Page 104 of Rhodes

We talk paella and some woman he met last week for ten more minutes before the wind wins and he's gone.

The bikes tick in front of us, cooling in the long light. Reeves hands me the second beer from the cooler and drops onto the step beside me. He doesn't drink yet. He just sets his forearms on his knees and looks out at the field we've been tearing up for two hours.

"You going to tell me who she is," he says, "or am I supposed to keep guessing?"

I take a pull. "Who what is?"

"Rhodes." He turns his head, and those green eyes hold flat. "I know there is a woman. I have a suspicion, but I want to hear it from you."

"You've lost your mind, Reeves. I guess now that you've found love, you think you're some kind of love sleuth?"

"I saw how you worked very hard not to ever touch her in Italy, but then somehow were always there with a sparkling water before she ever finished the first one. I know the tells. You can't bullshit a bullshitter."

That's the tell. I'd been proud of how careful we were. He watched us not-touch and read it the other way.

I could give him another nothing. The shape of it forms, and I let it go instead. Two weeks he's been sitting on this. He drove out here and rode with me and didn't say a word until now, which is so Reeves.

"We may be sleeping together, but it's not what you think," I say finally.

He nods once, like I confirmed the color of the sky. "I knew it. Does Cooper know?"

"Not yet."

I drink, and then I just say it, because I've never said any of it out loud. It turns out I want to. "We actually kissed for the first time here, after I brought her out to ride. Then Italy happened, and I guess we'd already broken the seal, so we both said fuck it." I roll the bottle between my hands.

Saying it feels better than I expected. One person knows now, and if I had to pick a Stone to trust with it, Reeves was always going to be the safest bet.

"You okay with it?"

"I mean, yeah. The sex is good."

"I know it isn't just sex."

"Yeah." I nod, looking out at the field. "I think it's more than sex."

He takes his first drink then, a long one, and sets the bottle on the step beside his boot.

"Then you need to tell her," he says. "If anyone knows that, it's me."

Reeves spent years keeping Charli at arm's length because he thought losing her would hurt less if he never really let himself have her. He learned that one the hard way.

"I know."

"So why haven't you?"

"Timing's not right." I turn the bottle. "She has a lot of shit on her plate, and Coop's out of the country, so I want to be able to talk to him out of respect."

Reeves studies me a second longer, then nods, done with it. He picks the beer back up.

"Coop will be fine," he says. "Don't let that hold you back."

"I know." I finish the beer but don't go for a second. "It's not Cooper. She has to get through this bullshit with Oak Moss. Banksie gave her twelve weeks, so she wants to get on the other side of that before making any big decisions about her life."

"Ah, so that is what is hanging over this? It's the land problem."

I'm done talking about this with him. I don't need him analyzing why we are keeping things on the DL. As much as I hate to admit it, he's right, and maybe that's what rubs me the wrong way. If it weren't for Oak Moss, I feel like things would be different.

He tips his head back against the post. "You coming to Stone Intermodal after graduation?"