“Sure.”
“This morning I woke up in bed with a chick and a hard-on.”
Dominic’s muffled laughter made him grin. “Should I be jealous?”
“Hell no, the wood was all you, hot stuff. And I nearly made good use of it in the shower before Andy fucking flushed the toilet and I got sprayed with cold water.”
“Poor baby.” His voice was audibly lower when he said, “I had wood, too, but couldn’t really do anything about it with four other guys sleeping within twelve inches of me.”
“I’m guessing it’s impolite to jerk off in a shared tent?”
“Pretty impolite, yeah. But I don’t think Joshua and Benji got the message, because I’m pretty sure they were having sex in the wee hours of the morning. I was half asleep, but I distinctly remember moaning.”
Trey’s dick twitched at the sexiness of such a thing—having silent sex while other people slept nearby, no barriers but a sleeping bag.
“To be fair,” Dominic said, “they’ve been apart for weeks. I’m sort of amazed they didn’t spend the whole morning fucking in the van.”
“Sounds stifling.”
“When you’re horny, you’re horny.” Dominic snorted laughter. “Sorry, this guy in the other aisle just gave me the most wide-eyed look. I must be talking too loud.”
“Or he just caught sight of the hotness of you and can’t help it.”
“You never know.” Something leather creaked, as if Dominic was settling into his seat. “I hate that Roxy’s going through this. I want to kill the guy who did this to her.”
“I bet.”
“It’s not easy coming back once your sense of safety has been violated.”
The dark way Dominic said that made Trey’s stomach flip uneasily. The tone spoke to personal experience with that sort of loss—the type that destroyed the kindness of the world and made every stranger a potential threat. He wanted to ask, but over the phone while Dominic was on a train was not the time or place.
If something had happened, then Dominic would tell him about it when he was ready. “She’s going to need her big brother,” Trey said instead. “She’s lucky to have her family.”
“We’re all lucky. We were all chosen by our parents, and we know how lucky we are to be loved by them.”
He couldn’t stop a tiny flare of jealousy over the parent thing. It petered out quickly, though, because Treyhadbeen chosen by someone. He’d been chosen by Bobby and Danielle, and they’d become his family. “How old were you when your parents adopted you?”
“I was still an infant. I’ve only ever known them as my parents.” He could hear the smile in Dominic’s voice. “Believe it or not, I was their first child, and the only one of my siblings who was adopted as a baby. Mom once told me that babies were blessings, but every child, no matter their age, deserves love.”
Trey’s eyes prickled.
“Shit, man, you can tell me to stop when I do that,” Dominic said.
“Do what?”
“Get all emotional about my family. I know it doesn’t make you feel great.”
Trey adored the fact that even while dealing with a personal crisis, Dominic was still in tune with Trey’s feelings. “It’s okay. My parents may not give a shit, but I have family. I have Bobby and Danielle. And Beatrice. And kind of Andy, too.”
“And me.” Dominic made a growly kind of sound. “You’ve got me, too, Trey.”
“I know. Thanks.”
They kept up a steady stream of nonsensical chatter for another thirty minutes, until alcohol and the heat of the day made Trey drowsy. Dominic promised to keep Trey in the loop about his return to the festival, and they said their good-byes. Trey stared at his phone, full of regret over his inability to be with Dominic when he was obviously hurting. Dominic had his family waiting, sure, but Trey wanted to be the one comforting him. Hugging him through the tough times. Being the rock that he needed in order to weather the storm.
And Trey had no idea what the hell to do with those feelings.
FOURTEEN
