Page 30 of Brad & Finn
Brad began to stroke his thumb over the stubble on Finn’s jaw, as if he was trying to read a secret message in his skin. If he did it long enough, maybe he’d be able to read Finn’s entire history spelled out in the soft hairs on his face.
Finn forced himself to meet Brad’s eyes. They were like two pools of molten chocolate, warmth and kindness overflowing and leaving no room for doubt.
“There you go,” Brad murmured, his lips curved in a sweet smile. “I would like nothing more than to become your lover tonight. With or without Chloe’s knowledge and blessing.”
Finn shivered and grabbed onto Brad’s forearm for support, so he wasn’t tempted to slide down the wall into a boneless puddle like the previous night.
“O-okay,” he whispered.
Brad’s grin spread across his face like sunrise over the Blue Ridge Mountains.
They held hands as Brad guided him out from behind the boxes and coat rack. Brad squeezed his fingers once beforedropping his hand as they emerged into the bar area. Chloe was standing alone at the bar, looking down at her phone.
She didn’t look up when they approached. “There’s a tour of the campus from nine to eleven tomorrow, and I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not that interested in it.”
Brad and Finn glanced at each other. “I ended up walking around near the end of the icebreaker, so I’m good,” Brad said.
“And I’m fine without,” Finn agreed.
“There’s a basketball game between the current varsity team and our old team,” she told them. “That could be fun? If you both come over and help pack some of the heavier boxes, we should be able to finish in time for the game.”
Finn agreed, because he couldn’t care less which parts of the reunion they attended, but he gently nudged Brad’s side. “Are you sure that’s okay? We don’t have to take you away from the reunion.”
He wouldn’t have been able to put it into words when they were kids, but Brad tended to say yes to too many people and too many things. Finn had already seen hints of it at the reunion.
So had Chloe, it seemed, because she finally looked up from her phone and narrowed her eyes at Brad. “Yeah, don’t say yes just because I asked, Bradley. There’s no need to people please with us. We can go if you want to.”
Brad blinked in surprise, but then shook his head. “It’s fine. Seriously. I just want to hang out with you guys. I have less than zero interest in looking at our old, falling-apart school building.”
“Well then,” Chloe said, pocketing her phone and giving them both a broad, shit-eating grin. “I hope you both have fun eating maple candy together.”
Brad laughed, scratching at the back of his head, and Finn felt his flush run from his forehead down into his pants.
“Thanks, Chloe. It was amazing to see you today, and I can’t wait for tomorrow,” Brad said, pulling Chloe into a classic, Brad-style bear hug.
Chloe grumbled and slapped at his back, but her grin was just as wide as his.
When Chloe was able to extricate herself, she gazed steadily at Finn. He felt something in his chest tug, pulling him forward until he wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
“Be careful with your beautiful heart, hon,” she whispered. “I think Brad will take good care of it, but you make sure you take good care of it, too.”
He squeezed her tightly until he felt her spine pop. She sighed, and they laughed together as he pulled back. It was an old trick Kendall taught them that they’d often employed during grueling practices and long games.
Chloe slung her arm around Finn’s shoulders, and he offered to walk her back to the high school to get her rental car. Brad opted to head back to the hotel to “do a bit of tidying up.”
Fifteen minutes later, Chloe dropped him in front of the hotel with a campy salute, and Finn shook his head and laughed to himself all the way to his room. He ran through a quick hygiene session in the bathroom and threw a few things in a bag before rushing across the hall to stand in front of Brad’s door. He could hear shuffling, and for a moment, he was nearly paralyzed by nerves.
But then he told himself he’d already crossed a turning point back at the bar. Or maybe it had been the previous night, when he’d invited Brad into his room and been more vulnerable with him than sex could ever be.
Finn straightened his shoulders, knocked on the door, and hoped that if they’d gotten through that, they could get through anything.
5
BRAD
For some reason,Brad thought it would be a good idea to open the door holding the maple candies in his hand, like it was god damn Halloween or something.
Finn blinked his bright green eyes at Brad, and the bag he had slung over his shoulder slipped down to the crook of his arm.
