“Yeah, fine,” he said.
“Thank you,” Bobby said. “All I’ve ever wanted to do is keep Fading Daze together and successful, and Benji is a huge part of that.”
“I know. And he loves performing with you guys, so let’s hope this is the right move.” Joshua took his coffee into the bedroom and gently resettled on the bed so he could watch Benji sleep.
The novelty of having Benji in his bed never got old, because it happened less than ten percent of the year. Not to mention the novelty of no parents around. Up until the accident, both he and Benji had lived with their respective parents for convenience’s sake—Benji in his old room, and Joshua in a basement apartment for which he paid a small amount of rent. So there had always been family around them. Then Joshua recoveredat Benji’s folks’, and had been in his own place less than two months before coming to the shore for an extended vacation.
Finally, he and Benji were alone together for a week, even if he had a roommate. Plural whenever Emmett was around, which was most nights. And now Fading Daze had crash-landed there.
Still. Benji. His bed. Asleep.
The mental image of Van asleep in bed next to Benji, hair tousled and expression serene, flashed into Joshua’s mind unbidden. His dick took interest in the fantasy.
Drumsticks, pine cones, hot coffee in your lap . . . Think about something else.
He didn’t want Benji to wake up to his boner and feel any kind of pressure. All he wanted out of this next week was for Benji to relax and have some fun. Everything had been too damned stressful for the past couple of months. They both deserved a break.
Once Joshua’s coffee was gone, he played a bit on his phone, until Benji started waking up close to noon. He rolled and stretched, throwing his arms above his head while he arched his back. Yawned.
“Hey, sleepy head,” Joshua said.
Benji sat up slowly, smiling so tenderly it warmed Joshua’s heart. “Morning. Time is it?”
“Lunchtime. Hungry?”
“Definitely.” He smacked his lips a few times and grimaced. “I need a shower first. After sweating under stage lights, and then driving all night, I feel gross. I probably smell.”
“You smell like you. I loved holding you this morning.”
“It felt great being held again. I missed you.”
“Yeah?” Joshua quirked an eyebrow. “Then come up here and show me.”
Benji leaned in as if going for a kiss, and then smacked a quick one onto his cheek. “After I shower. I have dragon breath, and you smell like coffee. Is there more?”
“I’ll make a fresh pot while you shower.”
“You’re the absolute best.”
Joshua resisted the urge to follow Benji into the bathroom so he could join him in the shower and went to make the promised coffee. The rest of the house was silent, everyone out doing their thing, and that was fine with him. Fewer guilty faces around. Plus privacy. Even if all they only cuddled on the couch and watched movies, it would be perfect.
Benji did his best to keep his nerves from showing during a quiet lunch of frozen pizza and coffee. The food helped wake him up a bit, and that awareness kept reminding him of his one o’clock appointment. The minutes on the microwave clock ticked by with agonizing slowness.
“Any thoughts on what you want to do the rest of the day?” Joshua asked. He had a small bowl of warmed pasta sauce that he dipped his pizza crust in. He always complained that most frozen pizzas were too dry, so he kept extra sauce close by. Such a wonderful, familiar habit.
“I’d hoped to stay in, hang out,” Benji replied. He wiggled his eyebrows. “Maybe fool around, if you want, while we’ve got the house to ourselves.”
“Ifyouwant.”
“I just want to be with you. Doesn’t matter what we do.”
Then again, who knew what would happen if his surprise blew up in his face. He ate the last of his own pizza slice, and then washed it down with the dregs of his coffee. There was morein the pot, but he didn’t want to be too jittery when his guest arrived. It was hard enough to stay in his seat at the kitchen counter, instead of pacing out his anxiety.
He started to clean up their dishes. Two pieces of the pizza were left over, and would probably be someone’s cold breakfast tomorrow. Somebody needed to go shopping and stock up the fridge for all of the extra mouths in the house. He eyeballed the case of beer when he opened the door to stow away the pizza. No, he didn’t need liquid courage for this. If anything, he needed to be completely and totally in his own mind. He knew what he wanted, and he’d find his own inner strength to ask for it.
The doorbell startled him so badly he slammed the fridge door shut, rattling things inside. Joshua quirked an eyebrow, then got up to answer it. Benji followed at a slight distance, heart pounding, palms starting to sweat. He stopped by the corner of the couch. Joshua opened the door, and his easygoing expression melted into shock.
“What are you doing here?” Joshua asked.
