Strung Tight (The Road To Rocktoberfest #1) - Ann Lister Page 0,51

and he turned over the engine. I slid into the middle spot, and my guard did his best to squeeze himself into the tiny space that remained. “Feel like pizza for dinner?” Dallas asked me.

“That sounds great,” I answered. “I’ll order now, and we can pick it up on our way.”

I pulled up the app on my phone and placed my usual order of a large meat-lovers pizza at the place just down the street from my apartment, then slid the phone back into my pocket. Dallas was quiet until we pulled up to a stop light. “Did everything go okay at rehearsal today?” he asked me.

“Yeah, sure, for the most part,” I answered.

“What does that mean?” he asked and I sighed.

“I had some issues.”

“Like what?”

“Concentrating,” I said and glanced at him. “We can talk about it after we get to my place.”

“Oh, okay,” Dallas said finally remembering the big awkward elephant sitting beside me in the truck.

We were quiet the rest of the way to the pizza place. I handed Paxton a twenty-dollar bill I’d fished out of my wallet, and he ran in to get it for us. I could see a line of people waiting to pick up their orders and knew we had a few minutes to talk in private. Dallas must have seen the same and bumped his shoulder into mine.

“Fletcher, use your words and talk to me,” Dallas admonished. “We’re adults here. If you’re no longer having fun with this thing we’re doing then let me know.”

“That’s not what’s on my mind at all,” I said.

“Then tell me what it is while your guard is busy,” Dallas said. “What were you overthinking back at the warehouse?”

“How fucking hot you looked,” I replied and grinned over at him.

“Seriously? You were checking me out?”

“Why else would I have been standing there half-hard?”

“Were you thinking about me naked?”

“I’m always thinking about you—with or without clothing, which is part of the problem,” I said.

“Problem?”

“My brain is always thinking about you, and then I lose focus at rehearsal and fuck up the songs,” I said. “Dagger pulled me aside today and told me to get my head back in the game.”

“Shit, that’s not good,” Dallas said. “Do you want to take a break until after the Nevada show?”

“Absolutely not because there’s always going to be another show,” I explained. “We’d always be waiting to get past an event to be together.”

“So, you want to keep seeing me?” Dallas asked.

“Very much,” I said, “and that’s the other part I wanted to talk to you about. I was wondering what this … thing between us is or if it’s anything at all?”

“You mean like, are we hooking up, or are we boyfriends?” Dallas asked, and I nodded.

“Am I being ridiculous by asking a question like that? If I am, just say so.”

“What do you want it to be, hooking up or boyfriends?”

I looked at the pizza place again and noticed Paxton had only moved up one spot in line, so I knew we could keep talking. All I could smell were the different aromas connected to the Italian food and pizzas they were making inside the shop, and my stomach growled.

“I’ve thought about that question a lot lately, especially today after Dagger talked to me,” I said, “and if I’m being completely honest, I don’t want to … share you with anyone else. I want it to just be us—together—and no fooling around with anyone other than each other.”

“Like boyfriends would do,” Dallas stated. “Is that what you want, to be boyfriends?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s what I’m saying,” I admitted and then exhaled loudly. “Jesus, that was harder to say out loud than you’d think.”

“You didn’t actually say it out loud—I did,” Dallas pointed out, and then he grinned. “I was the one who used the word boyfriend. Say it with me, Fletch. I want to be boyfriends with you, Dallas.”

I shoved him on the shoulder and laughed, but when he repeated the phrase, I knew he did want to hear me say the words. The smile on my face slowly relaxed as I stared into his eyes. I could endlessly get lost in those pools of emotion, so raw and real. I reached across the truck cab and took his hand.

“Dal, I want you to be my boyfriend, like … for real,” I said. “Just you and me, no one else.”

His lips curled into a huge smile and made that flip-flop feeling return to my stomach. “You had me wanting