Huh. It could be his haircut, too—the sides are cleaned up a little for sure.
Shaking the distracting speculation out of my head, I peer at the dining table, only to find it littered with Jeremy’s latest partially opened shipment of protein bars and workout supplements.
“Do you mind if we study on the couch today?” I ask, sitting back down. “The table’s messy, and I’ll give Jeremy shit for that later.”
Dean rises to his feet and deposits himself next to me, running a slow hand through his hair which hasdefinitelybeen cut since the last time I saw him. “That’s fine by me. Just don’t fall asleep.” He leans down to grab his laptop, and I get a whiff of his apple-scented hair product.
I noticed his crisp cologne before, but his hair? That’s new. And pleasant as hell.
The wholeguyalways smells nice, and there’s something deeper there too, something I’m sure the women of WMU appreciate.
“So, you have to self-study the first three chapters of your next textbook over the break,” he says, once again forcing my attention back to the task at hand instead of him as a person. “Do you mind if I take a peek at what we’re working with? I don’t have a copy.”
“Yeah, of course.” I retrieve the textbook from my bag, and he flicks through the chapter headings after I hand the book over, raising his eyebrows sometime around the halfway point.
“Huh. Your textbook is…surprisingly progressive.” Then he flips back to the first page. “Andit was published in China.”
“Do those two things cancel each other out?”
He shrugs. “Not as much as they used to, that’s for sure. I can add it to the long list of reasons why I’m excited to go back.”
Gears turn in my head as I stare at the open textbook, trying hard not to seem too invested in what he said.
He sucks in a breath, like he’s steeling himself for something?—
“I’m gay, by the way, if you were wondering why I brought it up.”
He’s gay too? Hell yes! Wait.
No!
Damn it!
Why can’t Dean just be straight and therefore inaccessible? Or a total scummy douche if hehasto be into guys.
He’s a decent person, he isn’t my teammate, he’s fun to be around…
And he’s gay.
Fuck.
I know exactly where this leads.
I don’t know ifheknows about me, but regardless, I sure don’t want things to change between us.
“Oh, nice. That’s cool,” I say, even though him being an optionisn’tcool for me and my peculiarities. “Do, uh, people back home know?”
Hello? Invasive much?
He must read my perturbed expression because—fuck—he shoots me a reassuring smile. “It’s fine, man. You can be curious.”
I let out a relieved breath. “Okay. Yeah. Thanks.”
“My parents don’t know, but they probably wouldn’t carethatmuch if they knew, but it’s still weird because of…society and expectations and stuff.”
Your parents don’t care? Must be nice.“Makes sense.”
“And in general, it really depends on where you are and what you do.” Dean flicks his eyes off to the side. “In my case, I lived in a city and went to an international school with parents who meet with all kinds of people for work. That’s probably the best position to be in for someone like me.”
