Page 85 of 10 Ways to Accidentally Fall in Love

Joey quickly cuts in. “Can we help with dinner?”

“It’s all ready,” Mama Delgado says, turning and giving us a wave. “Come, come. Set your bags inside for now. You can get settled after we eat. Brad, do you like seafood?”

“DoI,” I say, loping after her.

Joey chuckles from somewhere behind me.

The inside of the house is just as inviting as the outside. It’s washed in pale blues and seafoam green, oatmeal-colored accents keeping the decor light. Windows overlook the grassy yard out back, a small sloping hill leading down toward rocks that edge the crystalline blue water. A dock leads further out, the sun casting glittering ripples on the gentle waves that lap at shore.

“Wow,” I mutter, feeling Joey’s heat at my back as he joins me near the windows. “I guess I can see why you miss the water.”

He hums lightly. “I do, but… I don’t regret the move. And Las Vegas…it’s really grown on me.”

“Like mold?”

“Like—” He makes a grumbly sound, wrapping an arm around my waist. “Come on. Let’s go eat.”

Chuckling, I let Joey tug me toward the kitchen.

Plates are set out along the white countertop, wicker stools planted in front. I take a seat next to Joey just as his mom sets a plate of fancy-looking sub sandwiches down.

“Lobster rolls,” she tells me.

I groan happily, and Joey huffs a laugh.

As it turns out, lobster rolls are the bomb. Joey catches his mom up on the construction business and his family in Vegas as we eat, and Mama Delgado asks me questions about video game design, seeming genuinely interested. She also asks about how Joey and I met, although I’m fairly certain by Joey’s eye roll, it’s a topic they’ve covered before. Even so, I tell her about the gym, leaving out the accidental first date and the wholeyour son is teaching me how to buff his hardwoodthing.

I do know some limits.

When Mama Delgado excuses herself to take a call from a friend wishing her an early happy birthday, Joey and I head outside. By unspoken agreement, we make our way to the dock. It’s sturdier than I expect, not moving in the least as we walk out to the end, where there’s a wider platform. A boat is stationed nearby, held in a big metal frame half out of the water. Joey takes a seat beside me on the dock, letting his bare toes reach toward the rippling waves, so I do the same.

There are a handful of watercrafts out. Speedboats, a sailboat, a couple kayaks. But it’s peaceful. Quiet where we are.

“When did you learn how to swim?” I ask.

“I don’t really remember it,” Joey says, “but my mom said I had lessons when I was one. They started early because of the risk associated with living so close to water, although the yard was fenced at that point. I just remember always knowing how to swim, as far back as my memories go.”

“Bet you were cute,” I mutter. “Little Joey Delgado in his tiny trunks splashing around in the water.”

He’s quiet for a moment. “What sorts of things did you do with your grandfather?”

“Ah,” I say, leaning back on my hands as I think about it. “Not much outside. He liked puzzles, so we’d do those sometimes. And he had these models he’d build. Architectural ones, like famous buildings. He didn’t really want me helping with that, but he’d let me watch. I don’t think he knew how to handle me, you know? This kid he wasn’t expecting so late in life. But he tried his best.”

“Did you ever know your parents?” he asks gently, the words quiet like he’s not sure he should ask them.

I don’t mind.

“I didn’t. Or well, maybe I did, but I don’t remember them. They left when I was…three, I think? Some of my earliest memories are actually of Jason. He was…” I huff a laugh, thinking about the scrawny kid I met in kindergarten. How prickly he was but just as desperate for a friend as me. “He was mine. I don’t know how to explain it other than he claimed me, and I claimed him, and that was it, you know? I think sometimes you justknowsomeone is going to be important to you, even if you don’t know how.”

“Yeah,” Joey says quietly, his gaze intent on me when I look his way. “I know what you mean.”

I swallow roughly, not sure whether or not I should read into those words the way I want to. In the end, I settle for my own truth. “There haven’t been many people in my life who knew how to handle me. I know I’m…a lot. And maybe that’s why I fell into video games, you know? Playing them at first. And then making them. It’s a space where imagination is limitless. And perhaps there’s no truly perfect world, imagined or real, but when I think ofmyperfect world? Of what I want my life to be? I just want to be happy being me. What I’m trying to say is… Jason was thefirst person who accepted me as I am. Who made my life a happy one. Now, there’s you.”

“Bub,” Joey says, nearly a whisper.

“I know we haven’t known each other for long,” I rush on. “But you’re one of my closest friends. You’re my people now. My Joey Kangaroo. So just…you better get used to me being around, man, because I’ve already claimed you. And I’m not that easy to shake.”

Joey doesn’t say a word. Instead, he crushes me in a sidelong hug, the both of us toppling onto the dock. I laugh as he smushes me beneath his weight, not at all displeased about my predicament.

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