rising one last time before it went in the oven, he shot her a look and then subtly pointed toward the pantry. She rolled her eyes but followed him. He jerked the string to the light above them so hard he worried for a second that he’d tear it off.
“What the fuck, Mom?” he hissed as soon as she closed the door behind her.
“Lukas, don’t cuss at me.”
“No, but seriously, what the hell? Why did you blindside John with a date?”
She fiddled with her wedding ring—a tell she’d had his whole life—but kept her chin up. “John deserves to be happy, and Gina is a wonderful person. Her divorce has been finalized for a while, and she mentioned being ready to start dating again, so I thought they’d hit it off.”
Of course she would. And, of course, she wouldn’t know how much it would hurt her son to see John start dating someone right in front of him. He’d never told her or his dad about his crush on John, so she’d have no idea.
Not sure what else to say, he muttered, “It was shitty to not at least give him a heads-up,” then squeezed past her and went back into the kitchen. He glanced at the table and saw that his dad had disappeared—probably putting the burgers on the grill—and John and Gina were leaning toward each other, talking about something apparently just riveting. As he watched, Gina reached over and placed a hand on John’s arm as he threw his head back laughing.
Breath hitching in his chest, he turned and walked out of the kitchen, unable to stand there and watch John smile and joke with someone else as they touched him. It was so ridiculous that he was jealous, but he couldn’t help how he felt. He climbed the stairs and went to his old bedroom, which had become the guest room a couple of years ago.
He sat on the end of the bed and leaned onto his knees, head hanging. He had about twenty minutes to pull his shit together enough that he could get through dinner, then make an excuse to leave as soon as he was done eating.
Taking a few deep breaths, he almost didn’t hear the knock at the door. Glancing up, he bit back a groan. No doubt his mom was worried about him.
“I’m fine. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
“Lukas, it’s me,” John said, and Lukas’s heart tripped over itself, his fingers twitching. “Can I come in?”
“Um, yeah, okay.” He sat up as John slipped into the bedroom and closed the door behind him.
They simply stared at each other for a long moment; then Lukas raised his eyebrows in question, and John’s gaze darted away.
Lukas wasn’t sure what to say, so he decided to just wait John out since he’d been the one to track him down. As he waited, he took in the dark blue button-down and nice jeans John was wearing. He always dressed nicely for family dinners with Lukas’s parents, but he wondered if Gina thought he’d dressed up for her.
He looked really good.
His sleeves were rolled up to just under his elbows, and it looked like his hair had been recently cut. His dark brown locks were just long enough to have a slight part, but he usually didn’t bother, so it looked a little messy. His face was clean-shaven, though Lukas personally preferred him with a bit of scruff and had spent many a night imagining what his stubble would feel like between his thighs.
Shit, don’t think about that now, he told himself. He stood and cleared his throat, which seemed to jolt John into action. John stepped away from the door and toward Lukas.
“I… I didn’t know she was going to be here,” he said, a frown tugging down the corners of his kissable mouth and furrowing his thick eyebrows.
“I know. I already told my mom what a dick move it was not telling you beforehand.” Lukas wiped his palms on his jeans and took a step toward the door, figuring their conversation was over. He wasn’t sure why John had felt the need to come and tell him something he already knew, but they should both get back before his parents came looking for them.
One corner of John’s mouth curved up in a smile at Lukas’s crude words, but he didn’t move back toward the door, so Lukas stopped a foot or so away. “Is that what you two were talking about in