Connor shrugged. “I don’t really care. Maybe a small Europeancountry that no one even realized still had a monarchy.”
Max chuckled. “So this is definitely gonna benefit you, right?”
“Right, yeah. Even just the exposure might help. And then I canmove on from this place, cute as it is.”
“Okay,” Max said. “Send it.”
Connor grinned, turning his laptop back toward Max before hittingthe big red button markedEnter.
The page reloaded, andThank you for your entry!came up onthe screen.
Max sat back, breathing a sigh of relief. “Now we wait?” he asked.
“Now we wait,” Connor confirmed.
Chapter Seven
Connor panted for breath as he reached the bookstore, pausingoutside for a moment to pull himself together.
He looked down at the letter in his hand, heart pounding, lungsready to burst, and smiled.
Max would besoexcited.
Once he more or less had his breathing under control, Connor wentinside and stood behind another customer in line. He shifted his weight fromfoot to foot, unable to force himself to stay still. He was too excited to stayin one spot for long.
The woman in front of him seemed to take hours to order hercoffee, but once she had it in her hand and was walking away, Connor steppedforward, grinning broadly at Max.
“Just a coffee, right?” Max said.
Connor shook his head, and then handed the envelope over.
He watched Max read the front of it--their names, and the returnaddress--and gripped the edge of the counter when Max’s eyes widened.
“Is this…?” Max looked up at him.
Connor bit his lip to stop himself from squealing with excitement,nodding eagerly.
Max took the letter out of the open envelope in trembling hands.Connor watched his eyes move back and forth as he skimmed the letter, wideningas he got to the good part.
“We got in,” he said softly, looking up at Connor. “Right? Thisisn’t, like… a joke, or…?”
“This is real,” Connor confirmed. “We got in.”
Max put the letter down and moved around the counter at lightningspeed, wrapping his arms around Connor before he knew what was happening.
Then, Max lifted him clean off the floor, twirled him around, andfinally put him down.
Connor had suspected Max would have no trouble lifting him, andnow he knew that was true.
“Wegot in,” Max said.
The room was still spinning a little for Connor, but he couldn’thelp grinning at that. Max sounded so happy.
It was nice to see him happy.
Despite knowing now that Max was straight, his hopeless crushhadn’t gone anywhere. If anything, it’d gotten worse to spite him.
He couldn’t afford to let Max know that he had a thing forhim--especially now, when they had a chance to change both their lives andConnor couldn’t afford to screw his up again--but it didn’t look like he wasabout to get over it anytime soon.
