“Ya think?” I scratch my cheek. “You and I have spent nearly every waking minute together for years, so I really doubt?—”
“But we weren’t fucking around then, Rob! There’s been a disturbance in the force, and Winsomefeels it. Trust me, if you’d been at Watchfire just now, you’d agree.”
I rub my lips together. Ames is the most levelheaded person I know… usually. I probably shouldn’t be so amused that he’s upside down over this, but I am.
I’m also a little… okay, a lot… turned on by his reference to us fucking around. My sexual attraction to him is like a fire hose that’s been cranked fully on.
“Which is why tonight we needrules,” he goes on, turning in his seat to face me. He’s using the authoritative voice he gets when he’s freaking out and trying not to show it. “Very firm, unbreakable rules.”
“Rules.” I nod, trying to hide my stupid-for-him grin. “Sure.”
“My family can’t know about… anything, Robbie. If they find out you and I are… they’ll turn it into a wholething. They’ll think we’re together.”
“And that would be bad, why? I love them. They love me. They’d probably be really happy?—”
“Exactly! But we’re not together. We’re enjoying ourselves. We’re seeing how things go. We’re… we’re helping you figure out what you’re into. Right?”
I take a deep breath. I want so much more than that, and he knows it, but I know better than to push Ames when he’s not ready. And I promised him patience.
“Sure.”
“Okay, then. We need to act normal. Just… regular Ames and Robbie. No touching like a couple. No kissing whatsoever. Definitely nothingmorethan kissing.”
“Damn,” I mutter. “Kinda ruins my plan to announce my bisexuality and then eat you out on the kitchen table, but I guess I can restrain myself if you?—”
“Robert!” Ames raises a hand to clutch his nonexistent pearls. “Where did you…?Whendid you…?”
“Learn about eating someone out? Tossing their salad?Rimming them?” I can’t keep the laughter out of my voice. “Oh my god. Are you serious right now?”
“There will be absolutely no salad tossing ordiscussionof salad tossing,” he says firmly. “I mean it.”
I merge onto the main road. “I know you do.”
“And you can’t look at me either,” he says with total seriousness.
I hold a hand up to my face to block him from my view. “Smart thinking. If I walk around like this, no one will suspect anything strange is happening.”
He laughs too, albeit reluctantly, then grabs my handand holds it in both of his against his chest. “Imeantno looking at me the way you’ve been looking at me for the past week. Remember, my family are like bloodhounds. They can smell sex from a mile away. But if we just act normal?—”
I burst out laughing and turn my hand to lace our fingers together. “Ames, chill. We’ll act like we always act. And they’ll see what they’ve always seen. I promise.”
Ames doesn’t look convinced, but he drops it.
The truth is, I’m not worried. Let them figure it out. Let them know.
I’m not hiding how I feel about him. I’m done hiding altogether.
Vivian pullsme into a hug before I’m even through the door. “Robbie, sweetheart! How was it, going back to work?”
“Tiring,” I say honestly. “But good.”
This is true.
I’d been so ready to get back to the station, it hadn’t even occurred to me that the fire at the mill would be riding with me. But on my very first shift back, we’d caught a house fire, and for one sharp, panicked moment as black clouds had rolled out of the upstairs window, I’d remembered Ames running into the smoke ahead of me.
My training had taken over. I did my job. And the “fire” turned out to be a pleather chair smoldering under a curling iron rather than a giant blaze, but it had been a tricky few minutes.
That memory had been fresh in my mind during mydisciplinary hearing for Greene the following day. He’d been incredibly apologetic and begged for a third chance, but I’d stood firm. His behavior had endangered my crew, and he wasn’t ready for the responsibility. Maybe he could come back in a few years after he’d matured a little.
