Page 21 of Cherry Picking
“I don’t even know what that would mean.”
Neither do I. Not really.
“It means …” I slide my hand down to close over his. “You can tell me about Matty. You don’t have to hide or feel like I’m going to pressure you to come out. You can just … be Riley with me.”
A whoosh of air leaves his lungs, and his fingers slip between mine. His eyes search my face and soften at whatever they find.
“I already am.”
Neither one of us makes a move to get closer or break away. We sit there on the cold bathroom floor, linked together as Riley spills his story.
Slowly. Painfully.
Of how he met a boy on the rink, dancing on skates, and how they fell in love. How they reveled in their secrets and their privacy. How they filled the holes in one another until they couldn’t see the cracks starting to form.
To the penultimate end.
To the turning point where one had to choose to save themself.
Leaving Riley lost and bereft of the only outlet of love he had.
I should know better than to weave my story with his.
But as his fingers tighten on mine with every relieved breath, not a single part of me regrets it.
CHAPTER 5
GRIFFIN
If I thought becomingRiley’s confidant was going to make me want him less, I was dead wrong.
Whereas I was trying to stop being such a horn dog around the beefy D-man, what I didn’t take into account was that listening to him get all soft about his secret ex-boyfriend would make me want to grab his face and kiss him.
To take all of that heartache from him and put myself in the danger zone.
Because Riley is still deep in the closet, and anyone seen with me is opened up to ridicule.
So I keep things light. Jovial. Making him smile before he can get lost in his memories. We talk as we go over plays, as we do domestic shit like laundry and dishes. There’s not a lot of silence between the two of us, but conversation doesn’t feel forced either.
It’s like we both have too much to say and—until now—no way to let it all out.
“Let’s talk bedroom.” I turn to face him on the couch where he’s actuallyfolding laundryand wink.
He quirks a brow, and I swat my shirt out of his hand and whack him on the shoulder with it.
“I have learned very, very intimate things about yours and Matty’s relationship. What you haven’t told me though …” I lean in close and grin. “Is what position you play? In bed?”
Teasing Riley about sex is one of my favorite things. He never fails to get pink and flustered, and he does this thing with his hands when he’s trying to work out what to say like he needs them to be in motion.
“You don’t have to tell me,” I say quietly. Maybe this is the line for him. Talking feelings is one thing but being open about the sex … that’s something else entirely.
He sends me a fleeting smile and wrings his hands out one more time before bringing them clasped to his lips.
“No, it’s fine.” The blond hair at the top falls into his eyes as he shakes his head, and it’s involuntary of me to brush it aside. “I fucked him, but he was such a bossy little thing. Lithe but strong. I didn’t mind being ordered around; in fact, I liked that he could tell me what he wanted because … I never knew what I did.”
“What kinds of things did he like?”
Somehow, Riley’s face gets even redder, and I prop an elbow on the back cushion of the couch and watch him.
