Thank goodness Milo had the pillow, his face was probably bright red and he was dumbfounded.A crush? On me?“You panicked?” he finally replied.
“I’ve waitedyearsfor you to finish your PhDs and work someplace where I could join you. I had finally let you in on my secret plan and I was blowing it! You were the missing piece, just like I had predicted, but I regress and turn into a bumbling Neanderthal when you touch me.”
That didn’t make sense and Milo had so many questions. The pillow was tossed aside and he sat up. “What are you talking about? You’re fine! Why did you wait for me and why would you think I was the missing piece?” It had been flattering to know that Elio thought of Milo as an equal and had so much faith in his abilities, butwhy? They barely knew each other before Elio came to Starlight. “I couldn’t have made that much of an impression in Austria. It definitely wasn’t my dancing,” he mused out loud and Elio laughed.
“No. You’re a terrible dancer! But you were onlyeighteenand your idea about spaghettifying stars and accretion discs made me take a closer look at how particles stretch when sucked into a black hole and how measuring the rate of spaghettification could teach us abouttimeinside a black hole.”
“I remember most of that…” Milo said, shaking his head slowly. “I thought you ran away because I acted like an idiot. It was the first time I’d ever tried alcoholandmy first waltz.”
“See?” Elio grinned back at Milo. “Not your best night but you still managed to blow my mind. I ‘ran away’ so I could write out the epiphany you had handed me before I forgot any of it. How often do you have an encounter like that with a fellow scientist?” he asked but didn’t wait for Milo to answer. “Never! It never happened to me until we met at Schönbühel and it never happened again until we shared a lift and had that chat about my paper on the Hubble tension crisis and gaseous astrophysicists.”
“That is pretty rare,” Milo confirmed and swallowed a snort when he remembered Elio’s fart joke. “Why is it the end of the world if you get distracted? I think you’re supposed to be when you have a crush on someone,” he said, suddenly fascinated by the stitching on his quilt. Fin had made it from old flannels and it had appliquéd denim and corduroy planets on it.
“I should be better than my brothers!” Elio complained with a petulant scowl, then winced and lowered his voice. “I feel like I’m choosing you over them when I’m distracted.”
Milo’s head drew back and he frowned. “Them?” he asked and Elio answered with a sad smile.
“My parents and my brothers. I can’t tell my brothers because they’d think I had cracked, but I’m doing it for them too, so we can all be together again.”
“Oh, no!” Milo shook his head. “I would never want you to choose and I don’t think you have to. Crushes don’t last forever, right?”
“This one feels like it could,” Elio said with feigned seriousness, leaning towards Milo conspiratorially. “You didn’t laugh or run away when you saw what I was working on and that’s when I knew I was in trouble. I wanted to burn the world down for you when you said you’d help me and it had nothing to do with solving time and finding my parents.”
“Really?” Milo said hesitantly and squeezed an eye shut. “Because I thought about running and Iwanted to. But that was whenIrealized I cared about you more than my reputation or the rest of the world.”
“Milo?”
“Yes?” he asked, his heart pounding faster when he found Elio staring at his lips again.
“I’d like to kiss you—for ‘real’ this time—if that’s alright.”
Milo nodded, unable to speak or breathe as Elio tipped back his chin and their lips brushed. But instead of pressing or pecking, Elio’s tongue slid between Milo’s lips and swirled. There was a delighted growl as Elio angled his head and took the kiss deeper, winding his arms around Milo as they fell back on the bed. His tongue tangled with Milo’s, seeking and starving as his hands gripped and kneaded possessively.
The bedroom door burst open and they froze, dazed and disoriented when Luna charged in with a badminton racket. “I’m here, Milo!”
“Sorry!” Riley shouted as he grabbed the wrist with the racket and spun her. “Won’t happen again!” he promised and pulled the door closed behind him.
“I think they were kissing!” they heard Luna exclaim, launching Elio into a fit of laughter.
“Sorry about that. She can be a bit overprotective,” Milo said but Elio shook his head quickly.
“No! She’s perfect,” he wheezed as he wiped his eyes. “I was cursed with three brothers but I would want a little sister just like Luna. Want to trade?”
Milo shook his head, grinning up at Elio. “Not for anything in the universe. She’s pretty awesome.”
“Your family is pretty awesome,” Elio corrected. “It’s one of the first things I noticed about you before you dazzled me with your intellect. You’re very loyal to your family and your sister and you’re deeply loved. That makes more sense to me and matters more than how a person looks or dresses.”
“You don’t think I’m weird because I still live at home and don’t want to move out?” Milo asked cautiously. “The Mean Guys make fun of me for living with my parents.”
Elio’s brow hitched. “The Mean Guys?”
“Brad, Bryan, Chad, Josh, Kyle, and Tyler. That’s what I call them.”
“It fits.” Elio nodded. “I like it but they’re just jealous because their parents probably don’t like them and wouldn’t want them around. Your family is real and supports you in every way, whereas theirs are most likely broken and dysfunctional. Don’t listen to the Mean Guys.”
“I won’t,” Milo said and pulled Elio closer, hungry for another kiss. “You’re way cooler than they are and you don’t think I’m a loser.”
“The very opposite and that gives me an idea,” Elio murmured and smiled as he stared over Milo’s shoulder.
