Cash’s head snapped up and he narrowed his eyes like he thought I was lying or something.
“So to be clear, Miller’s not avoiding you,” Chase said.
“No? He’s in Richmond, visiting his family.”
“See?” Chase said, turning to Cash. “I told you, dumbass. You didn’t scare him away with your nightmare. Danny and his boyfriend are fine.”
I jolted at that. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
The twins looked at me wearing identical expressions of disbelief.
“Uh, pretty sure he is,” Chase said. “He’s gone for you, bruh.”
I listened to make sure Grace wasn’t on her way back. “We’re fuck buddies, that’s all.”
Cash rolled his eyes. “Fuck buddies don’t bring donuts.” The fact he’d said it out loud told me he was convinced he was right, and it was a point he felt was important to make.
“We’re just casual, I swear,” I said. “We’re not dating or anything.”
Cash’s raised eyebrow clearly said he thought I was full of shit. And okay, maybe he had a point. I’d had hookups before. None of them had included dinner and walks in the park and snack delivery, or texting back and forth, or quite so many sleepovers.
Fine, Miller might be more into me than I’d thought. I kind of liked the idea, and I couldn’t stop a dumb smile spreading across my face. Cash seemed to feel better too because he lost that haunted expression he’d been wearing and ate the rest of his cereal.
By the time Grace got back, wearing her swimsuit and ready for the pool, he looked a lot brighter.
After I’d eaten breakfast and done a load of laundry, I drove over to Sunny Fields to see Grandma. When she saw me, she pulled me into a hug, and I soaked it up. It felt like too long since I’d seen her, even though it had only been about a week, and I’d missed her.
When she pulled back, she gave me a knowing smile. “I’d ask where you’ve been, but I’ll bet it has something to do with that cute lawyer.”
My face heated and she laughed, clearly delighted.
“I knew it! You’re dating him!”
“We’re not dating,” I said. “We’re just…”
“Doing the horizontal tango? Bumping uglies? Knocking boots? Saving a horse and riding a cowboy? No, wait, that one doesn’t make sense. Oooh, I know!” She got a gleam in her eye. “Is your lawyer… helping you get off?”
“Grandma!”I burst out laughing.
She laughed too and patted my chest. “I’m just teasing. I’m happy for you, Danny.”
I followed her into the living room. Grandma sat in her armchair and I took a seat on her nice, clean, jizz-free couch. At least, Ihopedit was jizz-free, but sometimes with Grandma it was better not to think about it.
“We’re just fooling around some,” I said. To change the subject, I pointed at a cat figurine on her bookshelf. “Is that new?”
“Emma-Lee sent it to me,” Grandma said. “Now I believe you were telling me about Miller.”
She was impossible to get off track. “It’s not serious.”
“I never said it was,” she said, tucking her legs up under her in her armchair. “I mean, you’re too smart to get involved with someone like that.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. “Someone like what?”
Grandma raised an eyebrow. “Well, I mean he’s fine for a fling and all but think about it. Miller’s a city boy, isn’t he? Look at the way he dresses. Too fancy for Hopewell, let alone Goose Run. I like him just fine, but he’s hardly a beer and burgers type of guy, is he?”
I stared at her, wondering if she’d taken a fall and cracked her head because Grandma usually didn’t care about stuff like that. And Millerwasa beer and burgers guy—at least he had been last week, briefly. He was also hot and smart and funny, and a little bit nerdy and generous to a fault. And he was a guy who, when he smiled at me, made my stomach flutter and my heart beat faster.
And he was way out of my league. I’d thought it more than once myself, and here was Grandma saying the same thing, except maybe she wasn’t saying it exactly how I’d meant it. Shewas saying that Miller and I didn’t belong in different leagues, but that we came from different worlds.
