Page 93 of 10 Ways to Accidentally Fall in Love

I want to ice them.

“Coming?” Joey calls, grabbing our towels off the dock.

I blow out a breath.

So very definitely not straight.

Once inside the house, Joey and I make sandwiches to bring out onto the boat. Mama Delgado pulls out a small cooler for us, adding a few drinks and a small container of pasta salad to round out our lunch.

“Have fun,” she tells us, giving my cheek a pat before shooing us out the door.

“Your mom’s the best,” I tell Joey again, the two of us walking back across the lawn, t-shirts on now so we don’t get too crispy.

“I know,” he says simply.

Joey grabs an inflatable tube from the shed, offering me a ride out to the boat because he’s a goddamn gentleman like that.

He holds it steady near the end of the dock. “Ready, sailor?”

“Aye aye, Captain,” I reply with a grin. “Raise ye flagpole and prepare to be boarded because this seaman is ready to ride.”

Joey blinks at me.

“Yeah,” I say slowly. “I just heard it.”

He snorts, keeping the tube balanced as I climb on. “For the record, you can jump aboard my flagpole anytime you’d like.”

“Nooo,” I groan, holding the cooler close and glancing over my shoulder. “No sexy talk, Joey-roo. There are parentals about, which means I don’t need to be sporting a kangaroo-induced boner.”

“Is that different than a regular boner?” he asks curiously, dragging me out toward the boat.

“Far more trigger happy,” I explain.

He looks oh so happy about the effect he has on me, the smug, lovely man.

“Just so you know,” he says, waist-deep in the water now, “that wasnotmy sexy talk.”

“What? I thought it was sexy.”

He makes a sound almost like a huff, stopping and spinning toward me, his hands on the side of my raft. “Bub, if I wanted to give you a boner, I’d tell you that as soon as you’re ready for it, I’ll show you what it feels like to have someone inside of you. I’ll open you up with my fingers. One, then two, then three, until you’re begging to feel how much further I can reach with my cock. I’ll introduce you to your prostate, make you ache in the best possible way, and only then will you find out what it’s like to be fucked within an inch of your life. And you’ll thank me for it.”

“Holy fuck,” I breathe. “You’re a cruel, wonderful man, Joey Francis Delgado.”

He tugs me in by the back of my neck, kissing me soundly. “Come on. We’ve got a metaphorical flagpole to raise.”

“Flagpole is already up,” I mumble, adjusting myself as the waves pass underneath, a gentle sway I could get used to.

Maybe thereweresigns before Joey. Things I missed or didn’t question when it came to men around me. But it doesn’t matter. Because this, here and now, is a pretty big deal. In fact…

Step seven in Brad’s Guide to Finding Himself and—fuck—Falling in Love:

Learn a new self-truth.

I’m bi. And even if I had never acted on my feelings for Joey, I knew that to be true the moment I called Cas from behind Joey’s garage. So no, it doesn’t matter if Joey is the only man I end up wanting. And it doesn’t matter if the labels I choose change over time as our language evolves or as my own understanding of myself grows. None of it will negate the fact that I’m attracted to Joey now. On pretty much every level I could be.

And that my feelings for my gym-bud turned friend turned…more…are far more complicated thannot platonic.

Chapter 24

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