime known as downtown Whispering Key?” I set my hands on my hips. “You haven’t the first fucking idea where you’re going.I’mdriving.”
Jay folded his arms over his chest. “We really gonna whip our dicks out over this, Rafael? I’m pretty sure mine’s bigger.”
Those words, spoken in that goddamn magic voice of his, stopped me in my tracks, and the image they conjured had me eyeing the front of his jeans the way my dad had eyed the fucking appetizer coupons earlier. Hot and cold electric shivers ran down my thighs, and my dick plumped behind my jeans.
Goddamn it. I flat-outrefusedto still be attracted to this guy. I’d pushed down this attraction foryearswhile we were teenagers, and I could do it now, too.
That’s because you thought he was straight then.
But I didn’tknowthat he was gay now either. Not for sure. Tabloid stories weren’t facts. And even if he was gayer than six sparkly rainbows, it didn’t matter. Because now that I knew his true colors, I didn’t want a damn thing to do with him or—I licked my lips and glanced down again, before resolutely looking away—his dick.
I’d spent three years building a giant titanium-and-concrete wall around my heart where he was concerned, too high to scale and too wide to go around. It was not going to crumble.
Not today.
“I’m confident you’re wrong.” I tried to sound bored, but my voice almost cracked and betrayed me, damn it.“And the last time I rode in a car with you, you almost killed us.”
Jay rolled his eyes. “Gimme a break. I was a teenager then! That possum came out of nowhere, and I had to swerve to avoid him—”
“You were almost twenty-four, and that possum was meandering along, minding his business, while you were singing ‘Wild’ at the top of your lungs andemotingall over the place.”
“Fuck you, no one can sing Troye Sivan without emoting!”
“Yeah, butyoucould never emote with your eyes open. You know, like some people can’t walk and chew gum?”
