Love Him Desperate (On the Market #5) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,76

be occupied.”

Kyle’s brows lifted. “How do you know that?”

“Uh,” Dmitri said with a blush, “I work out here? I’m going to school and training to take over for Ronan.” He’d swear he’d told him this already, but the way Kyle stared at him, he doubted himself for a second.

Shaking his head, he followed Kyle outside, and they took the path to the shore that was still dotted with patches of snow, some of the rocks shining with ice. “We used to come out here in high school,” Kyle mused as they began the trek toward the docks. “Me and my friends. Were you in school with me?”

“I didn’t come back to Cherry Creek until my sophomore year,” he said quietly. “I think you graduated already.”

Kyle sipped his coffee for a second, brows high on his forehead. “Right. Yeah. That shit with your dad? Everyone was talking about it. He was like a meth-head who beat you, right?”

Dmitri didn’t bother to hide his wince, glancing out over the water. He knew what rumors were like, how they built wild and frantic around small bits of nothing. He’d heard the whispers over the years, watching people condemn him for the sins of the man who never really loved him in the first place. And he’d watched people feel vindicated with every one of his missteps.

“Well, no,” he finally said. “No. I mean, he was an addict, but it wasn’t like that.”

Kyle offered him an apologetic smile. “No offense or anything. That’s just what people say.”

“I know what people say,” Dmitri answered quietly.

He prayed Kyle would drop it as he led the way around the edge of the dock, up the path where he had spent hours neatly stacking wood. It was trashed now, and littered with bottles and bags of fast food and empty red cups. His stomach twisted with frustration, and he dragged a hand through his hair, dislodging his hat.

“This one-hundred percent looks like the shit my friends and I did,” Kyle said with a laugh. He flopped on one of the benches and spread his legs out. “This one year—god. My friend Chris got so fucking wasted he decided to put out the fire by pissing on it, and he slipped and fell and busted his head open. Ronan was so fucking pissed when the paramedics showed up.”

“I bet,” Dmitri said, trying not to let Kyle get to him. He probably didn’t mean it—it wasn’t personal. Most kids didn’t consider what happened in the aftermath when they did stuff like that.

“That was before he was all…whatever. Disabled,” Kyle said, waving his hand.

Dmitri bristled. “He has MS, and he does just as much now as he did back then.”

With a laugh, Kyle pat the bench beside him. “I’m not trying to be rude, Dmitri. I still think he’s hot as fuck.”

Hesitating, Dmitri eventually sat, but tried to keep space between them. There was a million things to unpack about the way Kyle thought, the things he said, but he was tired. He seemed like an entirely different person to the man who had been texting him in the mornings just to say hi. This wasn’t the person who had bribed for lunch hours that met with Dmitri’s just so he could buy him a coffee.

Biting his lip, he shook his head. “I wish people treated this place better. Ronan’s worked his ass off for his entire adult life to keep this place nice.”

“They’re just kids,” Kyle started.

Dmitri made a frustrated noise. “I get that, but it’s not the worst thing in the world to expect them to not act like animals. The fucking raccoons don’t tear the place up this bad most nights.” He rubbed at his face, and then he glanced over at Kyle who was looking at him with a curious expression.

“This is your job, isn’t it? Cleaning this stuff up?”

Dmitri nodded. “Some of it. And it’s not a big deal. It’s not like I can’t do it. But if it wasn’t me, it would be Ronan, and there’s no reason to make his job harder, you know?”

“Yeah,” Kyle breathed out. “I was a real dickhead in school. You probably think I’m the biggest asshole.”

At that, Dmitri softened a little, because he knew what it was like to be judged for things you could never take back. “No. I mean, maybe you were—I don’t know. But it’s not like you did this.”

Kyle moved closer and knocked his knee into Dmitri’s. “No, but I am surprised that you don’t