time we met, you had just barfed all over Javi’s shoes.”
My stomach dropped, and I glared at Dane as Gordo blanched. To make the situation worse, another man chose that moment to approach us. When he smiled, I recognized him from the bar—he’d been with Gordo and his brother and had helped usher my drunk neighbor out.
“Ah, this is my best friend, Christian.” Gordo was still pale as he introduced us. “Apparently all of us met on that fateful night I learned dads can’t party.”
A smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth, and my cock twitched as I remembered what had happened in the moments before the incident. My hands on Gordo’s hips. The press of our bodies. The almost-kiss.
I shook Christian’s hand before I could let my thoughts carry me to a place that would be embarrassing for everyone. “Nice t-to meet you.”
Dane, always coming to my rescue, grabbed Christian’s hand to shake next. Only I couldn’t help but notice how he held it a fraction too long, and I narrowed my eyes. Don’t, Dane—as much as I loved my friend for all of his free-loving ways, I didn’t need any more connections to Gordo running sour, as most of Dane’s trysts tended to end.
Christian flared a cute shade of red, and I bit down on a groan. Well, it was apparently too late. Another one had succumbed to Dane’s charms. Not that I had been much better than Dane in the past. Hell, I’d had more than my fair share of one-night stands and hookups until recently. Substantially more than my fair share, truthfully. It’s just that meaningless sex seemed less appealing now.
My eyes drifted to Gordo.
Dane smirked and stared, pinning poor Christian with his eyes like a butterfly on a board.
Christian looked to Gordo and said in a shaky voice, “We should get to our places for the race.”
I didn’t want Gordo and Giuliana to go. All of us jogging together would be nice, but Dane would rib me to no end if I tried to stick by Gordo, and I wasn’t quite ready to admit that the spark I felt around my neighbor was becoming too bright to ignore. The back of my hand tingled with the memory of his touch from the night he’d listened to me talk about my client. No, not talk. Stutter. I’d barely been able to get the story out.
And not once did he give me the look. The one of impatience, or pity. He’d just...listened. And when I thought back to all of our past conversation, I realized that not once had he reacted to my stutter. This epiphany came with a rush of...well, something too much like hope for me to process. Especially not right next to him and his precious daughter.
I went with Dane to finish checking in while Gordo and Christian took Giuliana to the starting line. Mike smiled and gave me a thumbs-up from down the registration table, but he was far too busy signing people in to come over.
We got our numbers and went to our spot in line; all the while, Dane was up my ass with questions about Christian. “How do you know him?”
My hands signed, movements sharp with irritation. “I don’t. He was with Gordo the night you and I went to the bar.”
“How did I not see him?” Dane was clearly not looking for an answer from me—his eyes were distant, as if he could pick Christian out from the crowd in his memory.
“You were probably busy dry-humping some dude on the dance floor.”
“Well now, Javi, that’s just rude,” he replied in a sarcastic, haughty tone. “As if I would do such a thing. But seriously, is he single?”
“I don’t know.”
“He seemed interested in me, right? Like, I felt there was a kind of vibe going on there. Did you feel anything, Javi? Like he was digging me?”
Absolutely, but I wasn’t going to encourage Dane’s newest obsession. If only because his puppy-crush-like peppering of questions were getting under my skin. I had more important things to anxiously mull over, like Gordo and all the growing emotions he made me feel.
“What kind of work does Christian do?”
“I. Don’t. Know. Christian,” I signed with finality. “Let it g-go,” I added out loud, with more gentleness.
“Nah, man. I need to know him.” Dane said it like he needed to possess Christian, an intensity in his voice I hadn’t heard before, not about a man. But there wasn’t time to pursue it: The race