Page 141 of Reverse

“Fuck, you look beautiful.”

“You need your eyes checked, buddy. I’m a hot, sweaty mess.”

“You were the last time I saw you, too, and you looked just as beautiful.”

I can’t help my smile as I swat a fly away from my flushed face. “It’s hotter than Satan’s anus out here,” I say, and he chuckles in reply. “You’re lucky you’re up north, where summer doesn’t feel like a three-month sentence.”

“I’d much rather be where you’re at. So you’rehome, home?”

“Yeah,” I turn the camera around and scan the house and surrounding grounds for him to view. “My parents flew to Chicago last night for a few days on Hearst Media business, so I’m housesitting for the pool privilege and to bitch to Percy about you.”

“Oh yeah? Any complaints I should know about, Percy?” Easton muses.

Cupping the phone from the glare of the sun, his gorgeous face fills the screen. “You’re too far away,” I say mournfully before whispering a more intimate. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he repeats, black hat on backward, buds in his ears.

“So, you’re on the road?”

He turns the camera on Joel. “Riding with my man here today so I could call you. Say hi to Natalie.”

Joel turns and waves. “See the way he abuses me, Nat?”

“I see it,” I tease. “It’s just wrong.”

“He can’t hear you,” Easton points to his buds.

“Well, tell him I’d ride with him any time.”

“You’remydate tonight. He can find his own.”

“Are we on a date?”

“Yeah,” he grins, tilting his head back against the rest. “That okay?”

“I’m all yours.”

“Yeah, you fucking are,” he declares with a possessive edge. “So, show me around.”

“And this is my one and only riding ribbon,” I say, holding the camera up to the corkboard still mounted in my childhood bedroom closet.

“My little equestrian nerd,” Easton muses as I turn the camera back on me.

“Do you ride? Well, I mean,would you?”

“Yeah, sure. For you I’ll try it,” he says softly, the view of him doing a number on my insides.

“Don’t expect to see me on a motorbike, but you can teach me to play an instrument.”

“That’s a decent compromise. Which one do you want to learn?”

“Maybe the drums?”

“Done. I’ll give you your first lesson in Tahoe.”

“Seriously?”

“Of course.”

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