Making the wrong choice by staying with Bryce back then still doesn’t mean hooking up with Jet would’ve been the right choice.
While Jet was the man who inspired me to come out, I did it for Bryce. I stupidly thought that meant I had to make it work between us. It’s why I told myself to forget about the rock star and have avoided him since that night in Tampa.
We can say how much our schedules have clashed which is why we’ve never seen each other since then, but the truth is, when he’s been in New York, I made sure Bryce and I were too busy to catch up with the guys. Then again, most times Jet came home fell while my team was at away games, and I have to wonder if Jet’s been avoiding me as much as I have him.
Now he’s here, I don’t want to avoid him. I don’t want to stay away, and I have no reason to anymore, other than the guys will kick my ass. But for Jet, an ass-kicking might be worth it.
Unless …
I stop in my tracks.
Unless he’s still in love.
Maybe he’s the one with the boyfriend now.
Well, isn’t that a jagged little pill. It would be karma in its finest form.
I have to know if that’s the case. Spinning on my heel, I cut through the unpaved trail instead of following the path any longer.
I need to know if there’s hope.
The island is small, only a few miles trek around the whole thing. It only takes me twenty minutes to walk back to our cabins. But as I climb the steps to Jet’s, I pause at the sound of his brother’s voice.
“We’re telling the other guys tonight, but we wanted you to know first.”
“A baby? I’m gonna be an uncle? Wait … Noah’s going to be a dad? To a baby … like, a baby and Wade? I don’t know which is scarier, really.” Jet’s excited energy is palpable from here, and even I know not to intrude on that.
“Ha, ha, sooo funny,” Noah says.
Matt and Noah are going to be parents. I knew about Wade, the youngest Jackson brother, but a baby too?
Unwilling to break up their family moment, I trudge back to my cabin and decide I need a shower. A cold one. Because dredging up all this stuff with Jet has our one night together running through my head on a loop.
His eagerness, that smirk under hungry eyes, the way he rode my dick until I couldn’t take it anymore and rolled us over so I could take him as hard and fast as I needed to. I can still picture the face he made as he came all over his stomach and chest.
Yep, definitely need a cold shower.
Maybe that’ll snap me out of the ridiculous notion that I have any chance at a do-over with him because he’s not interested. He doesn’t seem to even want to spend time with me as a friend.
After a shower, I dress in board shorts and a T-shirt and head to the dining hut for breakfast.
Talon and Miller are the only ones there.
“Everyone still sleeping?” I ask, knowing full well at least three of the others are up.
“Matt and Noah are spending the day catching up with little bro,” Talon says. “Maddox and Damon started their hike early and have already left, and I think your boy and Lennon are still in bed.”
I freeze until I realize he’s talking about Ollie. Not Jet.
Brain needs coffee.
I pour a large cup and pile my plate high with eggs, bacon, hash browns, and pancakes with a side of maple syrup. And by a side, I mean a gallon of it; I’m Canadian.
“We’re heading out wakeboarding in ten if you want to join us,” Miller says.
It’s either that or wander around aimlessly all day wondering when I’ll be able to sneak past Matt and Noah to talk to Jet again. “Yeah, okay, I’ll go.”
I thought I’d spend this vacation cursing Bryce and wallowing over our failed relationship and my bleak career. Nope. Turns out I’ll be spending it pining over a memory I thought I’d already put behind me.
Wakeboarding is fucking killer, but after a day on the water, the sun is setting, the wind and swell are picking up, and Miller’s starting to look green around the gills.
He was fine in the small inlet with calm water Joni took us to, but he never got off the boat—only Talon and I ended up wakeboarding. Maybe the whole day sitting on the rocking boat and the rougher water on the way back to our island is too much for Miller to handle.
“Seasick, man?” I ask. “Just look at the horizon.”
“The horizon that’s all wobbly?”
I laugh. “Yeah. That one.”
Talon’s on the other side of his boyfriend, but it’s taking both of us to hold the giant up.