known for so little time.”
Joel came back to the table and retook his seat. “I trust you,” he said simply. “I know we haven’t known each other all that long, but there’s something about you…”
Finn smiled. “Like calls to like, don’t they say?”
Joel stared at him. “I don’t understand.”
“Okay, let’s try another. It takes one to know one.”
Joel’s heartbeat raced, and something fluttered deep in his belly. No way.
Finn gazed at him, those storm-colored eyes locked on his. “One of my friends says family is not always the one you’re born into, but the one you choose. The people you choose to surround yourself with. The people you invite into your life, who accept you, support you, love you.” His eyes sparkled. “To put it another way, in the words of Sister Sledge… ‘We are family.’” He bit his lip. “With my apologies for the fact that I really can’t carry a tune.”
Holy fuck. “You’re gay.”
Finn nodded. “Welcome to the family.”
Chapter Eleven
Finn’s head was spinning. What are the odds? Then a thought struck him. Okay, so maybe he was checking me out after all. He smiled to himself. I didn’t imagine it. Then he pushed that assumption aside. And maybe I’m too full of myself. Thinking Joel would be interested in him smacked of arrogance.
Joel seemed to have been shocked into silence by Finn’s revelation. Either that, or he’d run out of words.
“Thank you for trusting me,” Finn said at last. “That means a lot. And hearing your story… I think I had it easier growing up than you did.”
“Nowadays, coming out isn’t such a huge deal—or at least, that’s how it seems to me,” Joel mused. “Every time I switch on the TV or check my phone, someone in the public eye is coming out, and no one bats an eyelid.” He leaned forward, his elbows on the table, clasping his glass in both hands. “I guess our stories must be very different.”
“Not so much as you might think.” Finn grinned. “Except for the sleepover part. Although… Now I come to think about it…”
“What do you mean?”
“You got me thinking about one of my friends, Seb. You know, I haven’t thought about it before, but…” He chuckled. “That sneaky little fucker.” How come I missed that?
“Are you going to tell me what you haven’t thought about before?” Joel asked with a smile.
“When I was thirteen or fourteen, I had a couple of friends who used to sleep over regularly. Seb was one of them. I was a gentleman—I always let one of them have my bed, and everyone else slept on the floor in sleeping bags. Well, there was this one time when Seb turned up without his sleeping bag, and asked if he could share mine. And of course I said yes.”
Joel grinned. “I take it Seb turned out to be gay?” He cocked his head to one side. “Did he try anything?”
“I think I’d have noticed if he had,” Finn said with a chuckle. “Although… Okay, it wasn’t a big sleeping bag so we were a bit squashed, but… I woke up with his arm around me. I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
“I must meet him sometime. He sounds as if he’s as devious as I was.” Joel sipped his juice. “So you had a gay friend? Safety in numbers, right?”
“Actually, back in high school there were three of us. We thought of ourselves as the three gay Musketeers. As I said, like calls to like. We found each other, and we stayed friends.”
“That’s amazing. Are these the friends you were talking about?”
Finn nodded. “Levi and Seb were the original two. Then Noah, Ben, Shaun, Dylan, and Aaron sort of latched onto us.” He smiled. “My family.”
Joel blinked. “They’re not all gay, surely. The odds of eight gay teens becoming friends must be astronomical.”
“I’d agree. I’d say four of us are gay, but don’t quote me on that.” He wasn’t so sure about Dylan and Shaun, not that either of them had been vocal about their preferences. “And one of the four has only recently come out. He says it took him longer to figure stuff out.”
“I envy you. I never had any close friends growing up.”
Finn’s heart went out to him. “I can understand that. You had to hide. To watch everything you said. But things are different now. It’s like you said… now you can live the way you want. You’re free to meet guys, make friends…” He grinned. “Hell, you met