Page 16 of Beautifully Conflicted

Bennet doesn’t budge other than to lean against the doorframe. “He’s not here.”

“He will be though, right? He told me to come over today.”

“He told you to come here?” Bennet arches a dubious brow.

“Isn’t that what I just said?”

Bennet’s chest rises slowly as he takes what looks like a yoga breath. It’s one of those where you hold the air in your lungs and count before you exhale. My body tingles way more than it should as I watch him try to stay in control.

“Wait in the living room.” He turns and walks into the house without slamming the door in my face, so I follow him inside. By the time I’ve got my coat hung in the foyer, he’s nowhere to be found. His non-football roommate is here, though. Liam, I think.

I help myself to a seat on the couch adjacent to his chair. “Hey.”

Liam pauses scrolling on his phone to look up at me. “Hey.”

“Cool if I wait for Aiden here? I’m supposed to show him my COC.”

Liam starts before his eyes dart to the stairs and back to me. “Let me guess, you said that exact same thing to Bennet?”

“Of course.”

“Hmm.” He nods his head with a slight chuckle.

“Is that bad?”

“No, but it explains why he bolted upstairs like he was running for his life. If it’s not Madden, he doesn’t get it, so he probably heard something very different than what you were trying to say.”

“I explained it, though.” I defend myself. “I think he’s just really homophobic. I know he said he wasn’t, but I think he is.”

“He’s not. He’s just…” Liam opens his mouth like he’s going to clarify, but nothing comes out.

“Just what?” I prompt.

“Are you familiar with the sayinghe doth protest too much?”

“Yeah.” I’m not a fancy literature guy, but I remember learning about Hamlet. “What does that have to do with Bennet?”

Liam lifts his brows, making his eyes a little wider in the process. It looks weird as shit until I realize he’s trying to say something without saying something.

“You think…” My eyes dart to the stairs as my chest swells with hope, a response I’m fairly certain I don’t do a good job of hiding.

“How many straight guys would live with two gay couples that aren’t shy about PDA and have no volume control?”

Don’t get ahead of yourself, Damien.

“Maybe he’s just really tolerant? Or accepting?”

“Oh, he’s both of those things, but I think there’s more to it. Did you know we get a grace period?”

“A grace period?” I feel my brow furrow as I watch Liam, trying to make sense of that. “For what?”

“When we all moved in together and Cruz and I were the only ones dating, he didn’t get on our case about the PDA until after thegrace periodwas over. Same for Cam and Jagger.”

“I’m not following.”

“He didn’t retreat to his room or avert his eyes.”

“Again, so?” I scratch my head, getting increasingly curious about where this is going.

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