Page 39 of Provoking the Punter

FIFTEEN

Chester hadn’t slept well, and not just because he’d been waiting for Garrett to get home. As soon as Garrett had texted that he’d told Caitlin, Chester had wanted to do something to mark the occasion. It shouldn’t be a big deal, but it was. It had only taken him a few minutes to throw the box together. The gin and T-shirt he’d taken from work, the chocolate and card he’d picked up from the supermarket. He’d written the card in the car, taped up the box, and dropped it at the hotel. By the time he’d gotten home to watch the game—or at least have it on in the background while he did laundry and other chores—he’d wanted to return to the hotel and take the box back.

He was the one making a big deal out of it. They weren’t dating. They were barely friends… and he didn’t need any new friends. He was perfectly happy being single for the first time in his life. Which didn’t explain why Garrett was the first and the last thing he thought about, and why he hadn’t been able to sleep because he was worrying about what Garrett would think of the gift.

Why he’d worn Garrett’s t-shirt while cleaning…

Why Garrett saying it was the nicest thing anyone had done for him, had been a punch that had stolen his breath. A box of a few random things, one of which was an unused staff shirt left over from a pride event last year, shouldn’t matter.

None of that explained why he’d invited himself over.

Not that Garrett had agreed, only that he’d text when he finished work.

It was hard to imagine that turning up to talk football and lift some weights was work. It was more like being paid to attend summer camp for half the year. Not that Chester had ever gone to summer camp. His father didn’t have the money, and he’d needed Chester to help make the moonshine. He’d been a skinny kid, but he helped wash bottles and haul bags. Sometimes he made deliveries on his bike.

Everyone knew him and no one dared rip off his father.

It was also his job to go to the market and pick up groceries.

He still hated grocery shopping, even though he had the money to buy whatever he wanted. Being single, he could eat whatever he wanted, when he wanted.

Garrett, however, would have a specific diet.

Chester hated dating gym bunnies because they lived at the gym and obsessed about what they looked like. But he loved the way Garrett looked and felt. He was all hard muscle and deadly curves… that line of his oblique begged to be licked…

Chester bit back a groan. Thoughts of Garrett too often interrupted his day when he was supposed to be going through last week’s sales figures for the bar up the road, in addition to Bathtubs and Blossoms including its bar, restaurant, and distillery.

It wasn’t those figures he wanted to be studying.

Perhaps it was just the sex. He’d been single for six months, the longest he’d ever been without, well, anyone. Boyfriend, lover, or short-term fun. He hadn’t even been looking for anyone.

He’d been happy.

Now he was anything but because he worried about Garrett, and how he’d deal with coming out. It wasn’t his problem, and he should never have gotten involved, but he’d become involved the moment Caitlin set up the dinner, and he’d done some research. Garrett’s eyes, his dimples… the way he knew what he wanted but didn’t know what he was doing.

Chester bit his lip ring.

He was not some horny eighteen-year-old, hoping his crush noticed him.

No, he was thirty-six, and his crush had already gotten naked with him. Which should be better.

But Garrett was everything he didn’t want in a man.

He didn’t even have a secure job.

He played sports.

He, Chester James Monroe the Third, would end up a WAG.

He had not spent the last umpteen years building his own life and businesses to stand in the damn shadow of someone who kicked a ball five times a week and called it work. Nor did he want to be caught in the splatter when the scandal hit the fan.

He needed to end the thing they weren’t doing.

Easy.

So why did the idea feel as though his ribs were caving in and crushing his heart?

It wasn’t just sex, and it wasn’t doing the right thing and helping out a guy who needed advice. He liked Garrett.

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