Page 29 of The Virgin
Colby reached over and upped the speed on Jonah’s treadmill. “What are brothers for?”
They were quiet for a while, and Jonah knew Colby was biding his time, waiting for him to crack. But he wasn’t going to. Not about this. He didn’t want his brother to know how small and sad he’d been. How hard it was for him to form connections with people that allowed him to get closer to them. Casual sex wasn’t something Jonah had been capable of before, and he doubted, even after all of Spencer’s help, that he’d be capable of it now. Jonah was coming to realize that he wasn’t wired that way, but slowly he was starting to accept himself more and more. He gave the credit for that to Spencer, who had been so sweet and patient with him as he discovered these things.
“If I promise that I’m okay, will you let it go?” Jonah asked.
“Uh, no offense, but your idea of okay is different from the actual meaning of the word. So, no, not good enough.” Colby made an annoying buzzer sound. “Try again.”
“How about I swear that I’m working through it, and it’s nothing that you need to worry about, and that I have someone to talk to about this, but I really, really don’t want to discuss it with you.”
Colby sighed. “Yeah, that’ll do, Jo-Jo.”
“Stop with the Jo-Jo shit, please. I’m a grown man.”
“If you were a grown man, you wouldn’t have to say that you’re a ‘grown man,’” Colby mocked him, and before Jonah could form a response, Colby turned the speed of his treadmill up again.
“Asshole,” Jonah managed to say as he forced his body to keep up with the machine.
“Never said I wasn’t.” Colby laughed and stopped pressing Jonah to open up. He put him through a gentle, but horrible, workout before shoving him toward the gym’s showers with a bottle of water. Colby had a class starting in a few minutes and had to go prepare for it.
“Before I go…” Jonah caught Colby’s gaze. “Thanks for looking out for me.”
“If you were truly grateful, you’d let me call you Jo-Jo.”
“As if I could stop you.” Jonah offered Colby a smile before heading for the showers.
A quick rinse helped refresh him and soothe his tired muscles, but he was still going to pay for the workout later. Colby had gone easy on him—but not too easy—and Jonah’s poor body wasn’t used to the exertion anymore. Which probably meant he should come here more often. But Jonah had class all day and grading after school. Which left mornings, which… No. Or weekends, when Jonah already had Sunday morning breakfast at the diner and the rest of the time he wanted to keep open to spend with Spencer. And there wasn’t just Spencer. There was Damon too. Jonah could hardly let one friendship languish just because he was horny and eager to spend every waking moment with Spencer.
There needed to be more hours in a day because Jonah didn’t know when he was supposed to be able to spend time alone with Spencer and spend time with Damon and Spencer like they always did. Then there was work, and his family, and workouts with Colby, because Jonah had the suspicion that the workout today had also been for Colby as much as it had been for him.
The workout had successfully emptied Jonah’s energy store, and he dragged his ass into his townhouse, dropping his keys on the table by the door. He got as far as the couch and lay down. He only meant to rest for a minute, but he blinked awake hours later. The light in the room was considerably different and a glance at the clock confirmed that it was almost dinner time.
Jonah’s phone buzzed, and he fumbled to answer it. “H-hello?” Jonah cleared his throat. “Hello?” he said again.
“Hey, you okay?” Spencer’s voice made Jonah grin like an idiot, and he was glad no one else was there to see it.
“I’m fine. Just woke up. Colby dragged my ass to the gym after breakfast. I think he tried to kill me.” Jonah sat up, groaning as his body protested the movement. “I think I need a new body. This one hurts.”
“You should soak in the bath.”
Jonah laughed, then groaned again. “I don’t think I can move that far.”
“He really tried to kill you, didn’t he?”
Jonah sighed. “I’m so out of shape. I probably went too hard, to be honest.”
Jonah tried to move, but all he did was make his body angry.
“Are you okay?” Spencer asked again, sounding increasingly concerned.
“I’ll live. Maybe. Hopefully. Or not.”
“I’ll be right there.”
“Spencer, you don’t have to. I’m okay.”
“Yeah, and I’m coming over. See you soon.”
The call ended, and Jonah couldn’t help how stupidly happy it made him to know that Spencer would drop everything and rush over to make sure he was all right. If he could have moved, he’d have gotten up and freshened up for Spencer, but he sat and waited and tried not to hate Colby too much.
