Oscar wasn’t sure that baby alligators counted ascute. Also, they had a Facebook page?
“Do we… have Facebook?” Oscar asked.
“Yeah, you do. Which I guess meansyoudon’t run it,” he said. “I was wondering, ‘cause there hasn’t been a post in months.”
“Ezra,” Oscar said, putting two-and-two together. “He’s, uh. On leave. You ought to meet him when he gets back, Mrs.—Anna,” he corrected sheepishly. “He knows so much more about birds than I do.”
Anna smiled at him, obviously pleased that he was making an effort.
“I’ll get you the password and stuff on Monday,” Oscar promised, sitting back again and putting his feet up in Ryan’s lap.
Hewasstill owed a foot rub, and Anna was clearly into the idea that they made a cute couple. As normal as he’d discovered the Kowalskis were, Oscar hadn’t forgotten that they were important donors. Which meant he needed to keep them happy, which meant not revealing that they’d lied.
Besides, he figured he might as well get the maximum benefit out of this.
Ryan hesitated for a few moments, then took one of Oscar’s feet in both hands and pressed his thumbs hard into the arch.
Oscar bit his lip to stop himself groaning aloud.
This suddenly seemed like a stupid thing to do in public. He got friendly foot rubs all the time, but not…
Not fromRyan, who was excruciatingly hot, and had confessed that he always wanted to try bisexuality just a handful of hours ago. Oscar had no idea what that meant, but the possibilities still made his head spin.
He could have had a lot of fun reducing the buttoned-up, shy accountant who’d turned up on his doorstep to a puddle of need and want and begging. Shy but eager to please was exactly his type, and that description fit Ryan so perfectly it was ridiculous.
Andhe was hot. Oscar could see that under his neatly-ironed clothes he was a big, reasonably solid guy, not quite athletic, but not out of shape, either.
Which was also exactly his type. Masculine without being obsessed with the way he looked.
As it turned out, he was also good with his hands. That seemed like something worth exploring.
“How comeyoudon’t do that forme?” Anna asked her husband playfully, sipping her glass of wine.
“Ryan, man, you’re making me look bad,” Gary joked.
“I lost a bet,” Ryan explained. “I’m just giving what I owe.”
Anna laughed, soft and high, and it was a nice sound. Oscar felt welcome here, despite feeling as though heshouldn’thave.
“I should bet foot rubs,” she said. “Oscar’s a smart man.”
“He is,” Ryan agreed, pressing hard into a sore spot that made Oscar gasp, but feltincredibleas he worked the soreness out of it.
Ryan knew what he was doing, and Oscar hadn’t realized how goddamn sore his feet were until now. No one had done this for him in a while.
Maybe he could find a way to convince Ryan that regularly trading massage services was a good, friendly thing they could do for each other.
Although, considering the way Ryan touching hisfeetwas making him squirm, he wasn’t sure he could handle being touched anywhere else. Definitely not in public.
What the hell didI always wanted to try out being bisexualeven mean?
The thought was killing Oscar. He wished now that he’d asked about it, but Ryan had seemed so awkward saying it that he hadn’t been sure how to react.
At first, he’d thought maybe Ryan was joking, but the more often the words replayed in Oscar’s head, the more sincere it sounded. He wasn’tconfidentin what he was saying, but that… made sense.
Oscar didn’t want to jump to any conclusions—or get his hopes up—but hehadto know what Ryan meant. If for no other reason than that if Ryan was unsure about his sexuality, Oscar felt the need to help him. Listen to him.
A kind of pay-it-forward for the people who’d done that for him when he was unsure and confused. Everyone deserved to have someone to talk to, and Ryan had just moved away from his whole life. He didn’t have anyone else.
