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“What you remember of it, at least.” Coury sipped, keeping his gaze fixed on Liam.
Liam’s face flushed. The smart thing would be to own up and say he remembered the kiss, remembered everything. The rasp of Coury’s jaw, the soft, yielding pressure of his lips, the currents that had flowed through him at the brief touch of their tongues.
Coury had said—several times—that Liam hadn’t done anything to regret. And yet. Liam’s throat still glued up. Nervousness thwarted any possible progress.
Maybe it was how full the Flax Shack was or how he could hear snippets of neighboring conversations. He felt too exposed to talk about such private matters. Liam smiled, shakily.
He’d try again in the car.
Chapter Twelve
Coury
Coury snuck a peek at Liam typing a message to his parents. He’d borrowed one of Coury’s Harrison baseball hats and he looked so damn cute.
He would never be “little Liam” to Coury again. Not after that kiss. For too long he’d been Beckett’s “little bro,” always hovering on the periphery. Even when Liam came out, Coury had never considered dating him. The “bros law” clearly stated you didn’t date your best friend’s little brother. It was written.
Somewhere.
But Coury had tossed aside that silly bros law long before the kiss and confessed crush. The first step had been to see him as Liam and not Beckett’s little brother.
When he had . . . wow.
Knowing that—at least on an uninhibited level—they felt the same way could have resolved things. Liam had remembered everything: the kiss, the admission, the way he stuck to Coury all night. It could have been their opening to get it all out. Talk about what they were really doing.
With one denial, Liam had pushed that conversation further out of reach. Did Liam regret admitting his feelings?
Was something else holding him back?
“What’s wrong?” Liam asked.
Coury felt Liam studying him intently. “Nothing.”
“You made a face and shook your head.”
For a moment he toyed with lying, exactly what he wished Liam hadn’t done. “Just sorting out some stuff.”
Not a lie, but not the full answer, either.
Liam raised an eyebrow.
“Would you be mad if I said I don’t want to talk about it right now?”
“If and when you do, I’m here.”
Coury gripped the wheel at Liam’s yearning to help. “The same goes for you. If you want to tell me something, I’ll always be there for you.”
Liam swallowed loudly. He opened his mouth and shut it again. He let out a frustrated breath and looked out the window. When he spoke, his voice was stripped to sincerity. “I appreciate that, Coury. You . . . you’ve been really a great friend.”
“So are you, Liam. I’m sorry I wasn’t a better friend before now.”
Liam looked over and smiled. “You were always really nice to me, even when we were younger. I remember all the times you stopped Beckett from excluding me.”
“I could have done more. Should have done more. I knew what it was like to be the younger brother. My sister and her friends were such assholes to me. That’s kinda why I spent so much time at your place or Beckett hung out at mine. Safety in numbers.”
“You did plenty. I came out because of you.”
Coury’s heart hammered against his sternum. “You did?”
“Yeah. After you told Becks, no one in my family cared.”
“Well, Beckett cared. He stopped talking to me for a week.”
“Okay, but that’s kind of a rounding error. The point was I knew I could tell them, and they’d still love me.”
Coury nodded. “That’s good.”
“I also admired your courage. You had a lot to lose, being Mr. Baseball and all, yet you still told your best friend.”
Coury snorted. “It wasn’t quite as courageous as it seems. Did he ever tell you the reason I told him?”
“Um, no?”
“Mike Gurber.”
Liam frowned curiously.
“Mike and I had hooked up a few times before I came out. We weren’t dating because we weren’t gay or anything.” Coury cringed at how stupid they were. “Turns out he had more than one buddy helping him out.”
“Oh, God. Did he give you something?”
Laughing, Coury shook his head. “Nothing like that. You remember Ian Slusar?”
“The head of the school LGBTQ group?”
“Yes. Mike hooked up with him. As I’m sure you know, Ian didn’t believe it was right for guys in the closet to use those who were out for fun. I was worried Beckett would hear rumors that I’d hooked up with Mike, so I told him. Better he heard it from me than somewhere else.”
“I didn’t know that. Becks never confided in me.”
Coury glanced over, noting Liam’s disappointment in the slight downward curve of his lips. Liam caught his look and quickly covered it with a smile.
Coury couldn’t help it. He reached out and clamped a hand on his shoulder, squeezing lightly. “Want to hear the funniest part? Ian never outed Mike. I ended up telling Beckett for nothing.”
