“I’m not trying to restart this, but I changed it so I’d have time to meet with my amazing tutor. Can I say how freakin’ hot he is?”
“You just noticed?”
“Nope, but I never felt like he’d welcome me saying it.”
Liam slipped his arms around Coury’s waist and hugged. “You never figured out I had a crush on you?”
“When we were kids you always wanted to hang around us. As we got older, I never changed my reasoning, I guess.”
“Well, I was trying to hide it, and Beckett sucks the air out of a room. I flew under the radar a lot.”
“I’m sorry.”
Liam sat up. “Don’t be. You were always nice to me, even when Beckett wanted me to go away. That might have been why the crush started.”
“Then I grew up.” Coury shook his head. “It’s like I never really saw you.”
Liam put his fingers on Coury’s lips. “Stop. Okay? You see me now. That’s what matters.”
He groaned and pressed their foreheads together. “It’s really hard to say no when you look at me like that. I want to give you whatever you want.”
“If I asked you to stay, would you?”
It would be so easy to say yes. Hewantedto wrap himself around Liam’s naked body and . . . “That’s probably a bad idea. We don’t want to rush anything.”
“I get it. Tonight was really nice. Way more than I expected.” Liam smiled and stood. He held out a hand. “But a guy can be greedy.”
“You can.” Coury let Liam pull him up. He went with it and found himself wrapped in a hug he didn’t want to end.
Finally, Liam let go and led them to the front door. Coury’s coat was on the end of the bannister. With Liam hovering an inch away, Coury wrapped his scarf around his neck, zipped up his coat, and pulled his gloves from his pocket.
They reached an awkward impasse. Did he kiss Liam goodbye? Was a hug the wrong signal? He hated the weirdness of this stage of a relationship. And this one was more complicated than most.
He pulled Liam into a hug without saying anything. Closing his eyes, he tried to push away everything except how good it felt.
Liam lifted his head and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “See you tomorrow?”
“Yeah. I’ll text you after PT.” He swooped in for his own goodbye kiss, but Liam moved his head and Coury kissed his cheek. Liam moved back just as Coury tried to adjust and they failed again. Finally, he cupped Liam’s face and held it still long enough to press his lips to Liam’s. It was quick and chaste, but it still made him hard.
Adjusting himself, he let out a nervous laugh. Liam looked like he wanted Coury to stay. Coury wanted to agree, but they needed to talk—about baseball and what would happen. Liam needed all the facts. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
He stepped outside, walked down the steps, and turned back to wave. Liam looked as disappointed as Coury felt. It was the right thing, but some days doing right was hard.
Chapter Sixteen
Liam
Coury: Done with PT early. Coffee?
Liam: Don’t really have time before class. After?
Coury: We’ll get it to go. I’ll walk you to class.
Liam: K. Meet you there.
Liam grinned like a fool at the thought of him and Coury walking together like a couple on their way to class.Romantic much?
The little things Coury did, probably without even knowing he was doing them, turbo-charged Liam’s junior-high crush. It was already too late to avoid getting hurt. When Coury left, it was going to gut him.
