Page 43 of Snowballing

“Probably a bucket and a towel,” Raquel answered. “I already threw the dirty ones into the washing machine.”

“Happy New Year, bro,” Lane said.

I hugged him quickly while he helped Grace out the door. “Let’s go, Ben.”

“I want to play with Gareth some more.”

Yup, definitely an interest in men.

“Let’s go, now! Your sister’s sick!” Raquel wasn’t taking any shit.

Ben huffed and grabbed his jacket from the hallway, but made his way out of the house with the rest of his family.

“Hope you feel better, Grace!” I called out.

Lane said, “I’ll text you later, bro,” and then they were gone.

EIGHT

GARETH

I checked my phone. It was a little past seven.

“I hadn’t realized Ben was gay,” I said to Eli as I approached him.

He closed the front door and turned to me. “You picked up on that too, huh?”

“Hard not to. He used the classic ‘Do you work out?’ and squeezed my bicep.”

“Yeeeah…gay or bi, maybe just curious? Can’t blame him though, you’re hot.”

He said it so nonchalantly and then walked past me without a second glance. I almost couldn’t stand the teasing! He was hot one minute and cold the next.

“You want a beer?” he called over his shoulder.

I followed him into the kitchen. “Sure.”

“Gar-eth!”

“Looks like your presence is requested.” Eli winked, handing me a bottle. “You’re too good for your own good.”

“It’s nice to be wanted,” I said before rejoining Trey. If Eli wanted to play games, so could I.

* * *

Trey’s phone went off a second time in a row. “You gonna answer that?”

“Fine.” Trey paused the game and grabbed his phone.

Five minutes later, he was still texting. “Everything all good?”

“You wanna help me sweet-talk Dad?”

His idea of sweet talk and mine were probably two very different things. “What do you want me to do?”

Trey filled me in on the details, leaving the most important part out, but I wasn’t going to embarrass him. If I needed to play the wild card, I’d get Eli by himself.

“Hey, Dad?”