AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Schooled by a nine-year-old. It seemed obvious now, but it hadn’t even occurred to him. He’d figured lumps were just something he’d have to deal with.
They unrolled the tent together, and it was even larger than it had looked in the picture. He’d gotten the largest one he could find—advice from one of his colleagues who also had two kids—but it was immense. Two rooms and a screened porch and crazy overhangs.
They were going to need the instructions.
He and Dana were snapping together fiberglass poles with these cool strings inside them—they sure hadn’t had those when he was a kid—when his alarm chimed.
He wandered back over to the car. “Mikey, time’s up!”
“Noooooo! I’ve just got twenty-three more minutes.”
“That means you started another episode.” They had this argument whenever there was screen time. “Hand it over. You can come help us set up the tent.” He still had to wrestle the thing out of Mikey’s surprisingly strong seven-year-old arms.
“I don’t want to! I hate you! And I hate this trip!” He kicked the back of the passenger seat.
James rested his head on his arms on the roof of the car. Was it too early in the trip to resort to bribery? Mikey hadn’t even taken off his seatbelt.
He pulled a shiny foil packet out of his back pocket. “I got you a pack of special Pokémon cards for camping. You can have them as soon as the tent’s set up.”
Mikey grabbed for them.
“Out of the car.” They were going back in his pocket for now.
Mikey stomped over to the picnic table, but that was apparently as far as he was willing to go.
Fine. At least Mikey was breathing the air and feeling the sun. He’d just set up the tent with Dana.
Only it became obvious after about fifteen minutes that he couldn’t set up the tent with Dana. He couldn’t even get the fucking poles in the stupid sleeves. Who the hell had designed this thing?
It didn’t help that Mikey was practically in tears because his precious five thousand three hundred and sixty-seven Pokémon cards kept blowing away. It was unclear why he needed to lay out every. single. one. on the picnic table when he had several binders to organize them in.
Twenty minutes and James was ready to call it quits. Dana had lost all faith in him a while ago. Maybe this whole thing was a terrible idea.
“Hey, need a hand?”
James whirled around.
There was a naked gay guy standing in the driveway.
Well, not quite naked, because he was wearing an itty-bitty swimsuit that left all of his lean muscles and hairy chest on display.
But he was definitely gay.
James had shitty gaydar—as evidenced by nearly every time a co-worker or patient had casually come out to him, and his one abysmal attempt at going to a gay bar a couple weeks ago—but this guy was definitely gay. His Speedo was striped in rainbows that matched the towel looped over his shoulders. The metal water bottle that dangled from his hand had a Love is Love sticker on it, and yes, more rainbows.
Even James could figure that out.
Plus, he had one sparkling green earring. And brown bangs that swooped over one eye in this way that shouldn’t have been as sexy as it was.
Crap, crap, crap. What was he supposed to say?
The guy was just so… naked. And gay. And hot.
And young. Super, super young.
Way too young for someone like James to be looking at.
Jesus. It was like the divorce had suddenly made all of the little gay thoughts that were buried in the back of his mind leap to the surface.
