Love Him Desperate (On the Market #5) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,11

first disastrous week home. He’d gotten into two fights at school and was suspended, and Sonia had cried until she couldn’t talk anymore, and Rose had been sweet but firm when she said him living there wasn’t going to work.

He didn’t get it until Jayden explained that she was going blind, and she’d lost her position at the cooking school, and the bar was already struggling. And then Dmitri had come along with his piles of baggage and pain so overwhelming he couldn’t help but lash out. He’d been shuffled off with good reason, but even those good reasons hadn’t entirely softened the blow.

He knew she was trying to make up for it now, but he wasn’t sure the reluctant date was what she had in mind for him. He took his change the server handed back and stuffed it into his pocket, joining Felix on the chairs by the host stand.

“Can I ask you something?” Felix’s voice broke the tentative silence between them, and Dmitri startled.

“Sure.”

“Why do you want to eat take out in your car in the middle of a field? By yourself?” Felix added the last two words with raised brows.

Dmitri ducked his head toward his knees and twisted his fingers together because answering made him sound so fucking pathetic. “Things…” He stopped and shook his head. “I lived in Cherry Creek when I was a kid, but my dad moved us away, and I only got back a few years ago.”

“So, you’re kind of new again,” Felix said.

“It was different when I got back,” Dmitri said with a shrug. “It’s like, it moved on without me.” He sat back and let out a puff of air. “If I tell you the truth about my plans tonight, will you promise not to pity me?”

Felix ran a finger under his lower lip. “I’ll try, but it’s kind of a natural reaction, you know?”

Dmitri closed his eyes. “I guess so.”

“For what it’s worth, pity won’t make me think less of you.” Felix touched his thigh, just a brief motion, and it made his skin hot. “You’re quiet, and you’re interesting. I’ve been kind of hoping for some personality flaw because you’re making me feel a little inadequate here.”

Dmitri almost laughed because it had to be a joke, but there was a strange, soft vulnerability to Felix’s eyes. “Today’s my birthday.”

Felix blinked at him, then cleared his throat. “You shitting me?”

“Nope. Today is my eighteenth birthday. My uncle gave me that car, and my aunts gave me cash and some cupcakes, but no one else remembered or cared. And it felt fucking sad, so I decided that going out into a field in the middle of nowhere and eating Chinese take-out was better than admitting it to them and then facing all the people who were shamed into wishing me happy birthday at my aunts’ restaurant.”

“Fuck.”

This time, Dmitri did laugh. “Yeah.”

“I do feel sorry for you. I know you don’t want me to, but that’s fucking sad.” Felix shifted a little closer to him. “No one deserves that.”

Dmitri shrugged. “I’m not arguing about it being sad, I just don’t want you thinking I’m some pathetic loser. That’ll be my gift tonight, okay? Because if you want to know another secret? I am a pathetic loser.”

Felix looked at him out of the corner of his eye, his fingers tapping the side of the chair in a rhythm Dmitri didn’t recognize. After a beat, he sighed. “Well, does it help if I say I like you anyway?”

It felt a little false because Felix had spotted him by the lake and maybe thought he was pretty—and he was pretty. And maybe Felix had a thing for sad, pretty boys sitting by lakes, but that was hardly the sum of all Dmitri’s parts. Still, it felt nice to know that someone had made an effort on a day he hadn’t really wanted to wallow.

“It helps,” he finally said.

Felix smiled, and he inched his hand over until they linked pinky fingers, and they waited for the food to arrive.

The drive to the field wasn’t very long, and Dmitri was glad the sun was dipping below the mountains as he pulled off the side of the road, onto a dirt path he’d used enough times even if it wasn’t a real road. His new car didn’t offer anything open like the bed of Jayden’s truck, but they got comfortable on the still-warm hood, and he tried not the care about the way the metal sank inward