Taylor moved closer to the grill, inspecting the spread. “Holy shit, E. That’s a lot of meat.”
Bell smirked and dropped into a chair, stretching his long legs out in front of him. “That’s what?—”
“Don’t,” Ethan said, fighting a smirk of his own.
“When you said Ethan got a lamb,” Taylor said, turning to address Bell, “I thought you meant like, a leg or something. I didn't think you meant the whole damn animal.” He tipped his bottle back and took a swig of his beer.
Two butterflied legs took up most of one side of the grill, while what had to be a dozen sausages sizzled on the other.
“Butcher had a special,” Ethan explained, picking up his tongs and flipping one of the legs. “Buy one, get one free. Seemed stupid not to take advantage.”
Bell laughed. “What he means is, he got excited and bought way too much, and now we’re going to have to eat lamb for a month.”
Ethan pointed his tongs at his husband. “Hey, I froze some.”
“Just like you froze all of that venison your brother gave us last year that we still haven’t gone through.”
Ethan shook his head, fighting a smile as he turned back to the grill.
I glanced at Taylor, and we shared a look of mutual amusement.
The way Ethan deflected Bell’s teasing without heat and how Bell’s grin said he knew exactly how far to push reminded meof how Taylor and I used to be. We’d had glimpses of that old dynamic this past week, but we were still finding our footing. Still learning who we’d become in the decade we’d spent apart, trying to reconcile the boys we’d been with the men we were now.
“Grab a seat.” Ethan gestured toward the table with his beer. “This needs another ten minutes.”
Bell patted the chair next to him. “Come sit by me so I can get all the gossip about T.”
I took the indicated chair, and Taylor settled into the one on my other side, his knee pressing against mine under the table.
Ethan stayed at the grill, but he’d angled himself so that he was facing us.
“There’s not much to tell,” Taylor told Bell. “I was pretty boring in college.”
Bell’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, come on! You were a D-1 hockey player. None of us was boring.”
Taylor chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t know what to tell you, man. I played hockey and went to class. That’s about it.”
“No wild parties?” He looked my way, hoping I’d contradict Taylor's version of events.
“We went to parties,” I told him. “They just weren’t particularly gossip-worthy.” The parties themselves weren’t all that notable. It was what we didlaterthat would have made tongues wag if anyone had ever found out.
"Boo. You're boring. I thought for sure you'd have at least one story of some wild hookup."
Taylor’s hand landed on my thigh under the table, squeezed it gently. I turned my head to find him staring at me, and I watched the memory of those nights flicker across his face.
He tilted his head toward Bell, his eyebrows raised. It took me a second, but I eventually figured it out when his head twitched a second time toward his teammate.
This was it.
I gave him the tiniest of nods, my stomach dropping.
“Well, there was one hookup,” Taylor said, dragging his gaze away.
If I hadn't been watching Bell for his reaction, I would have missed the quizzical look he shot me before snapping his attention back to Taylor.
“Oh yeah?”
Taylor swallowed and reached for his beer. He stared down at it for a moment, picking at the corner of the label with his thumbnail. “There was this guy, though he wasn’t really a hookup. We were together.” His eyes came back up to meet Bell's. “Actually, I was in love with him, but I never told him. Not properly, anyway. Mostly because I didn't know that's what it was.”
