But now that he thought about the past few weeks, he felt stupid. The lunches, the T-ball games, the hikes in the woods. The way he’dtouched Jeff’s face. Romantic campfires just for the two of them and the park’s sixteen billion mosquitoes. “You werestealth dating me?”
Carter laughed, which was unfairly devastating at this distance. “I really didn’t think I was being that sneaky. But yes. I’ve had feelings for you since before I could acknowledge I’m bi even to myself. So I thought, you know—you’re here for the summer. Why not give it a try? I’m not willing to spend the rest of my life wondering if we could’ve had more. I want to know for sure.”
“Fuck.” Jeff weaseled out of Carter’s grip and steepled his hands in front of his mouth. “You really… for that long?”
“Maybe not as long as you,” Carter admitted, which was more of a blow to Jeff’s dignity than his ego. It had been nice believing Carter had been oblivious to his feelings, at least before Jeff started singing about them on the radio. “But yeah.”
“Jesus.” He shook his head, and a smile started to creep over his lips despite his misgivings. Maybe things had gone to shit fifteen years ago, but Jeff had forgiven that, consciously or not. And maybe his life was still a mess, but his life would always be a mess. That shouldn’t stop him from living it. “You know, if you’d told me this in high school, I wouldn’t have lost my V card to that guy from robotics club.”
Carter’s eyes went molten in an immediate and obvious tell.
“Oh no,” Jeff said, wagging his finger. “No, okay. Ground rule, no jealousy shit. Except for hot sex purposes. I live a public life. No nonsense or we might as well give up now.”
He expected Carter to react with chagrin or defensiveness, but instead he got a brilliant, wide smile. It took Jeff a second to recover from it and ask, “What?”
“Just—yes?” Carter said. “You set a ground rule, so that means yes, right? You’re going to date me for real?”
“Apparently we were already dating anyway,” Jeff said. He was going for mock sour, but he just sounded… smitten. He was so screwed. He’d never been able to say no in the first place, and now—
“Do you still—um, I mean, we can take it slow if you still want space.”
For God’s sake. “I mean, yes, I’m probably going to need a little space. But how much slower can we possibly go? It took fifteen years to get to second base. At this rate if we ever move in together it’ll be at a nursing home.”
“We can get matching slippers,” Carter promised, eyes dancing.
Jeff gave up. The man was actually perfect. “You’re not going to be wearing slippers for a while,” he pointed out as he stood up. That put him between Carter’s knees.
Carter moved his hands to bracket Jeff’s hips and looked up, his expression inescapably fond. Jeff kissed him, curling one hand around the back of his neck. He tasted the curve of his smile and drank in the sun-warm scent of him as Carter tucked his fingers into the back pockets of Jeff’s jeans.
It was probably for the best, Jeff thought distantly as Carter nudged his mouth open to deepen the kiss, kneading and pulling at Jeff’s ass until he stumbled closer, that he hadn’t known Carter would be like this. He would never have learned to play guitar if he’d known. He’d have been too busy jerking off all the time.
He was debating whether the deck chair could hold both their weight when he heard the soft rumble of the patio door opening. “Carter, sweetheart—”
Jeff jerked reflexively out of the kiss, mortified, and he might have stumbled down the stairs, except Carter had a solid grip on his ass. Carter just chuckled and dropped his head against Jeff’s chest.
“I’ll come back later,” Ella said, all amusement. “Just wanted to let you know that guests are starting to arrive.” And she closed the door again to leave Jeff to die of embarrassment in peace.
“Tell me now,” Jeff said, “before I get in this any further—does being a cockblock run in your family?”
Carter wrinkled his nose. “That seems unlikely, biologically speaking. Kind of against natural selection.”
“So we’re just unlucky.”
“Well.” He smiled and pulled his hands out of Jeff’s pockets, but only far enough that he could rub his thumbs into the divots of Jeff’s pelvis. “I don’t know if I’d go that far.”
Jeff shivered involuntarily and offered his hand instead. “Unfortunately, I think I have to take a rain check on proving it.” He “helped” Carter to his feet, which mostly meant they held hands while Carter stood under his own power and then loomed sexily. “Come on. You need to go greet people, and I….” He took his phone out and looked at the time. “I only have another twenty minutes before I need to leave for the airport, and I should actually offer my condolences to your sisters-in-law.” Preferably without an awkward boner.
He ended up standing in the living room with the family to greet the guests. If any of them found it strange to see Carter’s former best friend or the frontman of a famous band in the Rhodes family home, Jeff couldn’t tell.
People were still arriving for the open house when Jeff finally couldn’t delay leaving anymore and got up. “I’d better go or I’ll miss my flight,” he said wryly.
“You literally chartered it,” Carter pointed out, but he didn’t otherwise object. He didn’t get up either, which would’ve been fine even if he didn’t have a broken foot, because Katie had handed him the baby—thus fulfilling Jeff’s prophecy—so she could prepare something in the kitchen. Carter took the baby’s arm and gently waved it.
Jeff was absolutely fucked. “I’ll see you in a couple days.”
“Bye!” Katie poked her head out from the kitchen. “Safe flight.”
He caught Carter’s eyes for one last lingering smile. Then, more reluctantly than he wanted to admit, he got in the truck and drove away.