Kingston pulled away from Riley until he was forced to let go. “I can’t believe you’re settling for me when I know you could win Allen and Jake over.”
“Settling?” Riley threw his head back and laughed. “You have no idea how wrong you are, which is part of your charm.”
Kingston rolled his eyes and doubled down on his scowl.
“Which brings us to the last thing I wanted to talk about,” Riley said while taking Kingston’s wrists and forcing him to unfold his arms. “I had an idea, but I wanted to ask you to be my boyfriend before I stirred the pot.”
“Oh, great. I can’t wait to hear what dumbass plan you’ve come up with.”
Riley covered Kingston’s mouth with his hand and hushed him. “We’ll have to talk to Jake and Allen if you agree, but we could do that in two days or ten years from now. I don’t want to add any pressure to the suggestion, so I’ll tell you, and then we’re going to bed, and you can take as long as you want to get back to me.”
Kingston’s reply was too muffled to hear, but Riley got the impression that he wanted him to hurry the hell up. Andif Kingston thought he was crazy for asking him to be his boyfriend, Riley was about to blow his mind.
“Okay, so I was thinking…”
21 /JAKE
“Aren’tyou curious to know why they called us and asked for a date?”
Jake looked away from the road briefly to glance at Allen’s face. He couldn’t quite understand the tone of his voice and match it with his words, but his expression gave nothing away.
He didn’t know why Allen was so worked up over having dinner with Kingston and Riley. The two of them had been so busy with training and media stuff to market their team that they hadn’t been able to visit for a week.
Allen had been chewing his nails and pacing for every one of those seven days, worried something had gone wrong after they helped Kingston and Riley with sex, but Jake never sensed anything was off.
Not that he could even if there was an awkward vibe.
And now they were heading to Jake’s favourite restaurant at Riley’s request because it was private, and they apparently missed him and Allen, so he couldn’t see what there was to be worried or suspicious about.
“It’s normal to miss friends by the end of the week, isn’t it?” Jake asked.
Jake was watching the road, but he saw Allen’s frantic movement from the corner of his eye and smiled when a hand grabbed his.
“It’s very normal, love. I didn’t mean to confuse you about that part—I’m more concerned about the public outing when they normally enjoy coming to our place to visit.”
Our place. Damn, Jake loved hearing those words from Allen. It made his insides feel gooey.
“Maybe they got tired of eating my cooking,” said Jake.
The hand holding Jake’s let go and reappeared to gently tug on his ear.
“Don’t be ridiculous. They love your cooking so much that I have to tell them to breathe while they’re shovelling food into their mouths.”
Yes, itwasimpressive how fast and how much pasta they could go through. That’s why Jake loved making dinners for everyone because it helped lower his anxiety about them eating properly.
“Ugh, and then there’s your father,” Allen added, switching the topic so fast that Jake was left stumbling to catch up. “He won’t stop calling me and encouraging me to get you out of the apartment on time for meetings, and he’s always dropping hints about me going to school.”
Jake’s earlier gooey feeling evaporated and was replaced by a warm wave of shame. He loved his father, but the man was a meddler even when his intentions were good. He wasn’t trying to make Allen feel bad about his education; his father just wanted to see everyone successful in the same way Jake liked to see his friends well fed.
But his father didn’t realize how close he was to getting a verbal dressing down from Allen. Jake could have been a nice son and warned him that he was going too far, but his giddy curiosity kept him from saying anything.
Mr. Valero would eventually find out why Jake compared Allen to his mother in the worst way.
“I could tell him to back off,” Jake offered, just to make sure Allen knew he had his back.
Allen huffed loudly and removed his fingers from Jake’s ear, probably so he could cross his arms and puff his cheeks like the angry hamster Kingston claimed he was.
“I can handle the mafia daddy on my own, thanks.”
