It had only been now, and itcouldonly be now, and he damn well needed to remember that.
“You okay?” Liam asked, shifting himself only halfway off Ben’s body so their legs were still entwined, their torsos still connected.
Again, the word was wrong, so Ben just smiled and let his fingers play through Liam’s hair, now damp with sweatas well as rain. It was only now, so he had to savor it all.
They were quiet for a while, both of them awake, Ben staring at the ceiling, Liam—well. Liam staring at Ben, it seemed. Eventually Liam said, “Do you ever hear from your parents?”
It took Ben a while to shift his train of thought to the new topic. “Sometimes. My dad called a couple years ago—wanted money. My mom’s doing a bit better,I think. She was out in Colorado last I heard.”
“Is it different, now? You’re an adult. You don’t need them anymore, right?”
“I never needed them. If Uncle Calvin hadn’t stepped in, I would have been in trouble, but getting to move in with him? He’s a pain in the ass, but he’s ten times the parent either of them ever was.”
Liam kissed Ben’s shoulder. A simple gesture, not one that should havemade Ben want to cry, or to push himself out of bed and run away.
They were quiet again for a while. Eventually Liam shifted over so he was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling along with Ben, and said, “My parents are getting a divorce.”
On one level it was shocking news. Liam’s parents had always seemed absolutely, placidly content with each other. But Ben hadn’t had any contact withthem for fifteen years, so that was lots of time for things to change. And really, hearing Liam say it made a lot of other things make sense.
Like what the hell Liam had been doing in North Falls over the past couple weeks. “That must be really unsettling,” Ben said carefully. It must have made Liam question a lot of things, trying to track them back and see where they’d gone wrong. Maybe comingto North Falls had been his attempt—or part of his attempt—to understand his parents.
Sex with Ben? Well, a little comfort, a little distraction, falling into an old habit—no need for there to be only one reason for it, obviously.
And no need for Ben to spend too much time reviewing his own motivations either.
“I think it’ll be okay,” Liam said, and it took Ben a moment to realize they werestill talking about Liam’s parents. “I mean, it’s not really my business, is it? And they seem fine with it.”
“That’s good.” Ben probably should have had something more profound to say, but he didn’t.
“Yeah. And there’s—there’s stuff at work that I kind of wanted to talk to you about, but I’m tired, and you have to get up tomorrow morning, and God knows I have to get up tomorrow morning—I needto be back in the city first thing.”
Okay, Ben could do this. He could be practical and helpful, the cool and mature one-night stand. “Do you have an alarm on your phone? You could set it for a few hours from now—enough time for you to have a little snooze, but still good to get back to the city.”
“You don’t mind?”
Ben wondered what would happen if he said yeah, he did mind. Nothing good, hewas sure—not that Liam would be a total jerk, but it would make things awkward. And there was no need for that. “No problem,” he said, and he leaned off the side of the bed and found Liam’s jeans, with his phone in the pocket.
“Thanks,” Liam said as he took the phone. “This—I’m not sure what we just did. I mean, I’m not sure what it means.”
It doesn’t mean anything. It can’t. But Ben just said,“Shhh. You’re thinking too much. Set your alarm and go to sleep.”
And Liam did as he was told, snuggling in against Ben like a tired puppy.
Ben, on the other hand, stayed awake, staring at the damn ceiling, until Liam’s alarm went off and the brief, peaceful daze came to an end. They were both awake now. Both back to reality.
