Page 67 of The Shots You Take

“Yes,” Riley said, and now the note in his tone was one of warning.

“And you lived together, am I right?”

“That’s right,” Adam said, pleased that Riley had given his friend at least two pieces of information about him.

“And now you’re here! That’s wonderful.” He made a face at Riley that Adam couldn’t interpret. Riley shook his head. “Are you staying with Riley?”

“I am.”

“Oh!” He stretched the syllable out with a hefty amount of interest. “Riley has a beautiful home.”

“He does,” Adam agreed. He knew Riley was uncomfortable, so he distracted Darren by asking, “So you make maple syrup? That’s awesome. How do you even do that?”

“A tremendous amount of drilling and tapping,” Darren said with a wink.

“God,” Riley grumbled.

Then Darren snapped his fingers, “You could come to the farm. Riley, what are you doing tomorrow night? We’re having people for dinner. We only didn’t invite you already because we assumed you weren’t ready for company, but you’re here, and you could bring Adam. We’d love to have you.”

“Oh, um,” Riley said. “Tomorrow?” He glanced at Adam, who wasn’t sure if he wanted approval, or if he wanted out of this invitation.

“Yes, but early. For dinner. Not a late night at all,” Darren insisted. “Bea and Nell will be there. And Jackson and Marcel are visiting from Halifax, that’s why we’re having the dinner. Please come. Eight people is so much better than six, and we miss you.”

“I don’t want to complicate things for Tom.”

Darren waved a hand. “You know Tom is going to cook for twenty people anyway.”

Again, Riley looked at Adam. Again, Adam had no idea what Riley wanted him to say. Slowly, carefully, Adam said, “If you feel up for it, Riles, I’d love to get to know your friends.”

Something flashed in Riley’s eyes that made Adam think he’d said the right thing. “Okay, yeah. We can go, then. It would be nice, I think, to be with friends. Good energy.”

“The best energy,” Darren agreed. “And don’t bring a thing. Just your…Adam.”

Now it was Adam’s turn to blush. “It was nice meeting you. See you tomorrow.”

They left the market shortly after. “So, I assume Tom is Darren’s…?”

“Husband,” Riley confirmed. “He’s great.”

“How did you meet them? I mean, obviously it’s a small town, but…”

“Darren and I went to school together. I wouldn’t say we were good friends back then, but I’ve known him since we were both five years old.”

“Oh,” Adam said. “Wow.”

They got into Riley’s truck, and Riley placed Adam’s bag of treasures in the back of the cab. Then he said, “I know you’re wondering, so I’ll just tell you: yes, Darren and I used to hook up.”

Adam had definitely been wondering that. “You did? Yeah? Like…when?”

“In high school a bit. And after, when I’d come home in the summers. But then he moved to Halifax and met Tom.”

“Oh. Was that…hard? For you?”

“What? No. We weren’t like that. We were just the only gay kids in town, at least that’s what we thought at the time, so we got a little practice in, y’know? And we became friends. Just friends,” he emphasized, for some reason. “It wasn’t like—” Riley stopped talking.

Adam finished the sentence in his head. “It wasn’t like us.” His heart swooped. “I couldn’t tell if you actually wanted to go to their house. If you’d rather not, that’s fine with me.”

“No, I would, I think. Those are all good people, and it might do me some good to be around friends.”

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