“Awesome. Perfect. I’ll text you when to meet where, okay? That way you’ll be backstage with us.”
He’d never been backstage at a concert before. “Sounds good.” He had maybe two hours to kill, and that redhead was still eyeing him like a smoothie straw she wanted to suck. “Have fun with your boyfriend.”
“Will do. See you in a while, Van.”
Van hung up, then turned in time to see the redhead plant a big wet kiss on a brawny guy covered in tattoos.
Bummer.
Distracting himself at a resort wasn’t hard, so he wandered a while, inspecting the tourist traps and various t-shirt shops—until he caught himself staring at a royal blue VA Beach t-shirt and wondering how it would look on Joshua. Then he found a place to sit and play with his phone, until Joshua texted him a meet-up time. Van hoofed it three blocks to the venue, arriving hot and a little sweaty from the salty sea air.
Joshua said to go around to the back of the building. The alley was a bit sketchy, but it opened into a clean back lot where Fading Daze was unloading equipment from a van. He immediately zeroed in on Benji, who stood near the back of the van and was bouncing on his tip-toes, smiling from ear to ear. As adorable today as he’d been back in July, with brown hair lightened by the summer sun, and energy that vibrated off him in waves.
Benji was happy and in love, and Van wanted to hate him for that, but he didn’t. Not even a little bit.
Until Joshua walked around from the other side of the van, all long limbs and dark, slicked hair, with the gait of a very satisfied man. The smoldering look he leveled at Benji made Van’s own heart turn over. Goddamn, he wanted someone to look at him like that.
He wanted Joshua to look at him like that.
Stop. That. You can’t have him.
And then Joshuawaslooking at him like that—except the smoldering melted into something softer and friendlier. “There you are,” Joshua said, which got Benji’s attention.
Van met Benji’s eyes and, holy hell, he couldn’t stop a sudden rush of want. Want that made him feel like a total asshole, because hello, both men taken. By each other. Van had set out to make sure the pair got back together, so he needed to chill the fuck out with the feelings.
“Hi,” Van said lamely.
Benji practically skipped the twenty or so feet between them and threw his arms around Van’s shoulders. Van stiffened under the unexpected hug, resisting the urge to pull Benji in tight and inhale his cologne, because those were two very bad ideas. Benji kept the hug brief, though, and then bounced back on the balls of his feet.
“Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for us. I mean it,” Benji said. “You saved our relationship, and I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”
Van tried to shrug off the praise, even while it lit him up inside. “Hey, I got a free concert out of it. Backstage pass to meet the band and everything.”
Benji laughed. “You already know the band.”
“This is true. However, I don’t know the lead singer very well, and I’d like to remedy that.”
“Awesome.” He cast about, probably searching for his other half, who was still lingering by the van. “Listen, Joshua managed to get a room for me and him tonight, which is a miracle at the beach last minute, but if you don’t feel like driving home after the performance, you can totally crash with Danielle and the others. They’re cool with it.”
Do not picture Benji and Joshua fucking. Do not picture that. No.
“I think I’ll play it by ear,” Van replied, proud of his neutral tone of voice.
“Cool. I have to finish getting set up, so I’ll see you backstage.”
“See you there.”
Benji dashed off, his energy kind of infectious, and Van found himself smiling for no good reason. Joshua walked over, hands in his pockets, a bit of a sheepish grin on his face.
“So you bared your soul and it worked out in your favor,” Van said. “Congrats.”
Joshua’s smile wobbled. “It’s scary as fuck, let me tell you. But cheating isn’t genetic, it’s a choice someone makes.” His gaze dropped. He tried to be fast, but Van still caught that Joshua cruised him. “I won’t hurt Benji like that.”
“Good decision. He seems like a terrific guy. I’m a little jealous, actually.”
“That he chose me?”
“And that you chose him.” Van cleared his throat hard, embarrassed by the truth bomb he’d lobbed out there. He didn’t want to guilt Joshua for his decision, but he kind of sucked at holding his tongue. After repressing his true self for so long as a child and a teenager, he’d been bitten by the honesty bug as an adult, and therefore had a very finicky filter.
