Page 8 of Spring Fling
“Don’t say shit like that. It means something that you’re so drawn to him, and you need to talk to him about it.”
I shrugged it—and him—off as I opened the box and started sifting through my storage to find what I needed to take on my trip. My shorts were at the bottom of the box, and I pulled out a couple pairs before finding a few tank tops and a couple of t-shirts that were lighter.
“I don’t know, Chase. He made it very clear that we needed to remain friends. Maybe if Nathan hadn’t punched him, things would have been different.”
Chase scoffed. “I’m still pissed he did that. It’s not his place. You’re a grown-ass adult and no matter what his feelings are about his friend and his past behavior, it doesn’t mean he’ll act like that with you.”
I nodded as I returned to the closet and pulled out my suitcase. “Again, I’m not going to force something he doesn’t want. Maybe it’ll fizzle out after a while. In the meantime, Joe is one of the nicest friends I’ve ever had and I’m not about to fuck that up by telling him I’d rather him be railing me than just hanging out.”
That’s what did it. The room filled with laughter as Chase helped me load my clothes into my suitcase. “Maybe this trip will change some things. Take a chance, Aiden. You’ll have an entire week to get him to open up.”
I nodded before Chase pulled me into a tight hug. It was strange how he’d become more of a brother to me in the last few months than my actual brother. When he left, I looked at the bag of packed clothes on my bed. We still had a few days until we were leaving, but suddenly my head started swimming with all sorts of possibilities. Maybe I could finally approach Joe about what I’d found online. There was a chance he could teach me a few things without the fear of Nathan attacking him.
My thoughts scattered as I shook my head and went back to packing my bag. If anything, I was good at being prepared well ahead of time. I had a bag that I packed my travel toiletries in, and as a last-minute decision, I grabbed the small plug I’d bought after watching a video of Joe playing with one recently and tossed it in. I’d yet to use it, but if things went smoothly the next week, maybe it would finally get broken in.
After zipping my suitcase closed, I took a deep breath and looked around my room. Shit, things would really change, wouldn’t they? Or maybe that was my imagination. None of my friends seemed all that different after having sex for the first time. Maybe it was all hyped up in my head as being this big, life-shattering and altering moment. And that was if sex even happened.
Joseph Bishop and sex. The two went hand in hand, but not when it came to me.
Chapter 6
Joe
My hands twitched at my sides as I waited for the car to pull up. Like a fucking idiot, I hadn’t thought that picking Aiden up would be a better idea than his parents dropping him off at the airport.
As usual, SeaTac bustled with busy travelers coming and going. Cars swarmed the departures lane, which made the dash to unload Aiden and get him inside frantic. I also had Teresa drop me off since parking at the airport was such a pain in the ass. McKenzie had been all upset. Big, fat crocodile tears had rolled down her cheeks and my damn heart wanted to split in half, leaving her behind for a week. Even if I’d never wanted to have kids, my niece was everything to me.
The car horn blaring snapped me from my thoughts. I frowned when Nathan glared at me from behind the steering wheel. He’d made it very clear he was pissed I’d offered to take Aiden on this trip and no one else. It might have looked a little less suspicious if I’d invited all the guys to come with us, but even with as much money as I’d been making, I wasn’t makingthatmuch.
I reached for the passenger door, helping Mrs. Grant out so she could give her youngest child a hug after he’d pulled his bag from the trunk. She turned to me next and pulled me into a loose embrace as well.
“Don’t mess this up, Joseph. I told Nathan that he had nothing to worry about and I’m counting on you not to prove me wrong.”
Well, shit. How fucking weird was it that Mrs. Grant had more faith in me than my own friend?
“No problem, Mrs. G. Aiden is safe with me. There’ll be no worries about your boy being hauled off by drug cartels or any of that business.”
The side eye she gave me said that maybe her faith in me didn’t stretch quite that far.
The car horn blared once again, and the passenger window rolled down. Nathan’s glare could have melted the polar ice caps. “I’m serious, Joe. Just because you guys are going to be alone for a week...”
I held my hands up in surrender. “Yeah, yeah. No touching the goods. Got it.”
Mrs. Grant’s face tinted pink as she looked between all of us and then got back into the car. We were already getting a nasty look from one of the security guards for taking too long with the drop-off goodbye.
Once Nathan’s red Toyota was out of sight, I slung an arm over Aiden’s shoulder and dragged him through the double doorsinto the busy check-in area of the airport. People were every-fucking-where, shoving huge bags around or chasing small kids that didn’t want to cooperate. All I needed to worry about was my one suitcase, and the dude at my side.
“Now, Aiden, have you ever flown first class before?”
His eyes widened comically. “I—I’ve never even been on a plane.”
Shit, I’d forgotten that, while the Grant family wasn’t hurting, they still didn’t get out much. My parents had taken me and Teresa on a few trips when we were kids, but we’d never traveled in anything other than economy. The big, cushy, and roomy seats of first class had always called to me. Now that I was spoiling Aiden with this trip, it was the prime opportunity to splurge on the luxury.
“That’s fair. I’ll walk you through everything. First, you need to get your passport out and then we need to go check your bag.”
Aiden nodded, pulling the small blue booklet from his backpack and grasping it tightly in his hand. I frowned at where he’d been keeping it. If I were going to keep my promise to his mother about keeping him safe in a foreign country, even if we were in a tourist trap, he had to know that wasn’t safe.
“From this point forward, find another spot for your passport. Somewhere you can easily reach it so that no one can sneak it out of your things without you noticing,” I explained.
