Sofar. So good.
Heonly prayed the rest of the night was this easy.
??
Should’vesaid no.
Should’vesaid no.
Should’vesaid no.
Thewords continued on a constant loop in Ethan’s head as he sat in Beau’s truck.
Afterthey left Moonshiners, Beau was kind enough to make a pit stop at theconvenience store to pick up a six pack of beer. Now they were heading to thelake, despite the weather and the fact that Ethan’s stomach was churning withnerves. He hated the lake. Absolutely hated it. In fact, he had only been backthere once or twice since the incident with Gavin all those years ago. WhenBeau mentioned where they were headed, Ethan managed to bite his tongue. He’dhave pretty much preferred to go anywhere else.
Thetruck finally slowed as they pulled into a narrow alcove that allowed them topark close to the water without having to get out. Even with the moon shiningbrightly overhead, the black water was barely visible when Beau killed theheadlights.
Itdidn’t take long for the silence to become a heavy weight in the stiflingtruck, so Ethan grabbed one of the beers from the six pack sitting on thecenter console.
“So,what did you want to talk about?” Ethan asked testily once he had satisfied histhirst.
Beaushifted, his back pressing into the driver’s door as he angled himself to lookat Ethan. The man made him nervous. And wasn’t that fucked up. Ethan didn’t donervous. He didn’t give a shit enough to even be nervous. Yet with Beau, hefelt like he had when…
Nofucking way.
Ethanshook off the thought. He wasn’t going back there. He’d already relived part ofthe memory, he damn sure didn’t have it in him to go through more tonight.There wasn’t enough alcohol in the truck to get him to relive all of whathappened that night.
“Beingthe strong silent type ain’t gonna get you many dates, Bennett,” Ethan saidsnidely, downing the rest of his beer.
“Datingisn’t high on my priority list at the moment.”
Well,there was a shocker.
“Whendid you realize you were gay?” Ethan asked suddenly, the question tumbling outof his mouth before he could think better of it.
Beauturned and looked out the front windshield for a moment before answering. “I’veknown for a while.”
“Haveyou dated a guy before?”
“Once.”
Fromthat single word, Ethan got the impression Beau wasn’t looking to expand on hisanswer. Too bad for him. If Beau was insisting on pushing Ethan out of hiscomfort zone, it was only fair he suffer the same way. “When?”
Beaulooked back at him, his intense gaze sending a strange sensation across Ethan’sskin. The man was… the only word he could come up with was… beautiful. Andoddly enough, most people probably wouldn’t think that way when they saw him.
Notonly was he tall, he was tremendously built. Like a football player. And nowthat Ethan thought about it, Beau had always been that way.
Heobviously spent time in the gym. A lot of time if Ethan had to guess. Ethan wasleaner, lacking quite so much bulk, but that was likely due to their bodytypes. He spent several hours a week working out, but only with the equipmenthe kept at the shop. His motive for working out was to be strong, capable ofdefending himself if need be. Never again would he get caught lacking in thatarea.
Betweenworking at the shop, the few hours a week that he dedicated to weight-lifting,and helping to take care of the few horses his parents and Travis had on theranch, Ethan didn’t find much time to do anything more. Nor did he have theenergy. But Beau filled him with an energy that had been lacking for some timeand he didn’t know why that was.
“Backin March,” Beau said and Ethan remembered what he had asked.
“Howmany dates did y’all go on?”
Beaulaughed, the sound callous and lacking any enthusiasm whatsoever.
“One.That’s all I needed.”
