“You can stay,” Spencer said over his shoulder, coming alongside Collin and pushing the tree back into a standing position. “This will only take a second.”
“No, I’m good. I should…” Andy didn’t know what he should do, but much like before, it had to be something. He let himself out and watched the way the three men inside circled each other with whispers and gentle touches, and Andy ached for that. He may not have Leonidas forever, but as much as he hated to admit it, he had this moment, and so he would make the best of it.
22
Leonidas
When Leonidas madeit back to the lodge to pack up, Andy was waiting for him. He leaned against the door to Leonidas’s room, looking freshly showered and well-dressed, but his eyes flashed with a trepidation that Leonidas hadn’t seen before. Something in his chest flared, and it felt like a deep arousal tangled with the need he still hadn’t been able to explain. His legs itched to bend at the knee, so he forced himself to stop just short of Andy, and he shoved his hands into his pockets.
“Hey,” Andy said, his voice cracking on the single syllable.
“Hi.”
It somehow seemed normal for them to greet each other, but it was too much and not enough for everything that existed between them.
“How was your day?”
His day had been…nice.
After getting the keys from Greyson, he’d met Ronan and Theo, and Parker…That had been interesting, but like all small towns and quaint places, Leonidas saw the appeal to the people who lived there.
“It was good. I met some locals?” He asked, because he assumed the people he’d met had been local, but they might have been new. Would the people of Cherry Creek consider transplants to be local? Or would they always be seen as interlopers?
“Who?”
“Greyson, and Theo, and Ronan and Parker.”
“Theo.” Andy frowned.
“Do you know him?”
“I do. He’s involved with one of my brothers.”
Leonidas relaxed and softened. “I know. He seems really nice, overly friendly maybe.”
Andy snorted and pushed off the door, making room for Leonidas to come closer and unlock it, which he did.
“Did you want to come in?” Leonidas asked, tossing his key onto the table in front of the window.
“Yes,” Andy answered, letting out a trembling breath. “I really do, but that’s not why I came here.”
“Oh?” Leonidas arched a brow, and the earlier feeling of a delicious blooming growth began to wilt, constricting around his ribs and his lungs. Andy looked nervous, with knit brows and wrinkles near the corners of his eyes. Leonidas knew that look well because he was normally the one wearing it.
“Yeah. Uhm, I wanted to ask you on a date.”
Leonidas barked out a sharp laugh, and his hand flew up, covering his mouth to stop a follow up from leaking into the quiet around them.
“You’re right.” Andy stepped backward and pulled his beanie off. Leonidas’s beanie, rather, and he balled it up in his fist. “It was a ridiculous idea.”
“What?” Leonidas cleared his throat, and Andy’s hand circled the door knob. “No. Stop.”
Andy twisted the knob and the humid evening air rushed into the room.
“Andy, stop,” he said again, taking a step closer.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Andy muttered, hesitating, but not quite stopping his departure.
Leonidas fought a flare of panic.
