He shook his head, clearly entertained.“Say hi to the city boy from me.”
I squeezed tighter.Still smiling from ear to ear.“I hate you so much, you know that?”
Kyle winked, then shrugged off my hand.“So move away from me, then, to the big city.Land of good dick, and boys you can’t admit you want more than just sex from.”
Turning him, I propelled him out of the door.Considered issuing a swift kick to his ass, but - with only a touch of regret - decided against it.
He walked backward down the path.“Call me?”
I rolled my eyes.“Fine.”Then couldn’t help but laugh at his exaggerated wink.
#
Flynn would’ve said, if he was coming to see me.Which had to mean there was another reason for the unexpected visit, and with such short notice it could only be something bad.His parents health, maybe, or worse.Whatever ‘worse’ might be.
I mean, his mom was annoying, but I didn’t want anything unpleasant to happen to her.
“Is that you, honey?”
It was like thinking about moms had automatically summoned mine.
“Just putting the groceries away,” I shouted back.
She appeared at the doorway, arms crossed.A look on her face that spoke of tension, apprehension.
Then again, I’d been such a moody asshole this past week, I couldn’t exactly blame her for tiptoeing around me like you would an unexploded firecracker.
“I can do that.”
I shook my head, chewing back the growing sense of guilt.Thinking about Flynn coming back for some sort of family emergency had set my brain spiraling into what-ifs of my own.I’d been clutching at excuses when I pointed out my parents weren’t getting any younger, but that didn’t make it any less true.At some point it’d be my phone getting the “you need to come, now” call.
“I’m sorry,” I told her.Not really daring to look up from my crouching amid the bags.“I’ve been a pain this week, I know.”
It was a familiar noise; like she was sucking her teeth, while sighing at the same time.Instantly memorable from all the occasions I’d heard it growing up.
“Not a scratch on when you were a teenager,” she said, walking into the room and starting to put boxes of cereal into the pantry.“Then we really were walking around on eggshells.”
I had to chuckle.“You should’ve kicked me out, the day I turned eighteen.”
She nudged me with her hip.“Oh, your father and I thought about it.But we figured you’d only get into more trouble that way.You know what boys are like.”
That was the problem.I did know what boys were like, but I still kept making questionable decisions with them.
The doorbell saved me.“I’ll get that,” I said, dodging her half-hearted swat on the way out.
Flynn looked good on the doorstep.Even with his hair tousled, and his body near-swaddled in a heavy winter coat.His face was flushed red, a scorch of it across each cheekbone.
“Hey.”
I swallowed, fighting the urge to glance behind me, check whether my mom had followed me down the hallway.“Uh, hey.”
Silence, for a moment.
“Oli, it’s fucking freezing out here.”
It was like the complaint bump-started my brain.I stepped to the side, allowing him past.
He’d been in the house before, of course.When we were kids, but more recently, too.There was no reason for it to feel smaller, closer, now.But it did.
