Page 37 of Home Ice

“That’s true too.” All my memories of Ben are filled with car trips and backyard soccer and treating us to ice cream after a win.

Barrett glances up, drawing my attention to sunset kicking in, reds and oranges lighting up the sky. “We should probably head off.”

Do we have to almost leaves my mouth before I stop it. Of course we have to. I’ve taken up his entire day, and I bet once I get back to the car, I’ll have a screenful of missed calls and texts from my parents.

I don’t get a chance to answer him when Barrett suddenly pushes to his feet. Water streams from his underwear down both legs, and when I follow it upward … the thin material is molded around his cock in a way that makes my mouth dry. I’m still sitting, so it’s in my direct line of sight, and I need to stop looking, but fuck me.

Heat washes through me, making my face boil, and it would be easier if I stood up, but then he’ll see something I really don’t want him to witness.

Two fingers press to the bottom of my chin and ease my mouth closed. “You’ll catch a fly,” Barrett murmurs in that sexy rasp of a voice.

He leaves the water with a laugh, long strides casual, confident, and this time, I can’t help myself. My gaze snags on his broad shoulders and follows them down to his tapered waist.

And a very round ass.

I have to dunk my head back under the water to cool off.

Chapter Twelve

TAI

Iflop down on the couch next to Dad, who’s working on a paint by numbers. This one is a lion face, mane filled with hundreds of tiny sections to paint. Dad’s tongue is out on one side as he very carefully brushes the red over the canvas.

“It’s looking good.”

“Thanks.” A smile lights up his eyes. “Getting there.”

It’s about half-finished so far, and it’s one of his better ones.

Dad sets down the paint, and when he glances over at me, he does a double take. “You look happy.”

“I am.”

“Did something happen today?”

Did something happen? Just everything I’ve been hoping for since I pulled my head out of my ass and reevaluated my life. I’m not expecting everything with me and Hawke to be perfect, or even to go back to what it was, but we’ve cleared the air, and when I dropped him off, I gave him my number, and he called my phone so that I’d have his.

It’s a different number from what he used to have, and it feels a good kind of weird to have that direct access to him again.

“Thank you for speaking to Hawke.”

“Ah.” Dad’s face gets all bashful. “Didn’t do much. Mostly talked about Kasen.”

“Well, you said something that made him come and talk to me, so thank you. We’ve been together all afternoon.”

The genuine happiness I watch fill him almost makes me cry. It’s been a day, I guess.

Dad is one of the strongest people I know, so I wasn’t expecting me reconnecting with an old friend to affect him as deeply as it’s affecting me.

Hawke’s special. He always has been. It’s rare to find someone I click with immediately and fiercely, but that was always him for me.

“What did you do?” Dad asks.

“Went down to the river like we used to. Talked a lot. Got a lot off my chest, and …” I laugh, thinking about how I was Hawke’s big, queer awakening all those years ago. “Hawke told me he’s bi. Apparently, he used to think I was hot back in the day.”

Dad’s weak laugh is a shadow of how it used to be, but considering there was a time when I thought he’d never laugh again, I’ll take it. “You are still a good-looking kid.”

“Got it from my old man.”