Trey held out his hands, palms up, a gesture of surrender. “Look, I know I fucked up last week with that guy, and I’m sorry. And I didn’t get your text until this morning because I dropped my phone in the sink last night and the damned thing wouldn’t turn on until it spent all night in dry rice, and then you weren’t answering me, and I panicked.”
“So you drove all the way up here?”
“Yes.”
“In a car by yourself?”
Trey gave a shaky laugh. “I might have parked down the block for about half an hour while I collected my panicking self. I needed to see you. I didn’t want you to think I blew you off last night. I almost pissed myself when I saw you’d reached out, and then I freaked when you ignored me all day, so I called Tyson and got Lincoln’s number, and then I might have groveled a little bit to get him to give me your address.”
Dom blinked. “You groveled? To Lincoln?”
“A little bit, yeah. But isn’t that what you’re supposed to do with your boyfriend’s best friend when you accidentally hurt them? Grovel and make nice?”
Boyfriend. A warmth spread in his chest from such a simple word, and for the fact that it applied to Trey. Trey, who was still standing on the porch like a solicitor, because Dom had forgotten his manners. “Come in, so I stop air-conditioning the entire outdoors.”
Trey glanced around the house that was as familiar to Dom as breathing, probably taking in the wood walls and comfortable furniture. His parents made decent money, but they didn’t flaunt it. His mom always said she had five kids to put through college, so she’d rather invest in them than in expensive furnishings.
“Dom, who was at the door?” Roxy’s voice carried from the around the corner before she turned it. She stared at Trey. “Who are you?”
“Rox, this is my boyfriend Trey Cooper,” Dom said. “Trey, my sister Roxy.”
“Boyfriend?” Roxy put at least three exclamation points in that word. “When did that happen?”
“It’s been happening for a while now.”
Starr came into the foyer, probably to see what the commotion was about. She immediately started snapping her fingers.
“Hey, Starr in the sky,” Dom said. “This is my friend Trey.”
“Nice to meet you, Starr,” Trey said gently. “I love your T-shirt.”
Starr smiled at the floor. “Roxy gave it to me for my birthday. I’m sixteen, two months, and four days.”
“I’m twenty-one and one day.”
Dom startled. He was so busy being a total shit that he forgot about Trey’s twenty-first birthday.
“Twenty-one, huh?” Roxy slung an arm across Trey’s shoulders. “You’re useful to have around. Dom is too upstanding to buy beer for me and my friends.”
“Oh, no.” Trey slipped out of her grasp. “I’m not getting into trouble with Dominic for buying you alcohol.”
She pretended to pout. “Geez, Dom, why did you have to pick a respectable one to date?”
Dom laughed out loud. He wasn’t sure how respectable it was to let a guy fuck you in the backseat of a borrowed car on the first date. Not that he was going to share that particular thought with his sisters.
“The table isn’t set yet,” Starr said. “I’ll set the table.” She turned and headed for the kitchen. After a beat, Roxy followed her.
Dom grabbed Trey’s hand and tugged him upstairs, directly into his bedroom, and then shut the door.
“Dom, I’m sorr?—”
He shut down Trey’s apology with a hard kiss. Trey grabbed the front of his shirt and held on, opening to Dom’s seeking mouth. Needing the taste of Trey back on his tongue, the feel of him in his arms. Needingthis.He held Trey close, feeling the thump of Trey’s heart against his chest, and the warm tickle of breath on his neck.
“I missed you,” Dom said after a moment of silence. “Didn’t realize how much until just now.”
“I missed you like crazy, too.”
He pulled back far enough to see Trey’s green eyes and the raw emotion in them. It woke up the part of Dom that wanted to protect Trey and to make everything all right again. “I’m sorry for how I reacted last week.”
