Page 3 of Perfect Storm
Aidan considered telling Levi that if he didn’t like theoptionshere, he could leave. And he could take Landry and Riley with him.
But he was afraid if he said it, Levi would announce, loudly and with zero subtlety, that Aidan was drowning his sorrows.
As much as Aidan had attempted and thankfullyfailedto fuck up his relationship with his brother, Riley wouldn’t take that sitting down. He’d demand to know what was going on, and he wouldn’t be easily distracted like Levi had been.
And Aidanstilldidn’t want to talk about it.
“You could always fuck Aidan,” Riley said to Levi, grinning.
Landry squawked in outrage, like hearing abouthisbest friend fucking was somehow different than Aidan having to know what he’d just done inhiskitchen, withhisbrother.
“Aidan’s straight as a fucking arrow,” Landry said.
Oh, that was cute. Aidanwishedthat was true. That it was as true today as it had been his whole goddamn life, all the way up until his close friend Morris had signed a blockbuster deal withthe Raiders and fucked off to the other side of the country, and Aidan had realized, way too fucking late, that maybe his friendly and brotherly feelings about him were not nearly as platonic as he’d always believed.
“Like you were straight?” Riley waggled his eyebrows at his boyfriend.
Landry flushed. Looking, like Levi had just said,dickmatized.
Riley was a good-looking kid, but the eyebrow waggling was not his best look. That didn’t seem to matter. Landry always looked like this around him. Like he was constantly dazed by the good fortune that Riley had ever deigned to look in his direction.
It was gross, and maybe a tiny bit cute.
Aidan ruthlessly cut off the thought that, at one time, he’d hoped that he might be able to look at Mo like that. That he might beallowedto look at Mo like that.
Levi shared a commiserating glance with Aidan. Of course he didn’t know what he was commiserating, but it was still more comforting than Aidan might have imagined five minutes ago. “Wouldn’t that be a little . . .I don’t know . . .incestuous?”
“And when has thateverstopped you?” Riley asked in disbelief. “You and Logan both fucked Carter Maxwell.”
“Not at the same time!” Levi yelped, like this was an important detail that everyone hadn’t already assumed.
“Ew, gross. IknowCarter,” Landry muttered.
Aidan took a long gulp of whiskey.
“I don’t know, I don’t think it would be,” Riley said slowly. “You’re not actually related.”
He didn’t want to lie to Riley or Landry. Lying to Levi was more fluid, but he was present, too, so Aidan supposed he counted. Thus, he could not stand up and declare that yes, he was way too goddamn straight to fuck Levi.
Just way too caught up in someone else.
“True.” Levi looked contemplative, like he was actually thinking about this. And that was not going to happen. Not now, not ever.
There was nothing to do about it, but change the subject,again.
God, did he have to doeverything?
Aidan pulled himself up from the couch, whiskey sloshing in his glass, dripping onto his hand. He licked it off and ignored the face Riley made about it. “Come on,” he said, “let’s go outside. S’mores, right, Ri?”
Riley looked like he knew what Aidan was trying to do, but the more important thing was that he didn’t call him on it.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Riley said.
Aidan hesitated in front of Levi, still sprawled out on the couch, big thick thighs exposed with his pair of short neon yellow shorts. Aidan couldn’t say his fashion sense was the best, but at least he didn’t unironically wear neon.
Levi shot him a pouting look. “Not gonna help me up?”
“This isn’t a double date,” Aidan said flatly.
