Keeping Casey (Keeping Him #1) - Amy Aislin Page 0,37

together.

Hope had been alive in Ethan’s chest as he’d parked, a real thing that he could almost touch, hold in the palm of his hands, and nurture quietly. Heart beating too fast, he’d taken the I dig you button Casey had given him off of his backpack and slipped it in his pocket.

Now, as he walked side by side with Casey through the trail, he shoved a hand into his pocket to play with the button, hope as dead as the orange leaves underneath his shoes.

He should’ve known it was a slip of the tongue. Should’ve known that Casey didn’t mean anything by what he’d said.

You’re all I see, Ethan.

I dig you.

Casey’s way of telling him that he cared about him, not that he had feelings for him beyond friendship. Ethan needed to get that through his head. Didn’t matter how he felt about Casey; Casey obviously didn’t feel the same.

He was tempted to drop the button among the trees, but that would just be petty and mean. Besides, he’d regret it within five minutes and have to come back another time to find it again.

The trail was gravel, the occasional loose limb barring their path. Leaves of burnt orange, dark red, and sunshine yellow littered the ground and colored the canopy above. Squirrels and chipmunks skittered up and down trees, and it was crisp enough that Ethan was glad for his hoodie.

The rest of the group was far ahead of them. He walked with Casey at a steady pace, not too fast to join the group but not too slow to get left totally behind. Not antisocial exactly. Simply content with each other’s company, same as always.

Swallowing roughly, he turned to Casey and found his best friend with his gaze on his toes, a furrow marking his brow. They’d so far passed the entire hike in silence, and while comfortable silence was normal for them, Ethan didn’t like how this one made Casey frown, or how it made the hairs on the back of Ethan’s neck stand at attention.

“What should we dress as for Halloween?”

Head jerking up, Casey blinked at Ethan. “Oh, um . . . We should go as a couple. Shove our gayness in Britton’s face.”

“You’re not gay.”

Casey waved a hand. “You know what I mean.”

“And you know the whole point of this—” Ethan gestured between them. “—is to get Britton off my back, not to shove my gayness in his face.”

“Two birds, one stone. How’s that going, by the way? Is he still trying to shove women at you?”

Groaning, Ethan tipped his head back and promptly lost his footing on a skinny stick. Cursing, he righted himself and repositioned his backpack full of water and snacks. Casey had a similar backpack on his shoulders, although it looked heavier than Ethan’s. No doubt he’d packed for every contingency. Forest fires, injury, rain—even though there was no rain in the forecast for today—bug bites, and he’d probably also brought extra snacks and water in case someone in their group ran out.

“Eth?”

“Hm? Oh.” Right. Britton. “Earlier this week, he took me to lunch under the guise of talking hockey and spent the entire time telling me about yet another female friend. Apparently, this one writes for the sports section of the Chronicle.” The Mountain Chronicle was GH’s student newspaper.

“Did you tell him to fuck off?”

“No, just that I wasn’t interested.”

Casey gave him a dubious side-eye.

“I’m trying to keep things civil between us.” Ethan sighed. “He’s still my team captain. I don’t want to alienate him.”

“If there was ever someone to alienate, it’s a homophobe.”

“A homophobe who’s my team captain,” he stressed. “And as the only member of the team who knows about my RA, he could play that up with the coaches if he wanted to, give them a reason to bench me.”

“Is he that vindictive?”

Ethan shrugged. “Beats me. But I’m not taking the chance.”

“I get it. Gotta keep the peace.”

They separated around a large puddle in their path, leftover from Friday afternoon’s rains.

“We should get ‘I’m with him’ T-shirts for the party,” Casey said.

The party was the Halloween party at the House at the end of the month.

Ethan shook his head. “Lame.”

“Batman and Robin?”

“Overdone.”

There was a break in the trees as they crested a hill, and an unexpected chilly gust of wind tossed him into Casey, who righted him without comment before saying, “Woody and Buzz?”

“Why don’t we just wait and see what we find in Montpelier?”

An hour later, the group arrived at the scenic overlook. Below, Glen