Say You'll Be Nine

“Be serious for a minute. What’s changed?”

I dug back into my food so he didn’t see my hot face. “Well, for one thing, we kissed.”

When he didn’t say anything, I peeked up at him. Cooper had his pointer finger on his chin and was looking up as if the ceiling had answers. “Hmm… so what you’re saying is, if we want to continue getting along… we should kiss more.”

I choked a little on my food and grabbed for my water to the sound of his laughter.

“Calm down, straight boy. I was only teasing.”

Being labeled, especially after everything I’d been thinking, made me uncomfortable. It was nobody’s business if I was straight or not. “Who said I was straight? Who said I was anything? Why does everyone always assume things about people?”

Before he could say anything, I scooted out of the booth, slid my empty plate and fork into the sink with a clatter, and hustled out of the RV.

Turned out, it wasn’t just the stove and oven making things hot in there.

10

Cooper

I stared at Nine’s back and ass as he blundered down the narrow RV steps and out into the night. Nacho scrambled up and chased after him, assuming there was an adventure waiting.

What the actual fuck?

Had he really implied he wasn’t straight? Or… wait. I remembered our conversation earlier about Stanislavski and method acting. Could he be trying to do something like that in hopes it would make things easier on him for this project? Could it be possible he needed to get into a completely different head space to make it okay to pretend he was gay?

Or was he truly questioning his sexuality? And if that was the case, did I want any part of it? No. I needed a floundering bi-curious man right now like a surfboard in the mountains. I had a neighbor back in my old apartment building in LA who’d given his heart to a questioning guy, and the man had shredded the thing and chucked it back at him just before I left town. I’d heard every single scream and cry from his apartment and wanted no part of that kind of roller coaster.

I would focus on the job. I would focus on building our audience and impressing the sponsor. And since Nine wanted the same thing, I assumed we could work together on that common goal without much trouble.

As long as the man in question got his shit together.

If he was going to be awkward about this, it was never going to work. I followed him outside where the moon was doing a good job keeping the clearing bright enough to make things out. Nine was sitting slumped over on the fallen log with his arms around Nacho’s neck.

“Hey,” I said, approaching slowly and taking a seat next to him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

I nodded and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees and clasping my fingers together. After a few minutes, I let out a breath. “Listen, I’m sorry for teasing you about this, and I’m definitely sorry for making assumptions. You’re right. I shouldn’t have. It’s not fair to you. I just… I feel like the reason you’ve always been annoyed by me is because I’m gay and that makes you uncomfortable.”

Nine turned and looked at me with an exasperated expression. “Are you kidding? I’ve always been annoyed by you because you’re annoying as hell. You teased me relentlessly which only made Eli and my other brothers tease me worse. You made fun of me for being shy. That time you came to visit Eli for his birthday, you hid the keys to my truck, and I was late for work. Walt made me stay four extra hours to clean up the stock room with no pay, so I missed my brother’s birthday dinner.”

My heart sank. “You’re kidding? I never knew that. Your mom said you were probably out with your girlfriend. That’s when you were dating Lauren. Jesus, Nine. I’m sorry.” I only remembered it was when he was dating Lauren because that was why I’d hidden the keys. I hadn’t wanted him going out with a woman who clearly didn’t think Nine was good enough for her. Even if I hadn’t thought I’d liked him all that much at the time, he was still basically family.

Nine shrugged. “Just don’t assume I dislike you because you’re gay. I don’t give a shit you’re gay. It’s none of my business anyway.”

“Well… it kinda is since you’re my boyfriend and all.” I smiled at him, hoping like hell he’d let the conversation lighten.

The corner of his mouth turned up. His beard was so sexy and his lips were perfectly full, I couldn’t miss the tiny smile.

“Why did you hide my keys that time?” He turned his head to watch for my response. I felt uncomfortable under his scrutiny because I was embarrassed by the truth and didn’t want him to see it.