Page 36 of Flirting With Fire
“Good lord. So that’s what’s been eating at you.” Meyer dragged his fingers through his tangled hair. “Ever witness me pawing the cheerleaders in school?”
I drew my eyebrows together as I ran some of my many Meyer memories through my head. “I detected no pawing.”
“What about inappropriate locker room jokes or rude comments to the hot chicks regarding their anatomy?”
“Pawing wasn’t inappropriate enough?”
He gave me a fake punch in the arm. “You know what I mean. And who did I take to the prom?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “How should I know? I was too young to go, didn’t care anyway, and was doing my best to banish you from my thoughts. I certainly wasn’t ruminating on who you were dating.”
He gave me a wry smile. “That’s just it. Had you taken the time to ruminate, you would’ve realized I never, ever dated a woman. I took my bestie to the prom because her date crapped out on her at the last minute.” Meyer groaned. “Listen, Dex. I’ve known I was gay since I was, like, ten or something. Mom always knew, so it was the most uneventful coming-out announcement ever.”
My gut tightened. What the actual fuck? How did I not realize this? I used to hang out at his house with the guys after practice, mooning over him andwishinghe was gay. My entire high school experience was a filthy lie.
I straightened.Wait a sec. “Then why were you always treating me so shitty? If it wasn’t homophobia, does that meanyou can’t stand the sight of me?” I narrowed my eyes. “Maybe it’s not such a great idea for you to rent the guesthouse after all.”
Meyer held up his hands, palms out. “Whoa, don’t jump to wild conclusions.”
“Wild? Treating me like I had the plague, constantly benching me, barely speaking to me…how is that jumping to conclusions? You even told me not to keep coming to your house anymore after the final game. I’d say it’s pretty clear you didn’t want a damn thing to do with me.”
Meyer let out an aggravated sigh. “You really are a dolt. An adorable one, but a dolt nonetheless.”
I was about to tear into him over the dolt remark, but then adorable jolted me out of my rage.
“I’m so confused.”
Meyer shook his head. “Clearly. Don’t you get it? I had itbadfor you. Wanted you more than anything and was tormented by the realization we could never be together.”
Mind. Blown. Maybe I’d been hit with a big rock after all and was hallucinating this entire conversation.
“Whoa. Didn’t see that one coming.” I tilted my head. “And why couldn’t we be together?”
Meyer rubbed his forehead and sighed as if I were giving him the biggest headache ever. I’d been known to do that to my sister on many occasions, so it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.
“I was eighteen, graduating high school, and leaving for college. You were still only fifteen.” He arched his eyebrows. “Speaking of inappropriate.”
“Well, yeah, but…” I snorted. “It’s not as if half the class wasn’t already having sex.”
Meyer let out a small growl. “You were having sex?”
I had to admit the growl was pretty hot, but that was irrelevant to the subject at hand. “No. Not even close.” I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t exactly in demand.”
He gave a dip of his chin. “Good.”
“Gee, thanks,” I said with exaggerated sarcasm.
“You’re missing the point,” he said with a frown. “That’s all I was ever doing back then. Protecting you.”
“Ha!” I huffed. “You barely noticed I was alive when we weren’t on the field, let aloneprotectingme.”
“Dex. Look at me.”
When I didn’t respond, he placed his knuckle under my chin, encouraging me to meet his eyes. I was still irritated, although the closer he scooted toward me, the less angry I was. I met his gaze. Was there hope for us after all? I’d clearly missed a crucial piece of information about him from high school. And, of course, he was right about our age difference back then. What was no big deal now was like an eternity when we were teens.
“I’m looking, Meyer.” I swallowed hard. He needed to own up for real. Otherwise, if we ever got out of the mine alive, I planned on keeping him at arm’s length from now on. “I need the truth.”
“I’m serious about my desire to keep you safe. Believe me; don’t believe me, it’s your choice. Even if we couldn’t be together the way I wanted, I could still watch over you.”
