Oh yeah. Duh.
“Right,” Trevor said. “But still, it’s nice to meet you, Mr. James.”
“Please, you can call me Ben.”
“I’m Layla,” Layla said. “And I have to admit that, seeing you in person, I understand what Sky was going on about.”
“Hey!” Skyler cried indignantly. “Could you not flirt with my boyfriend?”
“I’m not flirting. It’s the truth.”
Trevor could no longer hold back his grin. He loved them all already.
And then Layla smirked at him, looking so much like Skyler, and said, “So I hear you can teach me all about the best types of waves for surfing.”
He gave Skyler a dirty look, but Skyler just laughed. And Trevor loved him so much.
SKYLER
Skyler couldn’t believe Trevorhad done this for him. Or really, he could, because Trevor was always doing amazing things for him. Trevorwasamazing.
They’d helped his parents get settled in the room Skyler barely used anymore and were waiting for them to get changed. Layla had disappeared, probably already flirting with the other guys.
Trevor gently brushed a wild piece of hair away from Skyler’s eyes. “So I made a reservation for five at your favorite lunch place.” Before Skyler could thank him, he averted his gaze. “But I don’t need to go if you’d rather have the time alone with them.”
He pinched Trevor’s side playfully. “Don’t be silly. There’s nothing I want more than to spend time with you and them together.”
When Trevor smiled, it was as bright as the sun. Skyler wanted to kiss him, but if he started right now, he’d never stop, and they didn’t have time.
At lunch, he couldn’t contain his happiness. He’d missed his family so much, but he also loved the life he had now. And he loved the way his life with Trevor and his life with his family was weaving together seamlessly. He loved how quickly Layla and Trevor became a team, ganging up with their teasing of him.
If he’d developed any delusions of being a star over the last year, leave it to his sister to remind him that he was still the same dorky boy who used to have full-on conversations with dandelions in their backyard before making wishes on them. The boy who tripped over his own feet, and cried at the end ofFrozen, and made Layla play the part of Danny when they performed songs fromGreasein their living room, because he wanted to be Sandy.
Maybe he should have been embarrassed by all these stories, but the fondness in Trevor’s eyes grew with each one, so he wasn’t.
Trevor had plenty of Skyler stories of his own to share now too. Like the time in Detroit when he didn’t realize his microphone was already on while they were waiting backstage for a TV interview, and the whole audience heard him say his jeans were so tight they were making his underwear ride up his ass. Or the time he was walking down the aisle of the moving tour bus when it hit a bump and he wound up sprawled across Christian’s lap. (Wisely, Trevor left out the part about how he’d gotten possessive, dragging Skyler off and all the way to the back of the bus to jerk him off while growling, “Mine,” in his ear.)
When their meals arrived, Trevor casually spooned the extra cinnamon sugar off the top of his sweet potato and deposited it onto Skyler’s without a word. Skyler caught his mom smiling at them, and he beamed with pride. Pride in getting to show off his wonderful boyfriend to his family, and pride in the mature relationship they’d developed.
He’d spent his preteen and teenage years wishing for a boyfriend, but this was so much more than he ever could have imagined. This wasn’t just someone who would take a cute couples’ selfie with him. This was someone who knew his entire morning routine, what brand of deodorant he used. Someone who knew how he took his coffee, who handed him tissues when he had a cold rather than staying away.
And he knew all of this about Trevor too, did the same things for him. He was only eighteen, yes, but this was real.
He could see him and Trevor as his parents twenty-five years from now. Still in love, sharing their own house, raising kids, balancing work and family. All the simple domesticities of it. He was sure they were going to have that.
“So was it a good surprise?” Trevor asked that night as they got into bed.
“Shut up, you know it was the best surprise.”
He tried to slide his hand under the waistband of Trevor’s boxers, but Trevor grabbed his wrist and stopped him before he could reach what he wanted. “We can’t do that with your parents right across the hall. You never manage to stay quiet.”
“I take it back,” he said. “I hate this surprise.”
Trevor soothed him with a gentle kiss, and Skyler melted into it because that was a lie. It was the best surprise from the best boyfriend ever.
TREVOR
It had been twoweeks since Skyler’s family had left, and Skyler still hadn’t stopped thanking Trevor. He did it in sweet ways, like getting up early to make him eggs, bringing them to him in their room before Trevor even got out of bed. (Teaching Skyler how to cook had worked out great.) And he did it in dirtier ways too. Like today, when he’d woken Trevor up by kissing the back of his neck.
