“I don’t like being tossed around like that,” I said. “I don’t know what either of you is trying to do, but I don’t want any part of it. I don’t want to live with the idea that you might like me as more than just a friend. Or that Tanner might.”
A twig snapped behind my back and Damien looked up.
“He told you that?” Tanner asked, the grin frozen on his face, slowly melting and disappearing.
“Tanner,” Damien began.
“I asked Elliot,” Tanner said. He had his hands on his narrow waist and I tried my goddamn hardest not to look down. He was naked, for crying out loud.
“He did,” I said.
“And Tanner told you to go after me?” Damien asked.
I nodded. Around me, Tanner walked up to his spot and pretty much lay down, fully lit by the flames and not bothered by nudity.
Damien snorted. “Put something on.”
“I’m good,” Tanner said casually, then directed his attention at me.
I squirmed and avoided his gaze. It was hard to bear the knowledge he was draining out of me simply by looking at my face. I hated being so vulnerable. For irony’s sake, I felt more naked than him.
“And you told me to go after Tanner,” Damien mused with humor in his voice. I looked up at him and discovered that his shoulders were starting to shake. His rumbling laughter rose and he threw his head. “The tale of the three idiots,” he said and laughed harder.
Tanner joined him before I figured out what was so funny. He was lying on his side, torso lifted up on his arm, and the other arm covered the middle of his chest. He shook as he laughed, too, and I couldn’t resist it.
It was too absurd to keep a straight face.
“So let me get this straight,” Tanner said, wiping his eyes. “We each told the other two tocarpe diem, huh?”
“And we all went with chivalry and told the other two the same?” Damien asked.
My heart pounded so loudly that I had to focus hard on their voices in order to hear a word. What the hell were they suggesting? Not the impossible, right? Of course not. That’s why it was impossible.
I managed to swallow as fear uncoiled in me. Oh, I wasn’t afraid of them. I was afraid of that terrible moment when hope flickered to life before reason caught up with it and killed it cold.
“Ah, yes, I so chivalrously told myself you two are a cute couple,” Tanner said with a chuckle. “But really, Elliot, you can’t tell me you don’t see it. You and Damien? You were made for each other.”
I felt the heat rise to my face. Why was he so forward now? I suppose we had already crossed all the lines. It was fitting, after all, that the naked one should speak as plainly as that.
But only a strangled murmur left my lips.
“Bullshit,” Damien said, his face lit with something far brighter than the fire before him. I turned my full attention at him, relieved I had a reason to look away from the sprawling perfection that Tanner’s display was. “You two always had a connection I couldn’t crack.”
That was…oddly true. Not that Damien couldn’t crack it; I had a connection with him, too, that seemed almost unearthly. But that was no different than what I had with Tanner. Finally, they both directed their attention to me. I knew without them saying it that it was my turn to give an opinion, but the first thing that came from my mouth was what my load of insecurities dictated. “That’s not right. It’s always been the two of you.”
Damien and Tanner exchanged a look. It wasn’t quick. It was as though for the first time ever, they both seriously considered it, and something sparked in both their gazes. Some odd rebellion and mischief came to life in them both. “But I know you’re in love with Damien,” Tanner said, taking his gaze off Damien and pinning me with it. “I’ve seen you look after him.” He pointed one slender finger between Damien and me, then back. “And I know you have heart-eyes for Elliot. Don’t even try lying about it. Nobody gets that sad puppy look from you behind their back the way Elliot does.”
I frowned. I knew the look. “You’re wrong. That look is reserved for you.”
Damien seemed far more awkward than I’d seen him in ages. “You’re both wrong. I remember the moment Elliot fell in love with you,” he told Tanner, then looked at me with relief that he was no longer on the spot. Great. Now it was my turn. “Remember?” he asked me. “First day of high school. Tanner passed us by and you literally tripped and fell. I knew instantly.”
I snorted and huffed incredulously, but couldn’t find a single word that wasn’t true in his statement. That really had been the moment Tanner crammed himself inside my heart and refused to ever leave.
“Ah, but I’ll bet you anything he was in love with you, first,” Tanner said.
I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to speak up and clear the entire conundrum or for the ground to swallow me whole and rescue me from the embarrassment of being put on the spot like this.
Damien shook his head.
