“He hasn’t even texted,” Gunner uttered, hunching his shoulders to keep the dark void inside him from spreading. “But I don’t want to call first and bother him, you know?”
“He did pay your debt. What if he did it to give you a reason to call?” Noah asked, resting his hands on his hips.
“I should probably give back that money, but I’m in no position to reject it.”
“Gunner. You’ve been taking care of me, helping Mom, and you even borrowed all that cash so I could get good treatment and physio. If you hadn’t done it, I’d be limping and living with constant pain. I’m pretty sure you deserve to be treated for once. You don’t have to do everything yourself.”
Gunner chewed on that with sorrow squeezing his heart every time he glanced at the keyboard. “So you think it would be okay if I called him?”
Noah spread his arms. “Are you blind? I know it might be awkward now that both of you changed, but he does like you. Otherwise, the two of you wouldn’t have been spending all that time together.”
There were sexual matters Gunner wouldn’t discuss with his seventeen year old brother, but he craved contact with Caspian too much to let go.
He took a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll call him.”
But when he pulled out his phone, it rang.
Caspian.
Chapter 30 – Caspian
Caspian’s hands were sweating so much he might’ve considered rehydrating before the loss of moisture made his head spin. Gunner was coming over. Finally.
On the day they woke in their own bodies, they had decided to keep meeting up. He was meant to get boxing lessons that he even wanted to pay for, but his phone remained silent.
For a day, then two, then a week.
It hadn’t seemed like that big of a deal at first, since he’d been so eager to reconnect with his parents and make amends for the things Gunner unwittingly messed up, but as time went on, it occurred to him that maybe Gunner had changed his mind about the whole thing. Maybe he wanted to move on, or didn’t have the time to contact Caspian when so much of his life had ended up in pieces, but his silence had gnawed at Caspian even deep in the night, when he lay in bed, trying to remember how it felt to spoon Gunner from behind.
Things had changed since they’d last lain together. Gunner was no longer the cute, compact twink, and Caspian no longer had the broad chest Gunner used to curl up into, but the longing for the familiar touch was still there, like an infected wound at the back of Caspian’s mind.
He’d driven by to check on Gunner but didn’t trust himself to knock on his door. He’d almost sent out a dozen flirty messages, and tried to distract himself with his new job, but it was hopeless.
So he’d called and they had an incredibly awkward conversation. But Gunner had accepted the invitation to come over as it would make more sense to talk in person. When he’d mentioned it to his parents, they insisted they wanted to treat Gunner to dinner for saving Caspian’s life by taking him to the ER. Caspian only agreed to all four of them having dinner together once Mom and Dad promised to keep their lips sealed about knowing of their relationship. But by the time their guest knocked on the door, he still wasn’t sure if that was a good idea.
“Will you let him in, honey? We’re busy in the kitchen,” Mom said, but Caspian knew his parents wanted to give him and Gunner some privacy, and he wasn’t entirely sure whether he was glad or about to have a panic attack. He glanced into the large mirror in the foyer and smoothed back the blond hair, which fit his coloring so well he hadn’t yet decided what to do about it. He might have lived in Gunner’s body for less than a month, but that brief time had changed everything, and while he wouldn’t have been caught dead in the kind of cutesy, tight clothes Gunner liked to wear, seeing his own form as an outsider convinced him that fitted clothes were the way to go. The emerald green pullover he was sporting tonight not only brought out his eyes but also accentuated the shape of his torso.
He looked good.
Not Gunner-would-have-eaten-him-up good, but definitely attractive. There was no reason to feel embarrassed in the presence of a man who had quite literally inhabited his body just over a week ago.
So Caspian manned up and opened the door, only to have his knees weaken a little. Not because he was all of a sudden attracted to buff guys twice his size, but because it was Gunner. While the eyes he saw in the handsome face were brown instead of blue, they reflected everything they’d done with each other, and every tender word they’d shared.