I don’t feel like I’ve got anything, but I nod anyway. Then I turn and stalk back toward the side path.
If Chance is smart, he’ll have slunk off somewhere to vape or pretend nothing happened. If he’s stupid, he’ll still be in the veggie patch like this is some kind of romantic music video.
I walk faster.
The laughter and chatter from the yard fades behind me. I round the corner into the veggie patch, and there he is. Leaningagainst the fence like he’s in a magazine shoot. Head tipped back, eyes closed, chest rising and falling slowly.
I don’t bother easing into it. “What the fuck are you doing?”
His eyes snap open. “Jesus, D,” he mutters, straightening. “You trying to give me a heart attack?”
“That depends,” I shoot back. “Are you done giving me one?”
He blinks, confusion sliding over his features for half a second—then it clears.
Realization hits.
“Oh,” he says slowly. “You saw.”
I bark out a humorless laugh. “Saw? Chance, I walked in on you kissing my brother against a fence in the fucking veggie garden of my best friend’s home.”
His mouth pulls into a wince. “Right. Yeah. That … sounds bad when you say it like that.”
“There’s no way to say it where it doesn’t sound bad,” I snap. “What the hell are you playing at?”
“I’m not playing,” he says immediately, voice firm.
I step closer, anger boiling over. “Is this some kind of revenge?”
“Revenge?” Chance asks.
“Yeah. Because I chose Charlie over you.”
His jaw tightens. “I would never do that.”
“Wouldn’t you?” I bite out. “Because last time I checked your track record with people’s feelings is not exactly stellar.”
His face flinches at that. A small, wounded twitch. Good. I want him to feel this.
“That’s low,” he says quietly.
“So is sticking your tongue down my brand-new brother’s throat.”
He pushes off the fence, anger sparking in his eyes now. “You don’t get to stand here and tell me what I can and can’t do. Not anymore.”
“Oh, I think I fucking do,” I shoot back. “That is my brother.”
“You’re not blood related,” he bites back.
“Not the fucking point. They are my new family. My family. Something I’ve never had before. And you don’t get to swan in and try to take it away from me.”
Chance’s face falls. “I …” He rubs the back of his neck nervously.
“You’re in the closet, and I’m assuming so is Arran because I had no idea he swung that way.”
“He’s in the closet,” Chance confesses.
“Fuck!” I curse as I start to pace.
