Page 46 of Stick By Me

“Yeah, and spreadsheets and databases, all the fun stuff.” With a giggle, I leaned into him. My nerdy side was about to come out, but I’d keep it in check. “Anyways, Mom left work for a while to raise me and Axel. That’s how she met Remy’s mom. They were in a stay-at-home mom’s club and the moms would get together with us kids, or sometimes go out for dinner together without us.”

“To get a break from you heathens.” Holding his beer to his lips, he snorted. “I’d love to have seen what you and Axel were like growing up.”

“Well, Axel is four years younger than me. But I swear to God, he proclaimed his attraction to boys and men as soon as he could talk.” Shaking my head, I barked out a laugh.

“How did your parents take it?” With his grin waning, he tapped his index finger on the lip of his beer glass.

“Mom was cool with it. It’s like she knew.” I sucked in a breath. “Dad, on the other hand.” I lifted my brows and whistled. “He was sure Axel had seen something on TV that was causing it and he’d grow out of it.” I sipped my beer. “Axel was never shamed for being gay, but my dad didn’t accept it right away like Mom did.” And I was pretty sure me and Mom were the only ones who saw that side of Dad. Shit, was that why I was having so many problems coming out? Was there some fucked up shit in my psyche from it?

He ran his fingers up and down the condensation of his beer glass. “My dad was livid.”

Dropping my mouth open, I cut my gaze to his, my heartstinging for him. “I’m sorry. You said something about him calling you a fag.” Was I going to hear the whole story now? I wanted to hear it. I wanted to know all about him.

“Yeah.” He scowled. “Truthfully? I came out to him because I’d decided to start dating only men and I thought Milo was going to be the guy. You know?” His lips bowed down.

I squirmed in my seat, heat flaring in my chest. I couldn’t be jealous of Milo. There was nothing between them anymore. “Uh-huh.” I nodded, fixating on him.

“I was sure Milo was going to be my first boyfriend, so I figured, what the hell? Get the formalities out of the way with dear ol’ dad. But then he was such an ass about it.” He hung his head, tracing his index finger back and forth on the table. “And then Milo showed up at our first date with Ryder and I knew it wasn’t meant to be.” He gulped down his beer.

Fuck, he’d cared a lot more about Milo than he’d let on. “Did Milo know any of this?” It wasn’t like Milo to be a dick to anyone. He was one of the nicest guys in the band, as far as I could tell.

“No, I didn’t have the heart to say anything to him.” He threw his arm up in air with a huff, then sank into the seat, tipping his head on the back of the cushion. “As soon as I saw him with Ryder, it was like his whole being lit up, body and soul. I knew it wasn’t going to work out for us and I sure as shit wasn’t going to get between them.”

Squeezing him into my side, I said, “That was pretty big of you.”

He turned his head to gaze at me. “Yeah, I’m not a drama queen.” His lips curled in a soft smile. “I may be a queen?—”

“But not a drama queen.” I tickled his side.

With a sharp giggle, he jerked away from me. “Stop it.” Twisting on the seat, he held both his hands up to me. “Don’t you dare get any ideas.”

“You’re ticklish. Likereallyticklish.” I wiggled my fingers at him, inching toward him. I was going to have fun with this later.

“Only Jonah knows about that, and sometimes I hate him for it.” He mock glared at me. “Are you going to put your fingers away?”

“If you come back here and sit next to me, I will.” I faced my plate and set my forearms on the table, then peeked at him. It was going to kill me, but I wasn’t going to tickle him again…in the restaurant.

“Okay.” Slowly, he shifted into his place next to me, watching me. “Don’t try anything. I’m warning you.”

“I won’t.” I sniggered, covering my mouth with the back of my hand. “But really, who’d have thought a big tough hockey player was that ticklish.” The fact was, it made him human and even more adorable to me.

“So, let’s eat up and walk it off in the shops. What do you say?” He eyed me, then ate more pizza.

“Sounds good to me.” I drank some beer, thinking on the rest of the day. “What about dinner? Maybe we could stop at the grocery store, and I could cook for everyone?” I’d finally get my chance to show off my skills in the kitchen for him.

“Hell yeah. I’ll text the guys and see how many of them will be home. Sometimes they all go out for the day.” He gave me a warm smile.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

ARCHER

After strolling around the shops on Mill Avenue, I’d received text messages from all my housemates and it turned out, no one was going to be home tonight. I couldn’t say I wasn’t happy about the prospect of having Leo all to myself at my place. He’d talked me into letting him cook a Cajun chicken and rice dish and now I could barely stay out of the kitchen as the scent of the spicy food flooded the house “That smells so good, Leo.” I hovered around his back as he stirred our dinner in a large pot on our stove.

“Good. Told you, you’d like it.” Turning his head, he pulled my face toward him and landed a kiss on my cheek. “You should know, I enjoy cooking for people. Especially those I…” He widened his eyes and his breath caught.

“What? What were you going to say?” With a smirk, I stood next to him and crossed my arms over my chest.

“Those I um, care about.” Tilting his head, his cheeks flushed. “Go and set the table, it’s almost ready.”

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