“Well…good,” Declan murmured. He’d been planning on begging and pleading, so hearingthat Ash wasn’t mad—that he was already over it—had taken the wind out of hissails.
“Whatisgoing on in your head?” Ash asked. “You can tell me. You’re my bestfriend.”
Declantook a deep breath. He knew he had to explain himself, but he had no idea whereto start.
“Canwe do this over food?” he asked. “I need to start at the beginning.”
Ash’sstomach growled, making him blush all the way to his hairline. “Apparently wecan,” he said, pulling out a chair to sit down at the table.
Declanopened the pizza box, passing the garlic bread over to Ash.
“Beer?”he asked, figuring they could probably both use one by now.
“I’mnot gonna say no. It’s been a long day.”
“I’msorry,” Declan said, grabbing two bottles from the fridge. Owen, the owner ofthe grocery store, had given him six as a welcome gift when Declan had told himhe wanted to buy his coffee through the store instead of direct from thesupplier.
He’dbeen doing it to save himself freight costs that would have wiped out hisprofits, since he wasn’t going through a whole lot of coffee and it only stayedfresh for so long, but Owen had seemed happy.
Thistown was a nice place. He didn’t want to lose it, either.
Ashwas still more important, but the whole package was something he would haveliked to hang onto.
“You’vealready apologized,” Ash said. “I wasn’t trying to make you feel guilty. I’mjust saying… I’m looking forward to pizza and beer with my best friend.”
Declanpassed a bottle of beer over to Ash and sat down opposite him, some of theweight lifting off his shoulders. They were going to do this like adults.
Theonly hard part now was figuring out what to say.
“Thisis good pizza,” Ash said between bites, his appetite apparently not affected bythe events of the day.
Declanpicked out a slice and took a bite as well, needing a moment to compose histhoughts.
Itwasgood pizza.
“Yousaid you wanted to start at the beginning,” Ash prompted.
“Right,yeah.” Declan took a deep breath, twisting the cap off his beer. “I guess… Iguess the beginning is that when we first came here, I felt… I dunno, kindaweird? About seeing all the gay couples just… holding hands in the street.”
Ashraised an eyebrow, which was about the response Declan was expecting.
“Yeah,I know, I thought I was being a jerk, too,” Declan said. “But then I saw youhugging Charlie, and that was weird, too.”
“You’redigging a hole for yourself,” Ash pointed out.
Declanknew that. He knew the way he’d approached this was dumb as hell, but he couldonly tell Ash what had happened. There was no point in trying to make himselflook better.
“Iknow, but… my point is, I wasn’t mad, or being a dick, or anything. I think. Imean, Ithink, maybe…”
Ashlicked his lips, apparently waiting for Declan to start making some sense.
“Whatif I it’s weird to see because it’s what I want?” He blurted out.
Ashstared at him.
Declan’shead spun, blood rushing in his ears so loudly it was deafening.
Hehadn’t even had that thought until now. It’d just all come together at once,understanding dawning over him like daybreak.
