Love Him Desperate (On the Market #5) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,8

own age, wearing a striped t-shirt and cuffed capris. He was every gay kid’s teen dream with his swooping pompadour and expensive loafers. He was clearly one of the new tourists drawn to town by Antoine’s carefully cultivated online marketing plan to put Cherry Creek on the map, and Dmitri had been spending most of his summer trying to avoid people like him.

Gwen was dealing in some vacation rentals, and strangers were sticking around longer, making everyone’s summer slump worth a little bit more cash.

“Am I interrupting something?”

“Teen angst,” Dmitri told him.

He shifted over and out of his periphery saw the guy toe out of his shoes and ruck up the hem of his capris before sitting. Dmitri wondered if he gave off his own vibe. He was never much of a fashion anything—he was petrified of bothering with trends, so he let Jayden pick out whatever he thought might look good. He had a lot of thick wool peacoats for winters, but his soft green cargo shorts and black t-shirts in summer were at least simple enough to let him pass unnoticed.

“I’m Felix,” he said, because of course his name was Felix. It was probably gifted to him by his influencer mother who had a forty-and-loving-it Instagram that was sponsored by Target and Hidden Valley Ranch. She was probably blonde with honey highlights like he had, and he probably had her smile.

And his parents probably loved the shit out of him.

Dmitri had once read an adoption account where a person was talking about how their birth parents never mattered because they felt deeper love by being chosen—and he laughed until he cried, and then he cried until he couldn’t breathe. Then he hoped his father rolled back into Cherry Creek so he could punch him in the face for dragging him into this world where he was chewed up and spit out by everyone, and then judged for not looking as pristine as they did.

His extended family loved him, but he had never belonged in one of those marshmallow stories about chosen children.

“Are you going to tell me yours?” Felix pressed after far too long a silence.

Dmitri sighed because it would mean explaining why a Chinese kid with a Mexican aunt was named after a Russian guy who helped win the Stanley Cup decades before he was born. He’d give his father an extra kick to the gut for that one, if he was ever allowed.

“You don’t have to tell me. I mean, if you don’t want to.”

He sounded young, which made Dmitri want to laugh because he was fucking young, but so damn bitter, and this guy was staring at him like he had something important to say. “I’m Dmitri.”

“Cool.”

Cool. That was it? And maybe it was because he was used to meeting kids with names like Stardust and Yarrow that he didn’t really think twice when a name didn’t match a face. But right then, he didn’t hate the guy for being an interloper who would be more well liked in the five minutes he was there than the years Dmitri spent as a resident.

“Anything fun to do around here, Dmitri?”

He laughed. “Kayaks, but only if you can swim.”

“I was told you had to rent a cabin to use them, and my family’s staying in town.” Felix shifted forward and dipped his toes in the water. Dmitri thought about warning him that there were turtles there and they did bite, but he liked to let people learn the hard way. He was an okay person, but he wasn’t necessarily nice.

“I know the park ranger if you really want to go out on the water,” Dmitri said after a beat, “but it’s not as fun as it looks.”

“The wheelchair guy?”

Dmitri scowled because it was just like some out of towner asshole to boil Ronan down so cruelly and pointlessly. But it didn’t surprise him either. “His name is Ronan. I’ve known him most of my life,” Dmitri said, which was just shades of a lie.

Felix hummed a bit, then shrugged. “Does it sound good to you?”

“No,” Dmitri answered, and this time he could be honest. “I hate kayaking. Some guy almost drowned a few summers ago, and I lost my taste for it.” He pushed himself up to his feet, and he wasn’t entirely surprised when Felix followed him, but he felt the first stirrings of annoyance. “I better take off.”

“Do you want company?” When Dmitri looked back, Felix threw up his hands in surrender, and his smile