Page 41 of Strictly Curious
I chuckled softly, reaching for his hand. It startled me when he knocked it away and refused to let me hold it. He might have been sobering up a bit, but he was very much still aware that he was pissed at me. The small smile that had been on my face was instantly gone.
“Yeah, no problem.” I scooted further down the bed away from him to give him some space.
Tyler pulled his knees to his chest and squinted his eyes open at me. He seemed like he was a little more stable now after he’d drank all that water and woken up a little.
“I’m still mad.”
I hadn’t needed him to tell me that.
“Figured as much. I don’t blame you.”
Tyler
Hedidn’tblameme?God! It was so infuriating that he’d told these strangers about us, regardless of his good intentions. I wasn’t stupid enough to think people wouldn’t react negatively to two stepbrothers fucking around. Queer people had it bad enough as it was, adding that we were stepbrothers made it worse.
“So what are we going to do about this?” he asked, shifting on the bed, looking around the room. His hands fidgeted in his lap and I felt a little bad for shoving him away. He’d been trying to comfort me. That’s what Garrett did. He was my comforter, my protector.
I rubbed my temples as the room spun again. My eyes closed on their own as I took a few more steadying breaths. “I don’t know. I don’t want to be mad at you. You keep talking about opening up, and I get that. I talked to Maisy like you talked to Ava and Lucy.”
We were talking in circles. The fact was, I was going to be mad for a while, but I’d forgive him, eventually. It was possible that because Garrett had said nothing about Jacob and his boyfriend, that he trusted them. If he could trust them, then so could I.
“Do you want me to cancel dinner with Jacob and Anthony?”
I cracked my eyes open to look at him again. He was still looking anywhere but at me, still feeling guilty. I didn’t want to keep making him feel bad. Maybe I was giving in too easily, but I’d made him suffer enough.
“No, I just…” I took another deep breath and reached for the empty glass of water. I frowned when I realized there was nothing left. “I just need some more water and maybe another hour to rest and I think I’ll be okay. Food would probably be a good idea.”
Garrett’s head snapped in my direction. His eyes were wide, not expecting me to say that I was okay with meeting up with them tonight.
God damn. I was never touching tequila again.
He quickly grabbed the glass from my hand and disappeared to fill it. When he brought it back, I sipped it much more slowly than the last two. The cool water felt really good on my throat. I set the glass down on the nightstand and slid down on the bed to lie back down.
Garrett stood awkwardly at my side and I blinked at him, rolling over and patting the space behind me. I could hear the relief in his sigh before he climbed in behind me and wrapped an arm around my waist.
“You might want to set an alarm, so we don’t oversleep.”
He hummed before he released me to fish out his phone and do just that.
ThesoftchimeofGarrett’s phone alarm woke me up, and I felt warm and comfortable with him plastered against my back. It was strange that most people craved this feeling, yet I’d had it almost every night since I was a child with him. I didn’t know what it was like to be alone, and maybe I should have realized sooner there was more to it than an overly affectionate brother.
Garrett stirred and silenced his alarm. He sat up and stretched, blinking down at me and giving me a sleepy smile. He frowned when I turned my head when he leaned in to kiss me.
He let out a frustrated grunt and kissed the side of my head instead. The gesture still made me feel fluttery and my anger melted a little more.
Garrett grabbed the glass of water from the dresser and handed it to me as I sat up. “Are you ready to get up? You feeling any better?” he asked.
I took a few more sips and was thankful when the room didn’t spin. My stomach growled loudly, and he chuckled taking the glass from me when I was done taking a couple more sips.
“I’m feeling a lot better. Hungry for sure.”
He nodded and stood from the bed, he offered his hand to me. I bit my lip debating if I was going to continue to be petulant and not take it. I ended up giving in and allowing him to help me up.
I let out a startled yelp as he pulled me into his chest, tightly wrapped his arms around me, and held on. “I’m so fucking sorry, Ty.”
I melted into his chest a little, the hard muscle more comfortable than I ever imagined. My arms wound around his waist and I returned his embrace. We stood in silence for a few moments before his arms around me slackened and I backed away from him.
“I know. It’s just going to take me some time to totally forgive you.”
