Page 82 of Finding You

“Come with me for a moment,” Kylen said as Dallas stood and prepared to pick Audra up.

Dallas glanced over at Flora, who was now snoring quietly in her seat, then down at Audra, who hadn’t budged. Warm fingers took his and tugged gently, and he followed Kylen through the guest room door. He closed it, but not all the way, then pressed Dallas against the wall and cradled his face with his deliciously soft palms.

“I need to make out with you before you go.”

Dallas laughed under his breath. “Yeah?”

Kylen surged in close, not taking the kiss Dallas knew he wanted. “Please?”

Dallas answered by closing the distance between them. Kissing for him wasn’t always a way to something else. The pleasure he got from tasting Kylen’s tongue didn’t always travel to his dick. It wasn’t now. Sex was an idea, not an inevitability, and the thought quickly left his head as Kylen groaned and pressed his chest against him.

He was hard against Dallas’s thigh, but he wasn’t moving like he was seeking more. He was simply touching because he wanted to touch. And it allowed Dallas to relax, to let himself give and take without worrying he’d need to make some kind of compromise or apologize for not being able to offer Kylen something he was asking for.

Their bodies moved together like a slow dance, a rhythm and steps only they knew. Dallas’s fingers dug into Kylen’s sides, and Kylen’s hands moved to Dallas’s hair, guiding the kiss the way he wanted it.

Eventually, it stopped. They came to a natural end, and Dallas pressed his lips to the side of Kylen’s jaw and just breathed in the scent of him until he knew it was time to end it. It was getting harder and harder to walk away, and he let himself feel a spark of hope for a night he wouldn’t have to.

“I’m scared,” Kylen said after a beat.

Dallas pulled back. Guilt rushed through him because he’d been so fixated on his issues with Katie he’d all but forgotten that Kylen was letting himself bare his vulnerable spots to his family. That this was a risk because they could openly reject him and prove once and for all they wouldn’t accept him.

Dallas had made good on his promise to be there, but he hadn’t been the most emotionally available over the last week.

He wrapped his arms around Kylen tightly. “What can I do? Do you and Flora want to come back to my place with me? There’s room for her.”

Kylen smiled and shook his head. “She barely sleeps well at home. She sleeps like shit when we travel, and I know you need some rest.”

Dallas bit his lip. “I could stay if you need me.”

Pinching Dallas’s chin, Kylen kissed him, hard and fierce. “Thank you, but I’m okay. I think I just needed to say it aloud, you know? Like, acknowledge it to the universe or something.”

Dallas understood that deeply. Profoundly. “I get it. But I’ll be there with you. And if it goes badly—if you’re unhappy in any way, we leave. Okay?”

“Okay,” Kylen whispered. He blinked up into Dallas’s eyes. “You really like me, don’t you?”

Dallas almost laughed at that, but then he realized Kylen wasn’t joking. The question was honest and worried. He lifted Kylen’s knuckles to his lips and pressed a soft kiss, letting it linger until he felt a line of tension leave Kylen’s body. When his breathing wasn’t so shallow, Dallas dropped their hands between them.

“I really, really like you. And I think we should talk about it when we get back.”

Kylen swallowed heavily, then nodded. “Okay.”

Dallas didn’t know if Kylen had hope or if he thought the other shoe was going to drop and the whole thing would fall apart. But he was determined to get through this, and if he had any control over what happened at all, they’d walk away and leave Kylen’s doubts in the dust.

Chapter Twenty-Three

DALLAS

Kylen didn’t speak much on the drive. Flora was dozing with her dose of Dramamine, and Dallas seemed to realize that Kylen needed to be inside his head to make this all work. And to keep from falling to pieces. He’d had exactly one conversation each with his mom and his sister, and nothing was resolved. He simply told them he’d be there.

He’d waited a beat for an apology from Grace, but it never came. Her tone was all ice as she said she’d see him at the campgrounds. She didn’t mention Dallas. She didn’t ask about Flora. And he wanted to say he was disappointed, but a small part of him was grateful that she was behaving like her usual self.

As much as this routine sucked, at least it was a routine.

His mom had been the same, though a little more cautious with him. She asked how her mother was doing, and when he tried to talk about how she’d been settling in, she cut him off and said she’d see him soon. He didn’t really understand how she could be that way with her own mother, but he wondered if maybe he’d be detached the same way if she started down the same path.

“You okay?” Dallas asked after more than an hour on the road.

Kylen startled, then offered a sheepish smile as he spotted the turnoff. They had another forty minutes down the county road, and then they’d be at the lake. “Yeah. Sorry I’m not the best company.”

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