“You are on time down to the second, and I do not have shoes on,” Charlie said, brushing a wet strand of hair away from his face.
Scott couldn’t stop staring at him. He wasadorableright now, in a way Scott had never seen before. This was clearly not the way Charlie presented himself to most of the world. Not with wet hair and no shoes.
Obviously, Scott had managed to get past a wall. That felt like a huge achievement, like he was someone special.
“I can wait,” Scott said.
Charlie rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “You can come inside. Or you can drag me out in my socks,” he said. Scott looked down automatically, and Charlie wriggled his toes again.
A bubble of joy was growing in Scott’s chest, uncomplicated happiness at being around a comfortable, relaxed Charlie.
Scott slipped past him, into the hallway. “These are for you, by the way,” he handed over the multi-colored bouquet he’d picked up on advice from the florist, who said he knew Charlie.
Of course he did. Charlie knew every gay man in town, and the florist was definitely gay.
Scott was learning to spot that, now. He felt like an idiot for being so slow before, especially with Charlie.
He was starting to think that maybe he’d been slow because he’d been afraid of being attracted to him. It wasn’t the worst explanation.
Charlie’s face lit up as Scott offered him the flowers, taking them with both hands and holding them close to his chest. “I thought maybe they were for my mom,” he said, but he didn’t sound disappointed at all.
“I’m sure your mom is super nice, but I’m here for you,” Scott said. “I don’t know if I’msupposedto give you flowers, but I figured it couldn’t hurt, right?”
“No one’s ever given me flowers before,” Charlie murmured, staring between Scott and the bouquet in his hands. “I… need to put them in a vase, I think.”
Scott breathed a sigh of relief. He’d done the right thing, even if it was weird. Charlie liked it. That was all that mattered.
He didn’t need to do the normal things that guys liked. He needed to do the things that Charlie liked.
“How did you know I liked these?” Charlie asked as he walked into the kitchen, setting the flowers on the counter carefully and searching through the cupboards. Presumably, for a vase.
He clearly didn’t get them often if he had to go hunting for something to put them in.
“Totally cheated, asked the florist.”
“Lexi?” Charlie asked, looking up from the cupboard he had his head in. He extracted what could only be described as a milkshake glass, looked between it and the flowers, pursed his lips thoughtfully, and then put it on the counter.
It wasn’t a vase, but it would probably work.
“Uh, yeah. I think so. Is he an ex?”
“He’s my cousin.” Charlie smiled wryly. “I mentioned them to him when he did the flowers for Owen’s wedding. Uh. Owen’s second wedding. We were still in school for the first one. He’s actually a year older than me, but when we were little, people thought we were twins sometimes.”
Scott wouldn’t have saidtwins, but now that Charlie had mentioned it, he could see a family resemblance between them.
He was starting to think Charlie was related to half the town, which might have explained why he didn’t already have a boyfriend.
“That makes more sense. I was a little afraid that if he was your ex he’d give me something you were allergic to or hated or something, but I didn’t have anything else to go on.”
Apparently they were Allium, which meant nothing to Scott at all beyond being the name of a flower Charlie liked.
“You worry too much,” Charlie said, filling the glass he’d gotten out with water and arranging the flowers in it gently. “I like these because they remind me of dandelions, but prettier. Did you ever make wishes on dandelions as a kid?”
“Yeah, but I could never get all the seeds to blow off in one breath,” Scott said. “Unlucky, I guess.”
Charlie walked around the counter, stopping in front of Scott. He took both of Scott’s hands, squeezing them once, and then leaning in close to kiss him. It was just a quick kiss, a brief brush of Charlie’s lips against his own, but it left Scott blushing.
He could feel himself falling for Charlie, and he wasn’t inclined to do anything to stop it.
