Silence greets me on the other line before he growls, “Fuck off. Nothing about me is adorable.”
I laugh. “What are you doing?”
“Right now?” he grumbles. “I’m about to hang up on your arse.”
“Come hang out at mine? I feel like it’ll be suspicious if I start hanging out at your place too often.”
My invitation hangs in the air for a moment, and I worry I’m putting too much pressure on him. I mean, my parents and my sister will be there, and I know he said we need to keep this under wraps, but it’s not like I’m asking him to fuck my brains out in my parents’ house. We can just?—
“Yeah, okay. I’ll see you soon.”
“See you soon,” I repeat, my brain still trying to talk myself out of panic mode.
Noah’s coming over to hang out and meet my family. He already met Milly, and she’s a big fan. I only hope Mum and Dad like him, too.
Chapter 24
Noah
Ipull my bike into Zac’s driveway and kill the engine, my heart racing. Before I can chicken out and leave, the front light flickers on, and I look over to see him standing in the doorway.
I’ve never done the ‘meet the parents’ thing. I mean, I met Nathan’s parents, but they didn’t know he was gay, or that we were dating. Zac’s different. His parents know he’s bisexual, and they don’t seem to have a problem with it.
With a heavy sigh, I remove my helmet and run a hand through my hair. No turning back now.
He walks over to meet me as I climb off my bike.
“Hey. I hope you’re hungry. There’s enough food to feed an army.”
When he didn’t text me back straight away after I admitted how I felt about him, I’d been hit with a mini panic attack, and just before he called, I was moments away from locking myself in the bathroom and relieving my anxiety with a razor blade. Seeing him now, the tension in my body leeches out of me. He elicits a sense of calm within me, and I crave it.
I cast a glance around the deserted street beforegripping the back of his neck and pulling him in for a quick kiss that leaves me wanting more.
With a chuckle that warms me to the depths of my soul, he murmurs against my lips, “Behave.”
The teasing lilt to his voice and the dirtiness behind the word is like a bolt of desire straight to my cock, and I groan, reaching down to adjust myself, ignoring the playful gleam in his eyes.
“We’re supposed to be keeping this on the down-low,” he chides. “If you can’t keep your hands off me, we’re in trouble.”
He’s right. I should be pulling away, but instead, I find myself saying, “What does your family know about me? Who do they think I am to you?”
“You’re my teammate.” His brow furrows. “I’m not forcing you to come out. We take this at your pace. I didn’t mean to put pressure on you by inviting you here. My family won’t jump to conclusions over us hanging out.”
I consider his words. We have to hide whatever this is from everyone, but I don’t want Zac lying to his parents because my dad is an arsehole.
“We don’t have to rush anything,” he says, reaching for my hand and squeezing it. “We don’t have to tell anyone anything. You call the shots here. I’ll follow your lead.”
“I don’t want you to lie to your family for me.”
He shakes his head. “It’s new. We don’t have to tell them yet.”
I release a shaky breath. He’s giving me an out, but I want to do this for him. If I can’t be honest with his family, then how the hell am I supposed to find the courage to tell mine?
When I don’t say anything, he squeezes my hand again. “I know you’re scared of your dad finding out, but they won’t say anything if I ask them not to.”
“I don’t know if I can do it.”
“Then we won’t. We’re teammates. It’s no different from Ritter coming over.”
