Page 66 of The Way We Swing Back

“Oh, shut up, Tanner,” Gavin said, tossing a ball into the bucket. “It’s kinda cool, though, right, Easton?”

“Yeah, dude,” I said, handing him back the bat.

Gavin grabbed it and started rubbing the barrel with his fingers, not looking at me before speaking again. “Sorry about what I said last night.”

I flinched as I walked toward another ball. “You’re fine. You weren’t wrong.”

“Yeah,” Tanner chimed in. “Easton and I crossed a line we shouldn’t have when we weren’t ready. It screwed us up for a bit.”

It’d screwed me up for longer than a bit.

Gavin took a beat before asking, “How about you and Cal then?”

Tanner looked at me, but I kept my eyes on the snow so they wouldn’t land on Tanner.

“Say what you want,” I said, both wanting and not wanting to hear what came next.

“It’s different with Cal,” Tanner said, rubbing the back of his neck. Fog came out of his mouth when he continued. “We don’t have to hide. Back in high school, I wasn’t even out.”

Just going to ignore the fact I wasn’t, either?

Tanner glanced at me again, like he’d plucked the thought straight out of my head. “With Cal, it’s simple. We’re not sneaking around, not worried who finds out. We’re just... together. So, yeah, we’ve hooked up. But I get why you’d want to wait, Gav. It’s not life-or-death the way it used to be.”

With me.

If I hadn’t acted like an ass, had been more comfortable with myself, that could’ve been us. Probably would’ve been.

Instead, I stayed in my lane, firmly planted where I could survive.

Chapter 29

The chaos of the card games with the extended Quinn family had settled into calm. The only people left were the Quinns and their dates, plus me and Jake, and minus Zach, who’d left to drive home Nicole.

I’d spent most of the night trying to find a reason to hate Calvin, but none had come to me. He never did anything outwardly wrong. He didn’t eat chips with his mouth open, he didn’t bite his nails, and he was sweet with Tanner.

Which ultimately meant that I did, in fact, not like him at all.

Gavin, Maissie, and Mr. and Mrs. Quinn played euchre on the pool table. Jake sat next to me in the movie-theater seats, our arms brushing against each other every time he fidgeted, while Calvin and Tanner were cuddled up in the loveseat.

“So, how long did it take for you two to get together at school? I bet Cal had to drag it out of you, Tanner. Like you’re a dog holding onto a toy Cal really wanted,” Jake asked, running his hands through his slicked-back black hair.

Calvin snorted, his fingernails—now painted red—playing with the armrest of the chair as Tanner answered, “You’re basically Gavin, aren’t you? Never any filter.”

“Nope,” Jake said, smiling at how funny he found himself.

Tanner looked at Calvin, communicating without words. Tanner’s shoulders shrugged as he looked back at us. “You’re not wrong. Cal knew what was up from the second he met me, and he waited longer than he wanted to ask me.”

“Yeah. We were in a class together for two weeks, and Tanner kept borrowing a pen every day. I finally asked him if he wanted to go grab coffee, and Tanner jumped out of his chair to say yes.”

I looked at Tanner, who was smiling at Calvin, relaxed as their bodies nearly intertwined.

“If Cal hadn’t asked, would you have ever gotten there, Tanner?” Jake asked. He folded his legs up underneath him and sat on his feet.

“He absolutely wouldn’t have. Tanner’s too stubborn for his own good,” Calvin answered for him.

“Shut up,” Tanner said, reaching his hand into Calvin’s. His muscles squeezed as he grabbed tightly.

Jake turned to me next, and I saw in his eyes the oncoming interrogation. “What about you, East? I’ve known you for, like, three years now and have never seen you date anyone. Are you waiting for someone else to make the first move, or do you know how to do it yourself?”