“I’m not lying. But I’m also not going to kiss and tell,” he hissed back.
“Ha! I knew you had a thing for Mati the moment I saw you two on that couch.”
“No. Well,yes. But…fuck. Not just Mati, okay? It’s both.”
Kieran’s eyes widened. For once, he appeared to be speechless.
David rubbed his arm over his face to clear the drops streaming from his wet hair and to give Kieran a moment to absorb that. “Jesus Christ, I feel like I’m in junior high,” he muttered under his breath.
Chance came around the corner. “You should try being married to him.”
“Hi, honey!” Kieran said, a smile lighting up his face. He tilted his lips up for a kiss with the absolute confidence of one who knows their partner finds their ridiculousness endearing. “David was telling me all about what is going on with him and MatildaandReese.”
“And you,” Chance said, somehow sounding both affectionate and exasperated, “were about to give him the shovel talk.”
“I was not,” Kieran said with an almost believable innocence.
David and Chance gave him a skeptical look.
“Okay, I was. But it’s a modified shovel talk. It’s more of a,there’s shit you might not know, and you may unwittingly hurt Reese, and then I’d have to get out the shovel and dig a hole where they will never find your bodykind of talk.”
“A modified shovel talk,” David said dryly. “How charming.”
Kieran stared at him.
“Holy shit, you’re serious.” David felt a prickle of unease. “Who’s going to give them the shovel talk forme?”
“You can take care of yourself. I’m more worried about Reese, to be honest,” Kieran said. “I know you would never hurt anyone on purpose, but I always suspected he had big feelings for Mati, and you didn’t know him a few years ago. He was…different.”
“How so?” David asked warily.
“It’s not really my place to get into the details, particularly since I have most of them second and third hand, but I can tell you he didn’t go out a lot.”
“So, he’s not into dating?” Why did Kieran even care? Lots of people were like that, and lots of people change.
“No, I mean, he didn’t leave his house. Almost ever.”
David pictured the handsome, smart, and funny man waiting for him in the lobby. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. And I know he’s much better, but I thought you should know. Of course, since this is actually aboutyou three, I guess things are going along fine,” Kieran said with a pointed once-over for David. “However, one does worry their judgment is impaired in the face of all this,” he said with a wave at David’s still-damp, mostly naked body.
“I can’t decide if I should be flattered or insulted.”
Kieran laughed brightly, as if he hadn’t just been giving a stern lecture, and hugged David.
David couldn’t hug back without dropping his shampoo or his towel, neither of which seemed like a good option. Kieran bounced away back to his locker as soon as he’d released David, leaving him with Chance.
“You know what you’re doing?” Chance asked curiously.
“Still don’t have a fucking clue.”
“You going to get hurt?”
David thought about brushing that off, but what was the point? “Yeah, probably.”
“They worth it?”
“Yes.”
