Page 162 of The Forever Vault

“And your mom?”

“San Fran’s expensive as shit, Luke. She and my sister flew home last night.”

“Well, I’m glad they were able to come. That Warren was…something,” I said.

A few seconds of silence followed that comment and I was about to change the subject, when O said, “Y’all think he might be gay too, right?”

The consensus was yes and we had a laugh at that. Declan, ever the clear-headed one, suggested O talk to his sister about his concerns.

“Just because you guys have a feeling doesn’t mean he’s gay,” Shane added.

“That’s exactly right,” Noah added, “He could be bisexual.”

Our breakfast came, and Cam asked O more about Austin’s training and asked if he would share Austin’s schedule with the team, so we could support him. The conversation drifted towards my proposal and the attention it had received. Noah said his phone was nonstop since it happened and suggested we do a TV circuit soon while the Olympics were still a hot topic.

“After our wedding,” Ty warned. “Then you can have the spotlight back.”

My phone had been vibrating enough lately to keep me at half-mast, but I hadn’t wanted to deal with that yet. Apparently, Cam hadn’t been bothered as much as either of us and I reminded him it was because he was a social media recluse.

Cam shrugged. “I’ll post a retrospective when we get back home.”

“I don’t believe it!” I heard Ezra’s shriek from three seats away. Glancing toward that end of the table, I saw he was looking at his phone.

“Did your first pube finally grow in?”

“Shut up, Liam. My pubes are fine.” He held out his phone. “Jack Davies is coming at me again!”

His family didn’t seem to understand, but I pulled out my phone and opened Twitter.

GymnastJack92: I’m proud to have done the best I could for my country. Congratulations to Miles McQueen on his gold medal today. Ezra, well, at least he had a nice view from his position.

“Okay, we need to know what really happened on that fucking elevator,” Cam said. “Because clearly Jack has a thing for Ezra.”

“That’s true,” O said, lowering his voice. “We know from drunk Ezra that Jack admitted he looks like his ex.”

“I mean, it is a nice view,” Declan added, showing us a photo from Jack’s instagram. Jack was lying on a chaise lounge, poolside, his pert buns completely wrapped in a skin-tight, too-small wet speedo, leaving nothing to the imagination. “This screams, ‘I’m a bottom’, and his tweets about Ezra scream, ‘Top me!’.”

“I don’t see Ezra as a top,” Cam said.

“You guys hear yourselves, right?” Noah asked. “You're talking about someone’s sexual preferences like it’s any of your business.”

“Well, what do gays from the eighties talk about then?” I asked.

“We’re like five years older than you.” Shane came to Noah’s defense. “We’re not that much different.”

“It’s funny you think this is bad,” Cam said, “Colton and Zeph aren’t even here.”

“Speaking of,” I interrupted, “how’s Colton’s dad?”

“All I’ve heard is stable for now. He’s only sending one word texts, and Madison isn’t replying to me at all. I’m not sure how bad it is.”

“Did you guys decide what I should do?” Ezra yelled from his end of the table, after which his mom gave him a very disapproving look.

“Don’t take the bait,” I said.

“Ignore him,” Cam added, leaning forward to speak over his mom.

“Slide into his DMs and get some tasty booty shots.”