Dirty Thoughts - Megan Erickson Page 0,58
know, there’s something there. And that’s fine; they’re friends. Whatever. But he’s known him for a week, and he comes home with a hickey?”
“I get that you’re concerned, but they’re teenage boys. I mean, think about what we did when we were teenagers.”
Cal’s face turned white. “Oh, shit.”
Jenna just barely grabbed his arm and prevented him from stomping into the house. “Cal, calm down.” He tugged in her grip but not as hard as he could. She held on, and while the tension remained in his body, he at least wasn’t currently banging and yelling on Asher’s door. “Stop. Please talk to me.”
He looked at her, eyes full of concern. “They can’t get pregnant, so I guess that’s a good thing. But there’s . . . other stuff, right? He needs to be safe. And I’ve only known Julian for a week. I don’t know what kind of kid he is or if he’ll hurt Asher, and—”
“Cal—”
“Isn’t there a PFLAP thing I can join? I need to Google that.”
“Pretty sure you mean PFLAG—”
“And if he breathes one word about River’s Edge, I’m going to lose my fucking mind—”
“Cal, shut up!”
He shut up, and Jenna blew out a breath, tired of bracing herself to keep Cal from running into the house. She didn’t know anything more about this than Cal did. Hell, when they were teenagers, they couldn’t wait to get alone. And they’d been so in love, so quickly, it hadn’t taken long before Cal was buying the value pack of condoms to keep in his truck.
God, those were the days.
Jenna shook her head. “Can I talk to him? Please?”
Cal looked at her, biting his lip.
“Do you trust me?” she asked softly.
Cal nodded. When she let go of his arm, he stayed standing.
“Why don’t you smoke a cigarette and calm down?” she said over her shoulder.
“I quit,” he grumbled.
She stumbled and held her arms out for balance. Slowly, she turned around. “What did you say?”
He pointed to a flesh-colored patch on his arm she hadn’t noticed earlier. “I’m doing this to help me quit. Got ’em at the grocery store the other day.”
He quit. Quit. He’d smoked since he was sixteen. “Are you serious?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Why did you quit now?”
He shrugged and kicked a stone with the toe of his boot. “Felt like it was time.”
She didn’t know what else to say. She settled on, “Well, I’m glad,” and then continued walking into the house to talk to Asher.
SO MAYBE HE’D overreacted.
Just a little.
As Cal stood in his driveway, wishing he had a damn cigarette, he tried to parcel it out in his head. He hadn’t been that uptight with his brothers. Was it because Asher was gay?
But that didn’t seem right either. It had nothing to do with Asher’s being a guy or being gay or anything, really. It had to do with Cal now realizing how much that first love mattered. How much it could hurt when it all went downhill.
And maybe he wanted to save Asher the heartache. He wanted to keep him in this house where nothing could make him feel unsafe or unloved.
Jenna had been inside for fifteen minutes. Cal had finished with his truck, and so he figured it was time to venture into the house. He took a deep breath and walked inside, swiping his T-shirt from the bed of his truck and pulling it over his head. Best not to face whatever was inside half-naked.
When he opened the front door, voices drifted in from the kitchen. He made his way toward it and then stopped in the doorway, eyes on Jenna and Asher. They sat at the kitchen table, eating bowls of cereal. Both looked up when he walked in. Jenna looked calm, comfortable, while Asher was clearly anxious, watching Cal.
Cal licked his lips. “Hey, kid.”
Asher blinked. “Hi.”
Cal clenched his jaw and then figured he should get this out of the way. “Sorry, uh, about that. For how I reacted.”
Asher’s smile was tentative. “It’s okay.”
“Nah, it’s really not. I acted like an asshole, and I’m sorry.”
“You weren’t an asshole—”
“I yelled—”
“At least you care.”
That shut Cal up. Fast. He swallowed around the lump in his throat. And why were his eyes hot all of a sudden? He rubbed them with his thumb and forefinger. He had to remember who had raised Asher, what the kid was used to. He took a deep breath and glanced at Jenna. Her head was bent, swirling her spoon in the milk left in her bowl. Cal turned to Asher.