Page 36 of Finding You

Kylen felt something warm against his hand, and he realized Dallas had reached back for him. Their palms were pressing together, soft and very present. The back of his throat felt a little hot, and he took a slow breath before speaking. “The rest was history?”

“The rest was the beginning. And when it ends, he’s definitely going to break my heart.”

Chapter Ten

DALLAS

What was he doing? What was he doing? He was word vomiting for damn sure, but the more Kylen looked at him with his big eyes and soft mouth, the more Dallas couldn’t hold back. He’d told himself to put distance between them. To stop flirting. To quit toeing the edge of something real when he didn’t even know what he wanted.

He’d already crossed lines when Adele had taken him out for drinks and he’d gotten a bit too tipsy, but this was…this was something else.

Something new.

And he was sober, so he had nothing to blame except maybe a little sleep deprivation and the fact that he was rearranging who he was in his head. He’d come to the conclusion he wasn’t straight, but he wasn’t sure where he fit. Greysexual was the most comfortable because it made sense.

Every time he’d ever wanted someone, it was because they’d triggered something in him emotionally. And it could come and go at a whim.

He had no idea why that feeling of desire hadn’t been triggered by any of his friends, but he knew for damn sure it had been awakened on the plane when Kylen—a total stranger—had gone out of his way to comfort Dallas. He’d made him smile and did everything in his power to ensure he didn’t feel foolish for being so afraid.

And then serendipity brought Kylen back into his life again, and how was Dallas meant to ignore that?

But he was terrified to go any further than acknowledging he wanted Kylen. The man had been through enough, and what would happen to him if Dallas’s feelings suddenly switched off? Dallas didn’t want to be responsible for hurting him like that.

He couldn’t live with himself if that happened.

So he was resolved to keep it to their agreement. And then Kylen had looked at him with his gorgeous eyes and had touched his hand, and Dallas cracked. Kylen was breathing a little heavy now, his hand holding Dallas’s like he was afraid to let go.

His lips were parted and spit-slick, and it was all Dallas could do to keep himself from pinning the man to the couch and kissing the breath from his lungs. All he wanted was to reenact the scenes from his late-night fantasies, but that would break something between them, and there would be no way to fix it.

So he closed his eyes and let Kylen absorb everything he’d just said.

“It…it made sense,” Dallas added after a long beat of silence. “Having some truth to the lies.”

Kylen cleared his throat and carefully drew his hand back. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess it does. I’ll look through my flight logs and see which one makes the most amount of sense.”

Dallas opened his mouth to tell Kylen they should leave it to the one he was just on, and then he realized Kylen had lied about how long they’d been together, so he shut it again.

“And I’ve never really been big into PDA, so we won’t need to worry about that,” Kylen added.

Dallas’s stomach sank, but he nodded. “Just some hand holding, but we’ve practiced that already.” He could feel the echo of Kylen’s palm against his own, and he wanted to reach for him again.

Kylen laughed softly. “Exactly. My family might…they probably won’t be very kind about our relationship.” He sounded like he was fumbling with his words. “They’re going to want it to go badly because they’d prefer me to be single for my entire life than queer.”

Dallas winced and shook his head. “I’m sorry. My family can be complicated, but they’ve never been like that.”

Kylen shrugged, then grimaced. “It is what it is. But it might be a good idea to have my sister see us together once or twice since she’s already seen you out with another man.”

Dallas groaned. “Adele isn’t?—”

“I believe you,” Kylen said, interrupting him. “Really, I do. I’ve met some of your friends, and I get it. I’m honestly pretty jealous. But my sister will look for any holes—any soft spots—so we might want to, you know, have dinner with her or something.”

“I can do that. I only have Audra on weekends, but if you don’t mind babies around, I can bring her over.”

“I’d love that,” Kylen breathed out. He looked almost excited by the prospect, and if Dallas hadn’t seen the same look on his friends’ faces, he might have been a little concerned. “I miss that. I miss the baby smell and their little four-toothed smiles. Flora was such a hard baby I feel like I didn’t get to enjoy it.”

Dallas frowned. “Really? She’s such a good kid. I mean, she’s a little fussy about things, but as long as she has a routine, she’s amazing.”

“Yeah. Well, tell life to get better about keeping things routine, will you?” Kylen sounded a little exhausted and a little bitter.

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