“They also fuck. Shut the door and get lost.”
He put the BMW in reverse as I slammed the door, then peeled off seconds later. I raced to the passenger side of Cal’s truck, thankful the door was unlocked, and jumped in before the mist could soak me all the way through.
“Cold?” Cal asked, even as he started his truck and turned the heater on.
I shivered when the warm air hit me and chuckled. “Yeah, a bit.” We sat in silence as the truck cabin filled with coziness, and then I added, “Next time you want to meet somewhere, make sure it can be found on Google Maps.”
“My bad.” He scanned the lake in front of us. The dark surface was near glass-like. With fall came earlier sunsets, but the cloud cover retired the light even earlier today. “Guess I forgot it’s not well-known by everyone.”
Silence settled in, but when the truck was well past toasty, he shut it off, and we turned to each other, speaking at the same time.
“What are we—”
“Did you wanna—”
We stopped and snickered.
“Is it too weird if we aren’t fighting?” he asked.
“Tooweird? No, but it’s weird.”
More silence. I wouldn’t call it uncomfortable.
“Are you just messin’ with me?” Cal finally asked.
If he could find his balls, I needed to as well.
“No.” Though I might have wanted it to be that, it never had been. I sighed and laid my head on the seat back. “No, that’s not at all what I’m doing.”
“You like me?”
I grinned but didn’t face him. “Why? You like me?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I do. I don’t want to fight anymore, not for real anyway.”
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to tell him I liked him too. That I didn’t want to fight him as enemies anymore either. Even though he’d just said those very words and made it sound so simple, so easy, I couldn’t make myself cooperate and say it to him.
“I come here a lot,” he said when I didn’t reciprocate his confession. “That pier looks half-rotten, and, well, it might be, but it works. No one comes out here much, and for sure not this time of year, so it’s a spot I like.”
“It’s peaceful.” On a bright day, the colorful fall leaves against the mirrored water probably made this place picture-perfect.
“Yeah.” Cal slid his fingers along mine where they dangled over a cup holder. The gesture wasn’t grand, but my dick perked right up. “But it is with you too. I don’t know what you do to me, but you do it.” He fidgeted, then turned a weighted stare on the side of my face. I kept my own glued to the lake, hoping he’d keep talking. “I’ve had some rough stuff going on, and around you, all of it quiets. Even when we were at each other’s throats, I could finally think.”
I faced him then, and the grin that split my face was only contained by my teeth sinking into my bottom lip. “You’re a romantic.”
He snickered, and his cheeks flushed pink. “Shut up,” he mumbled.
“I’m serious.” I leaned into his space, hoping he’d meet me part of the way. “Everyone said you were a nice guy, and I didn’t want to see it. Now, you’re blinding me with the light inside you. I didn’t want it to happen. But what’d you do? You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?”
“What did I do?” Cal smiled and straightened, putting himself closer without seeming to realize.
A breathless laugh snuck out before I licked my lips, eager to taste him again. “That you don’t even know makes you even sexier.”
Fuck the ninety/ten rule. I closed the distance and brushed his lips with mine. I’d been wanting this since we fled that tiny bed Saturday night. His skin was cool, or maybe mine wasburning. His hesitation, a sort of shyness, was contrary to what we normally shared and threw me off.
I pulled away half an inch, far enough to talk, but close enough I could pretend he was my entire world. “I like you too, Cal, and it pissed me off. I tried so hard not to, but you made me like you, that’s what you did, and I punished you for it.”
“Jack,” he whispered, then gripped my upper arms. For one heartbeat, I thought he might push me away. I didn’t know where his head was, and old fears still haunted mine.
