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Luke passed a hand down his face, huffing a large breath. “I would have said something sooner if I knew there was trauma.”
Caleb shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if there’s trauma or not. I don’t need to be acting that way. I’m never going to get pissed off if you two call me on my shit.”
Wren shot him a skeptical look. “Really? That’s new.”
Caleb’s face burned hot for another reason. “Fine. I might get pissed off, but eventually I’ll get over it and be grateful I have friends who will. I’m not saying it’s your job, but I’m saying you’re never going to lose me just because I’m in dick mode.”
Luke chucked and Wren gave him a tiny smirk. “Fine,” his brother said, “Then you were being a giant dick to Bodhi who is a literal cinnamon roll, and I actually was going to stage a protest if he tried to quit.”
That made Caleb feel better. “Does he know?”
“I hope so,” Wren said. “But right now, I want to hear about these hugs. You know he hasn’t given me one even once?”
That created a whole new feeling Caleb wasn’t prepared to deal with, so he just let it simmer under his skin as he tried not to wish too hard that Bodhi was there. “He came back here with me the other night.”
Wren gave him a look that said he knew the moment Caleb was talking about, and why it was a big deal.
“Pulling into the parking lot was easier than I expected. But when I opened the door…” His hands hovered in the air, directly in front of his heart which was beating a little too fast. “I fell apart and he was kind when I definitely didn’t deserve it.”
“He knows you’re not a bad person,” Luke said. “You deserve comfort when you’re in that much pain.”
Caleb scoffed. “I shouldn’t have been in that much pain. I shouldn’t be crying over that cheating asshole. I didn’t evenlikehim by the time it ended.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Luke told him. “You don’t have to like someone to mourn a loss. My worst break-up was with my high school girlfriend. Only hearing girl I’ve ever dated.” He stopped and laughed, passing a hand down round his mouth as he gathered his thoughts. “Obviously my parents didn’t like her, and she took that as a personal challenge to be difficult. I was caught up in making her happy, so I did all that stupid shit.”
“Speech therapy, hearing aids,” Wren signed with a tiny smirk.
Luke shot him a flat look, but he nodded. “All of it. She didn’t even learn basic sign. I didn’t realize how much I couldn’t stand her until she tried to stop me from applying to Gallaudet. That’s when the whole thing fell apart.”
Caleb grimaced. “I had no idea.”
Luke chuckled. “That’s because I have Ananda now who ischamp.”
It wasn’t like Caleb could argue. She had quickly risen to assistant manager because she was thorough and bossy, and that made her absolutely perfect for Luke.
“But I spent all summer before college wallowing in my room after Diana. My parents were thrilled she was gone, and they refused to understand why I was mourning the loss.” Luke’s face went still and solemn. “I didn’t miss her. I missed all the years I wasted on her. I was angry at myself for letting someone manipulate me into thinking I deserved less.”
Caleb bit his lip. That was exactly how he was feeling. It was a knife to the gut, but one that he needed. “It doesn’t feel so bad now,” he finally said, gesturing around the room. “Everything he left behind I threw out, and I realized he never really moved in. We’d been together for years, and he only left tiny holes behind.”
“Better than caverns,” Wren said.
Caleb agreed, but he couldn’t help wondering if it would always be that way. Maybe he just attracted people like Cameron. Maybe that would sum up his entire dating life.
Maybe it was best to ignore whatever feelings were growing in him now, not only to protect himself, but to protect Bodhi from disaster.
He lifted his hands to say something along those lines, but Peyton appeared a second later with a chocolate smear on his cheek and a grin on his face. “I’m making Texas sheet cake.”
Wren was on his feet and tugging Peyton into a hug. His lips were moving, and Caleb didn’t need to read them to know he was professing his undying love. The moment to confess his feelings about Bodhi had passed but that was fine. They all deserved a little cake and a little softness after the absolute wreck of a week they’d suffered.
Whatever would happen with Bodhi—and whatever wouldn’t—was something Caleb could worry about later. For the moment, he was just grateful for a little support, and a bit more normalcy as his life rearranged itself into something new.
Chapter9
It wasn’tthat Bodhi disliked alcohol, it was that he didn’t understand the purpose of it. He had no idea how people got enjoyment out of the fuzzy, heavy feeling that disappeared as quickly as it came, leaving behind a dry mouth and pounding headache. But maybe that was just him. Maybe that was one more way he would never be like other people.
Whatever the case, it made him uncomfortable because the moment people started drinking, they started getting handsy—and all their hands were definitely in the realm of bad touch. At the bar Ravi had dragged him to for the event that night, Bodhi knew he was going to have a hard time fending people off.
He’d agreed to go to the Deaf event for several reasons. The first being that his brother kept making puppy dog eyes at him, and Bodhi didn’t want Ravi to feel like he was isolating himself on purpose.
