“You do?”
“Of course. To be honest, I always did. Even if we were only friends. You’re a part of me as much as Cannon Beach is.” And now Dennis is the one who’s struggling to blink tears away.
“I want that, too.” I pull him against me and tuck him into my chest. He sighs, my chin resting on his silky hair. “I really want that,” I repeat in case he didn’t hear me the first time. He grabs my T-shirt just above my heart and sniffs a couple of times. I love that we can be vulnerable together like this. That I’m finally being open with him, and he understands me.
After a while, when my heart isn’t trying to beat its way out of my chest, I ease him away, my gaze finding his.
“I want you to be my boyfriend, Den.”
He smiles, carefully at first, until it nearly splits his face in half. “I thought we already were.” He blushes even more now.
I brush my bangs out of my face, then rest my hands on his shoulders. “Oh. I guess it’s just me trailing behind again.”
“Don’t say that. Maybe you just need a little more time than I do.”
“I don’t need any more time.”
“But if you did, that would be okay, too.”
I slide my hands up his neck, my thumbs sweeping along his stubbly jawline. Then, without looking away, my voice as steady as I can make it, I say, “I want you to be mine, Den—my boyfriend. I want to be able to say that you are, if anyone asks me. Is that okay?”
He blinks at me, a few rogue tears clinging to his lashes. Then he eventually whispers, “Are you trying to kill me, Mike Tanner?”
I shake my head. “No,” I say, sweeping my thumb underneath his eye, then the other, brushing away his tears.
“Shit, you are, aren’t you?” He pulls away. I know he doesn’t like being upset, so it doesn’t bother me when he does.
We’re both quiet for a while, his head resting on my shoulder. His hands are still fisted in my shirt, mine wrapped around him, never wanting to let go.
“I nearly told my family this morning,” he eventually says. “Aaron knows for sure.”
“Yeah, he so does.”
“Wes, too.”
“I don’t mind,” I say.
“You sure? You’re the one who would be coming out, not me.”
“I know I am. I don’t mind at all.” And I mean it. I never really considered myself anything in terms of sexuality, so coming out as a man who has a boyfriend doesn’t seem strange to me. On the contrary, it feels right.
He smiles, leaning in, resting his forehead against mine. “Okay.”
“Okay.”
He chuckles, his lips blowing raspberries. “Good talk.”
“The best.”
“Now, can we please make out?”
I laugh against his lips, my chest feeling lighter than it has in a long time. I know Dennis is still looking for a job, and it may be out of town, but I believe him when he says he wants me in his future, and he wouldn’t just up and leave.
I nod, leaning in, capturing his bottom lip between my teeth, and he moans into my mouth. He’s just about to straddle my lap when I hold him off, breaking our kiss.
“Can I…? Can we try something?”
He looks at me, his eyes two pools of brown, his lip puffy and glistening where I bit into it.
