Page 28 of Burn It Down

“Masculine how?” At this point, I’m considering locking the car doors and refusing to get on the boat just to keep him talking. I’m salivating over every word.

He glances at me before returning his attention to the road.

“You sure you want to hear all this?”

Definitely.“Yeah, it’s…interesting.”

“Well, my dad says I tend to gravitate toward unhinged, toxic men with too much between their legs and not enough between their ears.” Dylan’s trying hard to hide his smile at my obvious shock.

“Yourdadsaid that?”

He nods.

“So, he’s cool with it, then?”

“Yeah. My dad looks like a rough-around-the-edges redneck, but he’s pretty progressive. Losing my mom sort of bonded us in a way that made everything else seem trivial. Plus, he also fell in love with someone society said he shouldn’t, so he couldn’t reallybe angry at me or else he’d be the world’s biggest hypocrite, and that’s not him.”

“Why shouldn’t your dad love your mom?” I want to know so much more. I want to know everything. I want to keep him talking for hours, learn his secrets, and tell him mine.

“Well, she’s gone now. She died when I was twenty, but to answer your question, she was Mexican and the whole interracial thing wasn’t really cool back then.”

“Oh shit, I’m sorry to hear she’s passed away. But that explains this,” I say, touching an inkless spot on his forearm to point out his skin-tone. “But what about those?” I ask, pointing to his eyes which he swings to mine.

“My grandfathers on both sides had blue eyes, but no one would talk about where my mom’s dad got his. We don’t speak at all anymore so I’ll probably never know.” His laugh is bitter and the sound wraps around my heart like a vice.

I want to know more, but we pull up to the marina before I get the chance to pepper him with more questions.

The guys honestly won’t care that Dylan’s gay. Not that I expect it to come up, but I feel a surge of protectiveness over him anyway as we turn into the parking lot.

I guide him to an open spot, grab my backpack from the floorboard, and open the door. I got to travel light today because it’s Hudson’s turn to bring the pizza, Phoenix’s turn to bring the cooler of alcohol, and I’ll pay for the gas at the end.

“Hey, the banker has arrived!” Phoenix yells from the boat. His shirt is already off and he has a beer in his hand even though it’s only nine-thirty in the morning. I’ve never really taken notice of Phoenix’s physique, mostly because, well, it’sPhoenix. But now, after Dylan’s comments, I can’t help but appraise him the way I fear Dylan might be doing and I’m annoyed that he might like what he sees despite Phoenix’s light hair and eyes.

“Stuff it, Phoe!”

“Already did,” he grins back, causing me to groan at his joke.

I turn and lower my voice so only Dylan can hear me. “And so, it begins. Welcome to lake day with the guys.”

When Dylan smiles, I have one of those weird, split-second, out-of-body experiences like time stood totally still, and in my mind, I reached up and pulled his face to mine by the back of his neck and sucked that smile into my mouth. The thought is so powerful and fast, it takes me a second to realize I didn’t actually do it.

Relief wars with disappointment.

I take my flip flops off and hand them up to Phoenix before looking back at Dylan. “Supposedly it’s bad luck to wear shoes on a boat so Knox won’t let us,” I explain as Dylan slides his own flip flops off and hands them up.

“Hey man, nice to meet you. I’m Phoenix.” They shake hands.

“Dylan.”

“You want a beer? I’m assuming you need it already since you were trapped in a car with this twatwaffle for the ride over here.”

Dylan laughs and arches a brow at me. Wanting to shut Phoenix up, I playfully shove him onto the padded bench seat behind him. “We’ll see who’s laughing when it’s time to board.” I look over my shoulder at Dylan. “Come on, you can put your stuff in dry storage over here.”

“Hey Knox. Nice to see you again,” Dylan says, shaking the hand of our captain.

“You, too. That security system still doing okay?”

“Yeah, it’s been really helpful and it puts my dad’s mind at ease. Thank you for that.”

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