“Business?” Cade shook his head slowly. Aiden needed to be reassured, and Cade could do that. “No. You’re not my business. You’re my pleasure.”
“Whoa,” Aiden said seriously. “Excellent answer. Really. Nice work.”
“Thanks.” Cade smiled and then sat up and scooted off the bed. “I’m going to get cleaned up. I can bring you a washcloth, if you want?”
“No. I’ll come with you. There might not be room in the shower, but I can stand in the bathroom, right?”
“There’s probably room for that,” Cade conceded. “But barely.”
Aiden stood, but he caught Cade’s hand before they’d even startedtheir short trek to the bathroom. He pulled them in close together and then laced his fingers together behind Cade’s neck. “That was pretty incredible,” he said, and his voice was gentle and sincere.
“Yeah,” Cade agreed.
“We need to do a lot more of it.”
“Okay.”
“I thought….” Aiden shook his head and smiled abashedly. “I thought maybe you were a virgin. Before. I mean, wanting to take it slow and everything. But you weren’t. Right?”
“Right,” Cade said. He loosened his fingers from Aiden’s grip and headed for the bathroom. “I’m going to shower, I think. There really isn’t room for two, but I’ll be quick, if you want to go in after me.”
Aiden followed after him. “Okay,” he agreed. Then he said, “It’s not like Iwantedyou to be a virgin. I mean, trust me, I’m pretty happy that you know what you’re doing.”
“Okay,” Cade said. He turned the water on and wished it would get hot faster.
Aiden stood in the bathroom doorway. “I’ve dated quite a few guys. Slept with them. That’s cool, right?”
“It’s fine,” Cade said. It wasn’t like he was in a position to judge. And shifting to Aiden’s past was a little better than talking about his own, so he added, “What happened with them? Why’d you break up?”
Aiden shrugged and leaned against the doorjamb. “I don’t know. Better question might be why we went out in the first place. I mean, most of them were pretty casual. But in high school, Nate was pretty much the only other ‘out’ guy that I knew. We dated ’cause… I mean, I liked him, but there wasn’t really a lot of selection, you know?”
“And Will?” Now that they were on the topic, Cade was a bit curious.
Aiden sighed. “Will,” he said. “Will kind of decidedforme, I think. He figured we should go out, and he hung around all the time and eventually we were going out. You know?”
Cade lifted an eyebrow. “Yeah, Aiden, I think I can see how that might happen.”
It was supposed to be a little bit of teasing, but as soon as he saw the expression on Aiden’s face, Cade knew he’d gone too far.
“Shit,” Aiden said. He took half a step forward, then a full step back. “Shit, Cade. I really… I don’t want that. I don’t want you to feel about me the way I feel about Will.”
Cade licked his lips. He’d caused this pain, and now he needed to make it better, even if it scared him. “Do you feel like Will is the best thing that ever happened to you?” he asked quietly.
Aiden snorted. “Will? No. No, I don’t.”
Cade nodded. “Then you don’t have to worry about me feeling about you the way you feel about Will.”
It took Aiden a while to sort through the syntax, but when he did, his worried face shifted into pure happiness. “Holy shit, Cade, that was, like, the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me. Possibly the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to anyone. It was a bit more convoluted than what might be ideal. Almost sneaky, to be honest.” He squinted at Cade. “It was actuallyquitesneaky. You are sneaky sweet, and I don’t know how I feel about that.”
“Maybe you could focus on the ‘sweet’ part,” Cade suggested.
“Maybe I could.” Aiden stepped closer, then peered over Cade’s shoulder to look at the shower. “Or maybe you could focus on the ‘sneaky’ and figure out a way to sneak me in there with you. I think we could both fit.”
“Well, you’re insane,” Cade replied. It was sad, but true.
But Aiden was behind Cade and he reached forward to lock his hands around Cade’s wrists so their arms matched up, and then he shuffled them forward, pushing his left leg into Cade’s left leg until he took a reluctant step toward the shower, then doing the same with the right leg. Then the left, the right, and finally they were both wedged into the tiny shower stall.
“I can’t turn around to reach the soap,” Cade complained.
