Until you.
His cheeks reddened.
“So we’ll both turn the movie on at the same time,” he explained, “and we’ll listen to one of our earphones. And since you’re a giant, this might wind up with me having my head on your shoulder.”
“There are worse fates I could fall prey to.”
After we took off and the screens unlocked, we searched through the options together. I hadn’t realized what a tug-of-war picking a movie would be.
“That looks a little heavy, don’t you think?” I asked as he indicated yet another more serious option. “Don’t you feel like we’ve had enough drama in our lives the past few days? I would prefer a comedy.”
“Yes, well, when you suggest something other than the most over-the-top Melissa McCarthy slapstick fest, we’ll talk.”
“I love Melissa McCarthy!”
“And I love Helen Mirren, but you’re not letting me watch her right now, so this is how it’s gonna go down.”
I couldn’t help but enjoy a snicker at how serious we were getting over movie selections. “I’ve never had to duke it out with someone over something so stupid.”
“It’s fun to fight over silly things.”
“It’s fun fighting with you about anything.”
Ty rolled his eyes. “Okay, that’s a bit much. But come on, we can work this out. I can do slightly over-the-top à la Sandra Bullock inMiss Congeniality. I can’t do Sandra Bullock à laAll About Steve.”
“Do you feel like you just offered a good description of what you want to watch?”
“Yes, that was a great description! Layman’s terms: I can do somewhat over-the-top, but don’t get so ridiculous that it doesn’t even make sense. I’m a little mature for that.”
“I’m pretty damn immature, so the stupider the better.”
“Oh,Clark, what am I going to do with you?” He winked, obviously enjoying the name on my new passport.
“That’s Mr. Gentry to you, Frazer. Mind if I call you Blake?”
Ty had thought of the name, after the memory I’d shared with him, and I was honored he’d taken it. Something about it warmed my heart.
We continued perusing the movie selection before settling onOcean’s 8.
Ty lifted the divider between our seats, and I tensed up, instinctively looking at him as though he’d tried to punch me.
“What? It’s just going to be easier to watch the movie together like this.”
I winced. “I feel like you have an ulterior motive, which you’re lucky I don’t disagree with.”
“No cuddling. That’s a no-no still, right?” he asked. “No rules against me getting as close to you as possible otherwise.”
“Okay, but if you try to put your arm around me, the armrest goes back down.”
“Please, like I could get my arm around you when you can hardly fit in that little space.”
As we set up the movie on both our screens, timing it out as we shared earphones, there was something so fun about such a simple moment. Ty made it easy to forget the seriousness of the situation we found ourselves in. We weren’t two men on our way to take out a crime boss who had placed a hit on me and put both our lives at risk. We were two guys relaxing and enjoying one another’s company. Even squished in the seat, unable to find a position that made my legs comfortable, as long as I was with Ty, that was the only thing that mattered.
* * *
We pulledup in our SUV rental at the place Mick had secured for us before leaving Illinois.
“Not exactly a find on Airbnb, is it?” Ty asked as he checked out the two-story warehouse before us. Just a few miles outside of Austin, it would give us a base to work out of while we figured out how we were going to arrest Ivan Blackmore Jr.
