Page 33 of Promised Summer
Jones chuckled into my skin, then pressed his lips into that sensitive area right behind my ear. My breath caught, not only because of the gentle gesture, but the fact he was being so openly affectionate in front of practically the entire town. He was basically telling everyone I was his…and I didn’t hate it.
“Why, aren’t you two the cutest?”
We both shuffled to turn toward the voice, shuffling because Jones refused to remove his arms from my middle, which made for an awkward execution.
Jones’ older brother, Jordan, greeted us with a muchsmaller man tucked into his arm. Well, compared to Jordan,everyonewas small. Even Jones was an inch shorter than his brother, but this stranger downright drowned inside Jordan’s embrace.
“Hi! I’m Wren. It’s good to finally meet you,” the smaller man said.
“Soyou’rethe famous Wren I’ve been hearing about. It’s good to meet you, too,” I replied. He was the travel vlogger everyone in town had been talking about.
“Only good things, I hope,” Wren said with a laugh.
Jordan kissed the top of his boyfriend’s head and said, “Of course. Everyone loves you, Wren.”
They were a mismatched pair, Jordan with his stoic, serious personality, and Wren with his bubbly, very expressive face. But seeing them together like this, they somehow fit together perfectly.
“There you are, Jones! You’re missing all the fun,” Ryker called as he came to our side. “Dan’s flirting with one of the twins again. I think it’s Jasmin this time.” He frowned. “Or maybe it’s Jayla…it’s so hard to tell when they always dress the same.”
“You get them mixed up even if they’re dressed differently,” Jordan commented, which had Ryker visibly flustered.
The man holding Ryker’s hand laughed and looked at his partner lovingly. I recognized him as Sam, the grandson of my neighbor. I knew he was engaged to a man, but I hadn’t known the man was Ryker.
I’d met Ryker a few times during the summers I’dvisited Kither Springs, but we never hung out much. Jones was always a little possessive of me as a friend, and I was okay with it because I liked when it was just the two of us.
I never had the chance to get to know Ryker before, but last I heard, he’d identified as straight. Now, here he was, not giving a single fuck as he kissed his fiancé right in front of us.
I’d mostly dated women in the past, but if I was being completely honest, I connected more with men. And being demisexual and all, an emotional connection was important to me. I pushed that aside, though, because dating women was just…easier?
I hated that society had conditioned us to think there was a ‘normal’ way of dating. Maybe if I’d grown up in a town as supportive as Kither Springs, then I wouldn’t have wasted so much time with Jones by running away, because running was easier than facing head on that I was in love with a man.
God, I’d been so stupid. I again realized just how patient Jones had been with me. When friends came over to us, he rested his chin on my shoulder. His hands were still wrapped around my middle in a claiming manner.
I twined our fingers together and twisted my head just enough to give him a quick kiss. Being out in the open with a man was new for me, but for Jones, I wanted to be braver.
He deserved that.
Chapter Thirteen
JONES
“Clay’s been glowering at them the entire time,” Sam said with a snicker. One of my twin cousins had her back to the wall and was currently laughing at something Dan had said to her. As Sam said, Clay was sitting at a table not too far from them, glaring daggers their way.
The six of us migrated closer to watch the show. We crowded around one of the food tables to make it not so obvious that we were watching. The benefit was that I was able to snack on all the good food along with the entertainment.
“Do you think Clay’s teenage crush on the twins is still alive? Is that why he looks like he’s about to storm over there and punch Dan in the face?” Ryker commented.
“He’d better not. If they start a fight, they’re bannedfrom all future cookouts,” I muttered over a bite of grilled chicken. Papa really was the master of the grill.
“So I hear you moved to town recently,” Ryker asked, glancing at Ryan.
I shot him a look, begging him to play nice. Sam was all smiles, so I couldn’t use him to gauge his fiancé’s mood.
Ryan nodded. “Yeah. My daughter and I moved here a few weeks ago. I was hoping to have found a place of our own sooner than this, but for now, we’re still at my grandma’s.”
“The rental market around here has been brutal recently, isn’t that right?” Sam chimed in. Ryker smiled happily as they told Ryan about how trying to rent an apartment led them to pretend to be engaged, which, in turn, led to them falling in love and getting engaged for real.
They were all laughing by the time the story was over. Ryker glanced at me, which shot a bolt of worry through me, because it looked like he was definitely about to do something, but this was Ryker. He’d always had my back and had been nice to Deke despite hating his guts, all because I’d asked him to. He probably wouldn’t do anything to Ryan…right?
