“It’s all settled now. Tank was messed up.”
He hummed. “The note you left me was the sweetest thing I’ve ever read in my life.”
“Oh,” I said, as if what he’d just said wasn’t the sweetest thing I’d ever heard, too. “I’m glad, Goose.”
“Good night,” he said, his voice so heavy with sleep that it made my heart squeeze in my chest.
“Good night, you.”
I let my arm drape over him. For once, I didn’t worry about a single thing. I fell asleep moments later, next to a person that meant everything to me, and I let myself enjoy it.
If that wasn’t a dream, I didn’t know what was.
Everything went fine until the next day at the brewery.
Nothing went badly—it was the opposite, actually. Even though Chase and the rest of the TV crew were in and out of the brewery filming different shots of the Fixer Brothers, it really did seem like they were laying off of Sawyer with the cameras, letting him have some space.
When Sawyer was on a five-minute break, he came and found me near the edge of the brewing tanks, waving me into a little corner where we kept empty growler bottles.
“Come here,” he whispered.
I followed him into the tucked away corner, and he pulled me into a kiss. It was slow and sweet, but instantly it sent me straight back to last night. Being in bed with him. Being closer and more intimate than we’d ever been.
It was blissful, and it was our little secret.
He squeezed my arms, letting his lips linger on mine for another moment. “I really need to get back outside,” he said. “But I hadn’t kissed you since last night, and I was starting to get a craving.”
My cock was already hard beneath my pants.
Fucking hell. I couldn’t have imagined Sawyer ever being capable of wanting me at all, let alone getting a craving for my lips in less than 24 hours.
“You’re amazing,” I told him, because I had no idea what else to say. I wanted to drag him home with me right that moment, but we still had plenty of hours left at the brewery.
“Can’t wait for later,” he said before we broke apart. I smoothed out my shirt and tried my best to make sure my hard-on wasn’t visible before walking back over toward the tanks.
“Good luck,” I said as he headed back outside.
The rest of the world carried on as usual. No one other than Chase knew about me and Sawyer, and it seemed like that’s how things were going to stay. When I went out back on my break, Sawyer was busy working on digging a trench with Nathan and Shawn, and when he came back in for his longer break an hour later, he ate next to Chase and gave me a quick smile from across the room.
It was as if… nothing had changed.
And I hadn’t wanted anything to change, on the surface.
By the time evening rolled around, though, “craving” couldn’t even begin to describe what I felt for him. The rest of the Fixer Brothers guys had left, but Sawyer and the camera crew had ordered a round of beers after their work ended for the day, and I brought them over on a tray.
For the first time today, all of the cameras were surrounding Sawyer and the other guys as they stood by the jukebox. I did my best to act casual and detached as I interacted with Sawyer on camera. I knew he must feel awkward to begin with, and I never wanted him to feel pressure to act a certain way with me on camera. He’d been straight his whole life, and he sure as shit wasn’t going to want to show his new curiosities while anyone was watching.
But then, as I handed Sawyer his beer, he did the unthinkable, as the cameras were filming.
He leaned in and kissed me.
“Thanks, Moose,” he said.
And then he leaned in and kissed me again.
14
SAWYER
I was already well into kissing Harlan by the time it dawned on me that I was doing it in front of TV cameras.
And when the realization hit me, I got that same zinging feeling in my chest, right down the center, even heading toward my dick.
I liked it.
I really fucking liked it.
I certainly hadn’t pre-planned it. I hadn’t had much time to think at all about how Harlan and I would explain any of this when the TV show finally aired. But there was a huge part of me that felt that same thing from yesterday, all over again. Something I’d never really had the guts to feel before.
Unapologetic.
Not second guessing a damned thing.
It was only when I pulled away from the kiss and saw Harlan’s face that I realized I didn’t stop to think about what it might mean for him.