“The expense account is from dad, since he’s the reason I’m out here. But I do okay for myself.”
Blake chuckled. “Well, if I’d known I had arichhusband, I might’ve looked for you sooner.”
“I would’ve left you alone if it was up to me,” Rusty said. “But dad… his lawyer dragged me halfway across the country to tell me to go and sort this out, and it wasn’t a request, either. I guess he’s right, because what if one of us wanted to get married, but… I dunno. I hate to come to you and demand a divorce. I don’t hate you.”
“I don’t hate you, either,” Blake said. “I can sign the papers now. Tell my parents you have a family emergency and have to go home. This was too much to ask of you in the first place.”
Rusty shook his head again. “No. I promised you I’d do this, and I’m a man of my word,” he said. “Besides, I kinda like it here. Your parents seem nice. Your mum’s cooking for me. Could’ve had a worse week.”
“You could have been lying around on a beach somewhere surrounded by beautiful boys in tiny swimsuits. This… isn’t better than that.”
Rusty chuckled. “I guess I could’ve. I took a stripper to a wedding once.”
Blake blinked at him, unsure whether or not he was serious.
“I didn’t have anyone else to go with,” Blake said. “He was available and I didn’t want to do it alone. It was an old mate from high school, someone I hadn’t seen in a while. Figured I’d bring the prettiest man I could find, cause a bit of a stir.”
“So exactly what I’m doing,” Blake said, wishing as soon as the words escaped him that he hadn’t.
Taking it back would only make it worse, though, and Rusty… was easily the prettiest man Blake knew. Definitely the prettiest man who would have agreed to come with him.
“You’re not so bad yourself. Filled out a bit since I last saw you. It’s a good look,” Rusty said, his voice so sincere that Blake wasn’t entirely sure how to process what he was saying.
It was a genuine compliment. He didn’t get a lot of those these days.
Rusty had always been free and easy with compliments. More earnest than Blake would have expected from his permanent smirk and the confident way he held himself.
Rusty was just a nice guy. Genuinely nice, even though he had the looks—and apparently the money—not to bother with niceness. There weren’t so many people like that in the world.
That was what he’d been attracted to in the first place. Rusty had been kind to him. Rusty had showered him with compliments and really listened when he talked.
It had meant a lot to Blake when he was young. Hell, it meant a lot to himnow.
Now that he was seeing Rusty again, he couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like if they’d met under different circumstances. At a time when they could have been together,reallybeen together, not just had a whirlwind vacation romance where they’d gotten caught up in it being Valentine’s season and fallen into lust with each other.
Rusty was the kind of man Blake could have loved, if their lives had been different. It seemed like a shame they’d never gotten the chance to find out.
Not everything was meant to be. That was just life.
“Thanks,” Blake said belatedly. “I haven’t heard anything like that in a while.”
Rusty didn’t need to know that he didn’t get laid a lot, but he’d probably just given that away. It was so nice to be near someone he actuallyliked, someone he could call a friend.
Oversharing was to be expected.
“Well, you’re in for a whole week of it. Perfect husband, remember?”
“I remember,” Blake said. “My parents love you, so past that point I don’t care.”
Rusty reached out and grabbed the bear from the pillow. “What’s his name?” Rusty asked.
“He doesn’t have a name,” Blake lied.
“Yeah he does,” Rusty insisted. “You don’t keep a bear this long without naming it.”
Blake sighed. Rusty wasn’t going to drop it, and he suspected that the only answer he’d be satisfied by was the embarrassing truth.
“He’s called Mr. Doodle,” Blake admitted.
