Page 71 of The Jock
“I just wanted to help,” Colby mumbled. “It’s not a big deal.”
Milo leaned over and kissed Colby on the cheek. “Don’t be modest, it’s weird. You know it’s a good thing or you wouldn’t have worked so hard to make it happen.”
Jonah and Spencer arrived as Taylor poked his head out of the kitchen. He grabbed a pot of coffee from behind the counter and came over to the table to fill everyone’s cups.
“Is this everybody?” Spencer asked as he sat down.
“Nash can’t make it,” Colby said.
“Neither can Damon.” Jonah added a couple of sugars to his coffee before passing the sugar dispenser down the line.
Milo’s favorite part of breakfast was this. The way he could say nothing at all and still feel included, like he was still part of something even if he didn’t say much. Or anything. Sometimes Milo didn’t know what to say, but he liked to listen to everyone.
He liked it best when Colby pretended not to notice Milo sneaking bacon from his plate, and when he scooted closer to him, not wanting any distance between them at all.
Colby, as it turned out, was a clinger, but Milo didn’t mind. There wasn’t a single thing about his boyfriend that he would change. And he knew Colby felt the same way.
It had taken a while for Milo to understand that Colby didn’t want Milo to be anything or anyone other than who he was. After being with someone like Neville, who had quietly and subtlypicked away at Milo’s confidence, being with Colby was a dream and sometimes he was still afraid that he’d wake up.
Colby glanced at his watch when breakfast was over and got to his feet. “I hate to eat and run, but we have somewhere to be.”
Milo looked up at him. “We do?”
“We do.”
“Ooh, a surprise,” Taylor said.
Jonah smirked. “It’s probably dirty.”
“Ew, a surprise,” Taylor said again, wrinkling his nose in mock disgust.
“Come on.” Colby held his hand out for Milo, who looked at everyone sitting around the table.
“None of you knew about this?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“We’re as clueless as you are,” Ethan said. “But you’d better get going. Colby has his impatient face on.”
“I do not,” Colby griped. “Okay, maybe a little.”
Milo took Colby’s hand and got to his feet. “Okay. Um… See you all later, I guess.”
Colby wasted no time tugging Milo out of there.
“Where’s the fire?” Milo asked as he climbed into the passenger seat.
“You’ll see.” Colby put the car in gear and eased out of the parking lot. They didn’t drive very long before Colby turned down a street that was lined with trees. Everything was quiet, serene. Colby led him up to an apartment building and he punched in a number on the intercom.
“Hi, I’m the ten o’clock.”
The front door buzzed and Colby led Milo into the building. It was quiet and clean, and though it wasn’t new, it looked like it was in good shape.
They took the elevator up to the fourth floor and met someone outside of unit 410.
“Colby, what’s going on?”
“This is the two-bedroom. There’s a unit on the ground floor for considerably less, but it’s one bedroom. Show yourselves around. I’ll wait out here.” The stranger talked like he did this a lot.
