Page 51 of Spring Breakup
“Later. We’ll finish this later,” Tyler said.
Hewasbeing honest with himself.
Wasn’t he?
He’d been told in therapy once that overthinking was a defense mechanism. That it disconnected him from his intuition and made it hard to recognize and trust his feelings.
He planned and overplanned for every possible situation until he was more to-do list than real-life instinct.
With Francis, he had logic-ed his way into a relationship that was perfect on paper, only to be completely fucking screwed because he didn’t trust his intuition when it told him that perfect on paper wasn’t good enough.
But his emotions weren’t safe right then. And yeah, he didn’t trust them.
He sure as hell didn’t trust Dean’s either.
The large truck slowed down. Dean gave the driver a tight smile, and they both lifted their hands in a friendly gesture that had obviously been drilled into their Midwestern heads.
“Dean,” Tyler hissed through his teeth. “Where did that truck come from?”
He had a sinking feeling it was from Silverbrite Springs. Which meant—
The passenger side window rolled down, and their fantasy bubble cracked and crashed apart. Wrangell leaned over from the driver’s seat and smiled.
“Well, aren’t you two a sight for sore eyes. I’m Wrangell, by the way. You must be Davey,” Wrangell said, introducing himself to Dean.
“Nice to meet you,” Dean said. He sounded dazed and didn’t correct Wrangell about his name. “The avalanche debris is cleared, I guess?”
“Yep! You’ll see machinery coming through this morning. Hopefully, everyone can move freely by late morning, early afternoon. Some fancy scientific forecasters are going to do an evaluation to determine there’s no risk of another slush flow. I’m on my way to pick them up. They broke down up the road.”
Wrangell continued on about avalanche forecasters and snow rangers, spouting the kind of information that Tyler normally would have eaten up, but his head was too full. All he heard was gibberish.
“Sorry,” Wrangell patted his steering wheel. “I’ve been staying at Sarg’s place in the hills, and it’s lonely as hell. I’m talking your ear off, and it’s too early in the morning for that.”
“Sarg’s home is on the Silverbrite Springs side of the avalanche?” Tyler asked.
“Yeah. Did you meet my elusive brother?”
“We met him,” Dean said, dark humor in his voice.
“Where has he been staying then?” Tyler asked. They hadn’t seen him going in or out of Brooks’s cabin. He always appeared from the woods.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Wrangell said. “I try not to worry about it. Anyway, Brooks is driving your friends back later today. I’m sorry your spring break was such a bust.”
“It was okay,” Tyler said, but the words tasted sour.
Wrangell said his goodbyes and took off down the gravel road. Other vehicles followed like he’d said they would.
“We better go clean up,” Tyler said. He wanted to confirm there was no evidence of their little arrangement lying around.
Dean made a clicking noise with his tongue that plainly communicated his disappointment.
There was something aboutdisappointmentthat completely shredded Tyler. Maybe it was a relic of being an overachieving gay kid growing up. Maybe it was because he worked in education, and there was nothing worse than disappointing his boss or his students or his students’ parents.
Whatever it was, disappointment fucked him up. He opened his mouth to apologize, but Dean didn’t let him.
Dean shook his head once, hard, and said, “Let’s go, angel. I’ve got to put away my dirty drawings of you.”
ChapterTwenty-One
