Page 107 of Flare

I snorted. “Limp dick?”

“Don’t start with me.”

“And also, Iamworried what he thinks. Jesus, Hunter, I’m a thirty-four-year-old man. Wouldn’tyoube worried? Are you gonna tell me just to take a blue pill and forget about it? I’ve been fine for years, Hunter. Years.”

“You haven’t been in a relationship for years. It’s hardly a coincidence.”

I huffed. “Well, maybe things between Beck and me are too intense. Maybe I should focus on my therapy first. Get my sex shit together. A relationship just muddies the water.”

Judging by the look Hunter threw my way, he was running out of patience. To his credit, he didn’t yell, although he may as well have by the size of the vein pulsing in his throat.

“Right.” He eyeballed me. “And who exactly are you going to practice this new sex relationship shit with? A hook-up at a club who doesn’t give a fuck about you, and who, by the way, you have no chance of trusting? But there’s a thought. Throw away the man youactuallylike and who you’d love to get down and dirty with, all because he made a tiny mistake, and replace him with...” Hunter frowned and looked at the ceiling. “Nope, can’t think of a single person.”

I glared at him. “Arsehole. But it’s not just thelimp dickthing.” I eyed him pointedly. “There’s all the other stuff as well. Being with me isa lot. Hunter, you know that.”

“So? It’s a lot in all the good ways too. And spare me the whole crying a river thing.Everyonehas issues, Rhys. But wait.” He held a hand to his ear. “Surely that can’t be the sound of someone deciding how another person should feel, right?”

My turn for the eye-roll, mostly to hide the fact the fucker was right.

He continued. “Or making decisions for them because you realise things are getting a little too serious? This is starting to sound more like an excuse for cold feet, Rhys.”

I groaned and slumped forward with my face in my hands. “I fucked up, didn’t I?”

“Yes. And damn well look up so I can at least smirk at how fucking awesome I am as a friend.”

I did, and he did.Fucker. I flipped him off and fell back into the overstuffed armchair. “We promised we’d keep talking,” I mumbled.

“Sorry, I can’t hear you?” Hunter cupped his ear.

“Isaid, we agreed that we were bound to fuck up but that it didn’t matter as long as we kept talking.”

“Aha.” Hunter nodded sagely. “Sounds very mature.”

I shot him an unimpressed glare, then sighed. “He, ah, kept asking me to stay this morning, to talk, but I... left.”

Hunter winced. “Right. Definitelylessmature, at least on your part.”

“Shit.” I aimed a kick at the leg of the coffee table and missed. “I’m pretty sure I love him, Hunter.”

Hunter waved his hands in the air. “Sing it for me, brother.”

I threw a pillow and he batted it aside. “But that’s not always enough, right? I’m hardly yournormalguy package.”

“What’s normal?”

“Don’t do that. You know what I mean. I know you think I ran away, and maybe I did. But I thought if I stayed, I might say something I couldn’t take back.”

Hunter’s expression softened. “Then it sounds like maybe you don’t want to push him away after all.”

I nodded and Hunter shoved a box of Kleenex in my hands. “Then why don’t you start with a text? I’m surprised he hasn’t been blowing up your phone.”

There was enough heat in my cheeks to light a bonfire.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Do I have to do everything myself? He has, hasn’t he?”

“Yeah, I um, might have silenced it.”

The look he sent could’ve peeled paint from the walls. “Fuck. Me. I’m friends with a complete idiot. I am so close to losing my shit with you. And don’t roll your eyes at me.”

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