Page 34 of Spring Breakup
“It’s worth it,” Leo said.
“What is?”
“Love. Friendship.”
“I know friendship is important.” Dean was getting aggravated. “We’ve been friends for a long time. That’s not nothing to me.”
“Right, but Dean… one day, someone’s going to putyoufirst, and it’ll blow your mind. And you’ll want to put them first too. That’s worth it. Worth the risk of getting hurt or getting rejected.”
It wasn’t rejection, per se, that scared Dean. He’d been turned down before. But exposing your weak spots andthenbeing rejected?
No way. He wasn’t doing that.
“If you say so,” Dean said. “Tell me about Silverbrite Springs. What are the locals like?”
Leo let him change the subject. He regaled Dean with stories about the town that seemed to be nestled at the end of the earth. He talked about walking to a secret viewpoint of the glacier with Wrangell and Brooks, who were both stranded in town as well. He gushed about the locals’ hospitality and gruff kindness.
And Dean listened with half an ear because he could hear Tyler moving around downstairs, and it was taking every inch of restraint in his body not to go down there and follow all Leo’s suggestions.
ChapterThirteen
“So how’s thisgoing to work?” Tyler asked Dean over breakfast the next morning.
“How’s what going to work?” Dean grouched. He had hardly glanced up from his bagel, but Tyler wasn’t going to let Dean’s mood ruin his day.
Tyler often let other people’s emotions affect him. He worried and fretted and thought every emotional change of wind was his fault. Francis had called him overly sensitive once. He’d thrown Tyler’s empathy back in his face, accused him of being self-absorbed. Had said the world didn’t revolve around Tyler. It was a lesson that had been simultaneously true and hurtful.
But Dean wasn’t his boyfriend or friend, and it didn’t matter if he was grumpy in the mornings. It wasn’t a reflection on Tyler’s worth.
“Our sex arrangement.”
“So that wasn’t a one-time thing?”
“Did you want it to be?” Tyler asked.
Dean set his bagel down, and his gaze traveled from Tyler’s face down his body. “No. I told you that yesterday, that I want to do it a million times, which you responded to by leaving like I had the plague.”
“Oh.” A pinch of regret slipped through Tyler. “I’m sorry. Did that hurt your feelings?” Being lovey-dovey afterward had felt dangerous and contradictory to their arrangement.
Dean pressed his palms against his eyes. “It’s fine. I’m fine. So let’s talk about how this is going to work.” He dropped his hands.
“Yeah.”
“Well, if you want something from me, all you got to do is ask. Or better yet, show me.”
Tyler swallowed hard. “Show you?”
“Yes. I’m a very visual person.”
A small smile tickled Tyler’s lips. “You’re an artist.”
“No. I’m not,” Dean said. “Show me what you want.”
“That’s hard.” Tyler stood up, though.
“I know it is. But I like difficult, remember?”
Tyler made his way around the table. Maybe, if he was brave enough, he could test out that fantasy that had been plinking around his brain for ages.
