Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
“Want me to dip you? I got moves.”
Colby let out another chuckle, Vince’s words soothing his nerves.
“Think we can do that thing like in Dirty Dancing where I run and you catch me and lift me over your head?” Colby joked back.
“We can try.”
Colby’s hand slid around Vince’s waist, up his back, then back down again. With each movement, mini zings of electricity began zapping beneath his skin. This was new…exciting.
“My roommate is getting handsy.”
“Is that not okay? I don’t mean anything by it. It’s just…”
“It’s good.” Vince’s eyes met his. “I see you, Colby. I know you got secrets in there. Not saying they’re about me, about being queer or anything like that, but you’re stifling some kind of fire inside you, and damned if I don’t want to help you fan those flames, if I don’t want to see what you would do if you allowed yourself to burn.”
Yes. Please. I want that, whispered low inside Colby’s head. He wanted to burn. Wanted to experience. Wanted to see who the fuck he was outside of being a Covington. But Vince’s words also sparked fear. What if he didn’t like what he found? What if his family didn’t? What if he really was broken in ways he feared he was…and how had Vince seen past his walls?
“Um…that’s good. Thanks. That’s enough for me.” Colby pulled away and slipped through the crowd and back to the bar.
CHAPTER TWO
Vince
This summer
“Where the hell is my cereal?” Colby said when Vince went into the kitchen that morning. Colby was scouring the cabinets, wearing nothing except a pair of shorts. Vince was in his underwear. He’d never been the biggest fan of clothes while at home, but considering this wasn’t his house and Colby was straight, he likely wouldn’t like Vince walking around naked the way he would if this was his own place.
“I hid it.”
Colby peeked around the cabinet door at Vince, who crossed his arms.
“You didn’t.”
“Oh, I beg to differ. I did.”
“I’m a forty-year-old man. I can eat what I want.”
“I have four years on you, and as your roommate and self-proclaimed best friend, I’m worried about your sugar intake. When it comes to food, you speak in two languages—barbecue and cereal. Sit down and let me cook you breakfast.”
It was hard to believe he’d been living with Colby for close to a year. When he first moved in, he hadn’t expected to stay this long. He figured it would be a few months—six, tops—while he got his bearings in Harmony, but he kept staying, and Colby kept allowing it. Actually, he didn’t seem to want Vince to leave. Every time Vince mentioned that maybe he should look for his own place, Colby said the room would be empty anyway, and he liked having Vince around, and Vince liked being around Colby, so the conversation always got dropped.
He would think living with someone and working with them could be a recipe for disaster. When they’d offered him a job at Covington Acres, he’d been unsure. He’d never done that kind of work in his life. He’d been in corporate financing, for Christ’s sake, but he found that he liked working with his hands, enjoyed the ache in his muscles and being out in the sun. He liked working with Colby, learning about the apple orchards last fall and shooting the shit while they watered crops, seeing them grow, produce, taking the right care of them to see them do well, so he stayed doing that too.
“Fucking spoiled,” Colby said, plopping down in a chair at the table in the dining room attached to the kitchen. It was open concept, more like one big space than two.
Vince laughed. “Yes, I’m cooking you breakfast, but I’m the spoiled one? Makes perfect sense.” Though in some ways, Colby did spoil him. Colby was up for almost anything, and Vince liked to keep busy, so they were kind of perfect together.
“You’re spoiled because you always get your way with me,” Colby said while Vince pulled the eggs from the fridge. They were off at the farm today. Sometimes, when he didn’t work at Covington Acres, Vince helped Holden with his carpentry business. Holden was his ex-boyfriend and current best friend, the latter a position Holden now shared with Colby. It wasn’t something he’d expected—the connection between him and Colby—but Vince liked him a lot.
“That’s because I’m so pretty and it’s hard to say no to me.” Vince grinned. Colby rolled his blue eyes, but his cheeks turned slightly pink.
“You’re a pretty big pain in my ass is what you are,” Colby replied.
“A pain in your ass that cares about how you eat and is making you breakfast,” Vince reminded him.
Colby grinned. “That too.”
Vince liked that he could make Colby smile so easily. The way he saw it, the man should do it more often. It wasn’t that Colby was miserable. He had a great life, friends, family, but Vince sensed something a little sad in him. Like he had secrets he hadn’t let anyone in on yet. Vince hoped one day he could be that person for Colby. He owed him more than that. Colby had taken Vince in at one of the roughest times in his life—after discovering his ex had cheated on him for the second time.