His lips clamp together before he turns away. Ziggy’s small nod is his only answer, and I vow, silently and to myself, that I am going to make sure he knows how much his friendship means to me. I’m going to care about him so damn hard he won’t know what’s hit him.
But he’s closed himself off to the conversation, so it’s time to move on. Take advantage of his words while I have them.
“Hey, what aboutthisaction for me?” I ask, wrapping my arms tightly around myself. “Because I’m clingy. Get it?”
He immediately rejects the idea.
“I didn’t realize you were so picky about these names.”
“I’m not.”
“Well, you can’t tell me that doesn’t work. It’s like a clingy koala. That’s me. I’m the koala.”
The dry look I get back reminds me so much of Hart.
“Fine, but we’re going to find something. I want a name. I feel left out.”
Something brightens his face, but he keeps it to himself.
“You going to share whatever made you happy just now?”
His expression turns sly, and he still doesn’t say anything.
“Fine. Keep your secrets.” I tuck my hands behind my head and close my eyes against the sun. Our conversation might be over, but his soft voice still consumes me. Our conversation has given my whole self a boost, and I’m in one of those rare moods where I can’t stress or worry about anything when I’m this happy.
I turn his way, but when I open my eyes, he’s not looking at me.
Well, he’s not looking atmy face.
Ziggy’s gaze is running over my body, and either he’s gotten sunburned really quickly, or his face is red from something else. Something else that is slowly making my blood warm as well.
I quickly close my eyes before he realizes he’s been caught because I think I want him to keep looking. I want to give him the freedom to check me out and appreciate me, the same way I was subtly doing to him earlier.
We’re just two men, appreciating the view that Mother Nature has gifted us with.
And I’ve thankfully sworn off dating at the right time.
Making a move on Ziggy would only end in disaster, like every person I’ve tried to date before him, and I have a suspicion that losing my new friend would be worse than any heartbreak I’ve had so far.
We’ll both have to stay content with looking. Friends picture each other naked all the time.
Absolutely nothing wrong with it.
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
ZIGGY
“Ican’t remember the last time I went fishing,” Kennedy says. He’s sitting to my left, holding a fishing rod with one hand and a can of Coke in the other. Every time he reels something in, his elbow skims my elbow, and air keeps getting caught in my throat.
I’m haunted by the image from yesterday of a near naked Kennedy, wet briefs hugging his cock, lazed out on the warm rock like a lizard in the sun. He was soaking up every ray of happiness, like I do when I’m around him.
Like I’m doing right now.
All up and down my body, little sparks and zaps are distracting me from fishing and making me hyperaware of the man beside me.
“Do you do this often?”
