“It’s not a bad thing,” Wes said. “You’ll get used to it.”
“Not sure I’ve got time to get used to it,” I said, taking a couple of shots. “Pass me that spoon? The brass one.”
My fingers curled around the spoon when Wes held it out, but he didn’t let go for me to take it right away.
“You’re not sticking around?” he asked.
“I…”
The spoon was still in both of our hands, and I obviously wasn’t getting it until I gave a satisfactory answer.
“Mom’s coming back here next week,” I said. “I’m… going back to Seattle.”
Wes let go of the spoon, but his gaze was still fixed on me as I arranged it on the table.
“What about Xander?” he asked.
Right.
What about Xander?
“Because he’s my friend,” Wes said. “And he really likes you.”
Yeah. Yeah, I thought maybe he reallydidlike me.
On the one hand, that was terrifying, because I wasn’t sure anyone had ever really liked me the way Xander did. On the other hand, the thought of it made me feel warm and tingly all over, and I didn’t want it to go away.
“I really like him, too,” I said. “I’m not planning on hurting him.”
Xander would have loved to know that Wes thought of him as a friend. Enough to warn me off hurting him, even.
“Yeah, well, don’t,” Wes said.
“I won’t,” I promised. The last thing I wanted was to hurt Xander. “Hey, uh. Thank you for standing up for him.”
Wes finally smiled at me. “I like him a lot, too,” he said. “Not, uh. Not like you like him, but… he’s a sweetheart. He takes care of tiny little kittens for no reason except that he wants to. He’s…”
“Perfect,” I finished for Wes, looking back at the shot I was setting up. “He’s perfect,” I said again, softer this time.
Wes patted me on the shoulder, squeezing once before dropping his hand away. “He’s got a cute butt, too,” he said.
“Are we talking about me?” Hayden’s asked, stepping out of the kitchen. Wes snorted, stepping up to Hayden and reaching out to wipe a drop of ice cream off his chin, then kissing him softly.
“No,” he said, beaming up at him. “We’re talking about Xander.”
“Oh, well, that’s fair,” Hayden said, ducking down for a second kiss. “He does have a cute butt. It’s the running.” He paused. “Should I take up running?”
“No.” Wes laughed. “I love you and I don’t want you to die.”
Hayden swatted at Wes’s butt, but he was already laughing with him.
They looked so happy it made my chest hurt to watch them. I’d never really seen anything like it before I came to Otter Bay, and now I was surrounded by people who seemed so content with their lives, so comfortable in their own skin.
“How goes the photography?” Hayden asked, slipping away from Wes to come look at my work. “Holy shit,” he said as I showed him the first picture on my phone. “How do youdothat?”
I shrugged. “I’m not doing anything special.”
“Oh no, rule one at Melting, everyone gets credit where credit’s due. You’re good at this. Here, let me show you.”
