His laugh has Oakley doing his best to look put-out.
“Well, we’re all glad you’re home,” Sienna says to her son. “We can get the deed to your house transferred over anytime.”
“I’m buying it back,” Oakley says. “You’re not just giving it to me.”
“Sure,” Sienna agrees. “Now tell us how our favorite grandcow is doing.”
Oakley catches his parents up to speed on Belladonna and her thieving ways, threatening more than once to remove her access to the indoors. He’ll never do it. He may grumble and complain about the cow, but she’s family to him. Just like Wendy.
We end our dinner with peach pie, a few birds singing as the trees cast long shadows over the yard. Even with the lingering scent of the grill on the air, the smell of flowers is strong here, the gardens perfuming the patio where we’re sitting.
Being that it’s summer, no one is in any hurry to get a move on. It’s late by the time Oakley and I leave his parents’ house, the man himself the only one with work in the morning. Since I picked him up, I drop him back off, my mind tumbling over the conversation we had the other day.
Maybe Oakley can sense it, because he doesn’t say goodbye. “Come on. Have a drink with me.”
Nodding, I follow him into the house. Oakley unlocks the back door, giving Bell access before he heads into the kitchen, pouring a finger each of Darling whiskey into two glasses.
“Christ,” I mutter.
He merely chuckles. “I won’t get you drunk.”
“So you say.”
We take seats on the couch, bootless feet propped on the coffee table and the silence stretching for a moment. Emotion clogs my throat as I realize just how much I’ve missed this. Sitting with Oakley. Talking to him like this, in person, where I can see his face and he can see mine. There’s no one else in my life I’ve ever felt as comfortable being open with. Oakley said I’m forthright, and with him, that’s true.
It’s not as easy with everybody else. Not when it comes to the personal thoughts inside my head.
“You wanna start or should I pry it out of you?” Oakley asks.
I take a small sip of my whiskey. “I think… I’d like to get fucked.”
Oakley coughs, jackknifing forward as he thumps his chest. “Jesus.”
“By a man,” I clarify.
“Yeah, I figured as much,” he ekes out, voice tight. “That wasnotwhat I was expecting.”
I give him a minute to get his breathing under control. “Oak… I want you to be the one to do it.”
He jumps up, setting his glass on the coffee table as he rounds the surface, using it like a shield between him and me. His eyes are wide, incredulity written across every line of his face and body. “What?”
“You’re pan,” I point out. “You’ve fucked plenty of people, guys included.”
“Not my best friend,” he says, running his hand roughly through his hair.
I scoot to the edge of the couch, trying to figure out how to make him understand. “There’s no one I trust more than you. I want to try it. It’s something I have to do. I want it to be you, Oak. But if you don’t want to, I’ll find someone else.”
“Jesus,” he says again, spinning away.
“You said you’re here for whatever I need from you,” I remind him.
“I didn’t think you’d ask forsex. My God, Law. Don’t you think that would make things awkward between us?”
“No.”
He turns back to face me, eyebrows high. “No?”
“No,” I repeat. “We jerked off together once.”
