Wait. What?
“Hanlon, no. No, you don’t?—”
“Don’t what, Stone? Understand that you’re a homophobic piece of shit? You already warned me off Logan. And while he’s not my type, some harmless flirting isn’t enough to make me uncomfortable, but apparently, it’s enough for you.”
He grabs his jacket as I grab his wrist.
“Please don’t leave. I’m sorry, okay? I just wasn’t expecting that. Can I just have a second to process?” My entire hand burns with the heat of a thousand suns where I’m touching the skin at his wrist.
The hatred and fury in his eyes should be making me wilt, but those damn glasses soften the glare and have me entranced.
“Please don’t drive right now. You’re pissed, and those roads are dangerous under the best circumstances,” I tell him, shifting to protector mode because it’s a familiar role where he’s concerned.
But it’s the wrong thing to say.
Hanlon explodes, the shrapnel of his ire raining down on me, piercing my heart.
“I don’t fucking need you to protect me anymore, Stone! Give up the concerned big brother act! We both know younever wanted that role in the first place! You haven’t been a part of my life in a long time, and I’ve done just fine without you. We have eight weeks left, and then we can go back to the way things were before.”
He storms out the door, leaving me with one thought:No, Han, I don’t think we can.
It’smidnight when the front door opens. I jump off the couch like I’m the fucking welcoming committee.
Hanlon shrugs out of his jacket and hangs it on a peg by the front door.
I like the way it looks there, hanging next to mine.
His silky waves are a mess, like he was running his hands through them…or maybe it was Micah.
The thought of someone’s hands on Hanlon makes me dizzy.
He startles when he sees me.
“Jesus, Stone. Why are you sitting in the dark?” he snaps.
“I’m not sure,” I answer honestly. “I went to bed, but couldn’t sleep, and when I came back out, I just sort of sat on the couch and stared at the fire.”
My logs are tied to the thermostat, and watching them cut on and off over the last several hours was about all I could manage.
“Okay, well, goodnight, I guess,” Hanlon says, shutting me down as he moves toward the stairs.
“Han, wait.”
My heart rate spikes because I know there’s only one way to make this right with him. There’s only one way to prove that my reaction to his news wasn’t due to homophobia.
I have to tell him the truth,mytruth, the way he told me his.
He pauses his movement on the stairs, which is good. It tells me he’s willing to listen.
So, I really have to make sure I don’t fuck this up.
“Can you…will you come sit for a minute? I need to talk to you.” I’m suddenly freezing despite the heat from the logs and the temperature being the same it’s been all day.
“I’m really not in the mood for a lecture, Stone. I’ll be out of your hair by tomorrow afternoon.”
“What? No, I don’t want you to go. And it’s not a lecture.Please.Just talk to me.”
Blowing out a resigned breath, Hanlon takes a seat on the couch as far away from me as possible and looks at me expectantly.
