Page 36 of Until We Fall

I wonder if he guesses something. Rory and I have been spending a lot of time together on this trip. Although, he and Theo have too.

But the text is just one of my dads checking in, probably because I still haven’t responded to my brother’s message about the lease.

Rory folds his napkin into a neat square and places it on the table. “Is that your family?”

I smile. He always seems to know when I’m talking with my family. Maybe he reads it on my face?

“My dad,” I say and pocket my phone, my chest expanding as Rory reaches for his water glass, his thumb swiping away a bead of condensation.

“Julian,” I specify which dad. I fidget with the edge of my napkin. I’ve sat here with a raging hard-on throughout dinner, covering it with this napkin and trying to adjust myself subtly. Sitting here across from someone andnottouching has never turned me on so much. “Have you talked to your family since we got here?”

Rory scrunches his nose. “No.”

I study him. “Not even to tell them you got in safe?”

He shakes his head, then his gaze swings out to the coastline. Moonlight sparkles across the soft waves, the candle just bright enough to see the tightening of his jaw.

“What are they like?” I ask.

I’ve never met them. Rory said they don’t live that far from IFU, closer than my family, but they never come for family weekends or move-in day or anything else. My dads alwayscome, and my aunt sometimes does too. Damon has crashed with us a few times, going to parties and doing the college thing while he’s there.

I have asked Rory about his family before, but he never really answers.

His eyes whip back to me. “Um, they’re fine. Just people.”

“You rarely go home.”

He shrugs a stiff shoulder. “Not much to do there.”

“Where exactlyishome?” I’m pushing him, and I can see it in the faint widening of his eyes, the tap of his fingers against the table, the purse of his lips. I just ache to know. I didn’t know about his ex boyfriend, so what else? “I know you grew up somewhere outside of Cheyenne.”

“West of there.” He pauses, like he’s debating what he wants to tell me. “There’s a lot of wind power out there. Twenty-one turbines with a capacity of 52.5 megawatts.”

“Is that a lot of power? I have no idea.”

“That can supply about 60,000 homes.” He shrugs a shoulder, still looking out at the water. Is he giving me a random fact so I don’t know he didn’t answer the question about his family? There was a time when I would have just gone along with that. But now…

“And what about your family?” Shit, am I being a dick by pushing him? I don’t want to make him uncomfortable or?—

“They’re not like your family.” He inhales slowly, then swivels back to look at me.

“I’ve got a unique bunch,” I say.

He smiles faintly, but it’s such a sad smile that my throat tightens.

He picks at the corner of his napkin. “I’d love to have a bunch like that.”

You could, Rory.

The thought strikes me so fucking hard. My family would welcome Rory without a single pause or question. My dads would be so happy. They already like him—they ask me about him all the time. They ask me about Theo and Carter too, but not as often as they do about Rory.

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot since we’ve been here,” he says suddenly. “I knew you talked to your family every day before, because they’re always on your phone back home, but seeing it here, the way you send pictures. I didn’t think there were families like that.”

“Do you have a family chat?” I ask.

He’s never mentioned it, but I kinda assumed all families had one. Although, that sounds naive of me, now that I think about it.

He snorts a laugh. “Even if we did, I don’t think I’d be invited.”

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