Page 66 of Dad Next Door

“Tris?” I powered my phone down and knelt in front of him.

“I’m fine. No, I’m not fine.” He smiled crookedly and lifted his arm. He pulled back the sleeve of his shirt so I could see his skin. “Goosebumps.” He dropped his arm. “That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever heard. I could feel every note. Every word resonated. I mean, I knew you could sing, but it didn’t register that you could sing like that.”

Pride swelled in my chest at his praise. Like every other actor out there, validation was my kryptonite, but it meant so much more when it came from someone I cared about.

He dropped a soft kiss against my lips. “Thank you for singing for me.”

“Do you feel better?”

“So much better.”

“I’m glad. And like I said before, I’ll sing for you anytime you want.”

His smile was soft and full of affection.

Something deep in my chest twisted, then detonated in an explosion of flutters.

Tristan’s breath caught as our gazes locked.

Slowly, I stood and went to sit in my chair. As much as I wanted to kiss him—and keep kissing him—now wasn’t the time.

“It’s time for the talk, isn’t it?” he asked, flipping around so he was sitting in his seat properly.

“It is.”

He cracked a small smile. “I have no idea how to start this conversation.”

“Me either. But I think the easiest way will be to just lay out what we want and what’s important to us.”

He nodded. “Yeah. That sounds good.” A pause. “Am I going first?”

“I think that’s best. You have a lot more variables in your life.”

“Yeah.” A sigh. “I guess the biggest thing for me is honesty. I’m too old to play games, and I don’t have the time or energy to worry if my partner is telling me the truth about things. I’m not saying I think you’re like that because I absolutely don’t, but I need someone who can talk about important things. Who doesn’t let things fester and build up until there’s an explosion or a fight.” He fiddled with a crease in his slacks again. “I hate fighting. I hate being yelled at. It makes me shut down and basically play dead and accept whatever the other person says just to make it stop.”

“I’ll never be that guy. I don’t fight with people. I’m not the greatest at communicating when my head is busy or being loud, but I’ll do my best to be as honest and open with you as I can.”

He smiled faintly. “I know. I just had to put that out there because it’s one of my biggest triggers. The same with being ignored or treated like an afterthought.”

I nodded. After everything he’d told me about his marriage, I already knew how much being ignored or neglected affected him.

“And I guess the other thing is us staying friends,” he continued. “I know adding sex to a friendship can make things messy, but your friendship means more to me than anything else. You might have noticed I don’t have a lot of those, not real ones, at least. And right now, friendships and finding my community are more important to me than sex or romantic companionship.”

“I hear what you’re saying,” I said slowly, hoping I wasn’t misreading things. “But I don’t want to be friends who have sex. I want to have a real relationship. I don’t do casual. I can’t. It can look however you want, but it’s going to be real for me no matter what. But that also doesn’t mean we can’t go back to just being friends if this doesn’t work.”

He swallowed, his eyes full of so many emotions I couldn’t read them. “It’ll be real for me too. I can’t do casual either.”

Relief washed over me in a calming wave. “So, what do you want this to look like?”

“I think low-key, like you said.”

“So, like we act one way when we’re alone, and another way around other people?” My heart sank a bit. I could do that if he needed me to, but it wasn’t what I wanted.

He shook his head. “No. I can’t flip between being your friend and being more. I can’t spend all my time worrying about everything I say or do around you.”

I let out a breath. “Okay. Good. I could do that, but I really don’t want to. But low-key, like we just take things slow and see where they go?”

He smiled shyly. “Yeah. I like the sound of that.”

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