“Did I like men?” Slade said for him.
“Yeah.”
Slade considered his answer for all of a second, then blurted out the truth. “Jennifer’s the one who made me realize I liked men in the first place.”
Evan’s forehead creased. “How’d she do that?”
“She introduced me to my first bisexual encounter.”
“Oh.”
Yeah. That was a good word for it. Jennifer had enlightened him about sex in many,manyways.
“I think once we’re back home and I’ve got shit to keep me busy, I’ll move past it,” Slade told Evan, although if that were true, he would’ve moved on already. He’d been telling himself the same damn thing for the past two months.
Slade had a history of getting attached and latching on for long periods. It had happened with Jennifer and almost happened with one other person after that, and now Atticus. It was a trend. A sickness, if you will. Slade knew it wasn’t healthy to form that sort of obsessive attachment to anyone.
Evan obviously picked up on the fact Slade was done with this conversation because he said, “We’ve got a couple of hours before we leave. You want to do anything before then?”
Drink himself stupid. That was what he wanted to do, but Slade said, “Find a souvenir shop. I wanna get my momma somethin’.”
Evan stood. “Cool. Let’s do that then.”
***
As the plane prepared to touch downin Texas, Evan bolstered the courage to talk to Becs. For the past four hours, he’d sat within hearing distance of her, but she hadn’t said a single word to him. When she wasn’t flipping through pictures she’d taken during her brief sight-seeing tour with Atticus, she was talking to the man. From what he gathered, they’d had fun, and it looked like they’d forged a friendship from the adventure.
Could’ve been you.
That voice in his head had been mocking him with shit like that for the past several hours. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He could’ve offered to take her to see the sights. He probably should’ve. He didn’t. His loss, he knew.
One of the pilots came over the speaker to announce they would be landing soon and to buckle their seat belts. Since it was a private jet, no attendants would be marching up and down the aisle to ensure they were doing as they were told. Even so, everyone clipped their belts. Everyone except Atticus who decided he needed to use the restroom first.
Or at least that was what he appeared to do, but based on the glance he shot Evan, the one that said,Now’s your chance, idiot,his move was intentional.
Taking the cue, Evan got up and switched seats.
Becs was once again looking at pictures, but her head snapped up when she realized he wasn’t Atticus.
“Are you coming to the house to pick up Carly?”
Her eyebrows furled. “Of course.”
Great. And now she thought he was hounding her about her parenting skills.
“You want to grab some food first?”
She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, then shook her head. “No. I’ll have dinner with Carly. I’ve missed her.”
“Understood.”
Evan sat quietly for a minute. Then another. And another until the silence was so thick not even the deafening sound of the plane’s engines could drown it out.
There were a thousand things he wanted to say to her, but he blew it by what came out of his mouth next.
“Would you mind if I got a ride with you to my house?”
Her pretty blue eyes skimmed his face briefly before she plastered on a smile. It was a fake one. Like you give the delivery guy when he brings your order earlier than expected.
