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Tonight, it was his turn to host the book club. We’d been back from France for nearly a month now. It wasn’t entirely sunshine and roses when we got back. Although we had figured out what happened to Colton’s mom, the fact of the matter was that it didn’t bring her back, and nothing ever would. That weighed heavily on Colt, especially now that he was looking ahead to a trial after Wendy and Lito had lawyered up. Their defense was nonexistent, but it was now something else we had to deal with.
Still, every day I woke up next to Colton proved to be better than the last, and he felt the same. Soon, a few weeks had passed, and the two of us fell into an exciting and shiny new rhythm. Being official boyfriends meant doing the silly things and getting butterflies from them—holding hands in a group setting, kissing each other good night, waking each other up with morning blowjobs, cooking dinners together, and watching dumb movies where plot wasn’t important and evening blowjobs took center stage.
Every day, I learned something new about him, too. Like how he had a talent to spell anything backward or how he had a deathly fear of kangaroos. Random things I wouldn’t have known about him if I wasn’t living with him, spending these moments discovering those hidden gems that made up who he was as a person.
“Nico, is this what you expected when I told you about Reading Under the Rainbow?” Jess asked, a hand on Tia’s thigh. Nico Martinez was Jess’s cousin and another Atlanta transplant who was looking for some sense of community. He was a quiet guy with longer hair and arms full of black-and-white tattoos, and he always had a smile on, no matter how many Jell-O shots he’d already had.
“Not at all, no,” he said, pushing a strand of thick jet-black hair from his eyes. “Not at all.”
“It’s probably the best book club you’ve ever been a part of, though, right?” Tristan asked, his expression clear that he expected one answer and one answer only.
“Yes, it is.”
“Ding, ding, ding,” Tristan said, placing a tray of colorful Jell-O down on the table. We got back into our discussion on the book, having just reached the end of it this week and figuring out who had murdered the grandmother.
“I still can’t believe it was Alecia,” Yvette said, shaking her head so that her mane of curls caught the light. “Her own granddaughter? That’s cold, man.”
“And for what?” Jake asked. “She thought she was going to get the property, which would have given her access to the gold that was buried there. Instead, she got part of the pig pen and a couple hundred dollars. The grandmother definitely got the last laugh there.”
“What did you just say?” Colton asked.
“Ah, shit,” Jake said, realizing his mistake a moment too late. “Is ‘laugh’ a trigger word?”
“No, but ‘grandmother’ is. Take your pick,” Colton said, motioning toward the tray of shots. He had come up with a game called Jell-O Land Mines, where certain words would trigger an “explosion.” Only he knew the list, but that didn’t stop him from drinking since he’d occasionally trigger an accidental explosion himself.
Jake grabbed a blue one and shot it back. We continued our meeting well past ten o’clock, but none of us cared. We were having way too much fun being together again.
Slowly, people started to trickle out until it was just Colton and me left, slightly drunk and still giddy from all the laughter.
“Well, that was a fun night,” I said as Colton closed the door on the last of our guests. He walked over to me, smiling, his hands landing on my hips.
“It was. It feels good to be back with everyone instead of on Zoom.”
“I’m glad we’re growing, too. At this rate, we’re going to be a full-on nonprofit organization soon.”
Colton cocked his head. His eyes caught the light in a way that instantly cast a spell on me. I couldn’t ever get enough of that handsome face, especially not when it was so close to mine. “Can we maybe do a for-profit organization instead?” Colton asked. “And then we can branch off into charity.”
I chuckled, kissing the tip of Colton’s nose.
“What was that for?” he asked, his face scrunching up in slight confusion.
“For being perfect in every single way. For never holding grudges. For proving to me that love is real and second chances are deserved.” I kissed him again, this time on the lips. His tongue slipped into my mouth, his taste flooding through me. A taste that had me addicted from the first hit. Colton’s hands moved under my shirt, rubbing my lower back as the kiss intensified.
“You proved to me that second chances are worth it,” Colton said, his voice low, his breath tickling my lips. The fire in my core lit to a roaring flame. I shifted my hips forward, wanting Colton to feel what he was doing to me. The khaki shorts I wore did absolutely nothing to hide how hard I was becoming.
