Chapter 77

Scooter leaned over, crowding into Andy’s space, his eyes glinting with interest. Easily, he divested Andy of his plate, setting it down on the battered coffee table. With an almost predatory motion, like a starving vampire, he swooped in on Andy’s throat and licked over one bruise there. “God, you’re so…” Scooter said something else, but as his lips were moving over Andy’s throat, it was a little difficult to concentrate.

Andy tipped his head, letting Scooter in, sinking into the sensation. “Nnngh, you’re going to be the death of me,” he groaned, dropping his fork so he could slip his fingers into Scooter’s hair.

“Can’t help it,” Scooter said. He trailed his mouth up the side of Andy’s jaw and then planted a very light kiss on Andy’s lower lip. “You’re just…tempting.” He backed off again, taking a bite of eggs and trying to pretend he wasn’t still ogling.

Andy sighed and picked up his fork again. “Don’t you dare make me walk around this place all day with a hard-on,” he warned. “There are children there. Impressionable young children.”

“Who are not the slightest bit interested in what’s going on in your pants,” Scooter pointed out. He polished off his eggs and pulled on a very prim and proper attitude. “But I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

Andy didn’t believe that for a hot second, but Scooter might give him time to finish breakfast at least. “As you should,” he said primly. “Except in the Tunnel of Love, of course.”

“They don’t actually have one of those,” Scooter said. “Shame, that. I suppose we could—” But whatever it was that they could have done got lost as Kat’s little commuter car pulled into the lot and Jason laid on the horn. Which might have been more annoying, except the car’s horn was barely louder than a kid’s bike. Meep! Meeeeeeeep! Meep. “Well, so much for that idea.”

Andy blinked, and leaned to look out the window. “You said ninety minutes!” he said. “I’m still in my boxers!”

Scooter leered. “I’d noticed that. I said we’d leavein ninety minutes. Go shower, I’ll delay the birthday boy.” He swatted Andy’s ass as Andy scurried for the shower, muttering and complaining the whole way.

* * * *

It took Andy a while to realize what was happening, but once he noticed, he couldn’t stop. Jason’s arm went around Kat’s shoulders, or they held hands. She leaned against Jason when they were waiting in line, and occasionally tipped her head up to demand a kiss.

Scooter knocked shoulders with Andy, shoved and pushed playfully, ruffled Andy’s hair…but stayed a careful step away. He smiled as brightly as ever, but kept his hands stuffed in his pockets when he wasn’t using them.

Andy had never really bothered with being closeted, but he knew what it looked like. Everyone in Sandbridge, more or less, knew Scooter was gay, so they didn’t bother trying to hide it. But here, surrounded by strangers…

He shouldn’t take it personally. It had nothing to do with Andy, and everything to do with growing up surrounded by homophobic asshats. It still stung, though; a couple of weeks ago, Scooter had been talking about wanting to show Andy off.

Andy was still arguing with himself when they finally stopped to eat at the huge dining hall, where Kat gleefully went in search of the cake she’d been talking about all day. They paid for their food (Andy winced at the cost, but at least the portions were good-sized) and found space at one of the long bench-style tables. Scooter slid in next to Andy, but left enough space between them for D’ante’s nephew.

Kat caught up a few minutes later with enough cake for all four of them. The slices weren’t quitethe promised size of Andy’s head, but they sure as hell tried, towers of alternating chocolate cake and whipped cream topped with a bright maraschino cherry.

Kat shoved in at the end, forcing Scooter to move over to accommodate her, sitting across from Jason instead of next to him. “Here is cake,” she said, as if everyone in the nearby vicinity couldn’t tell that, or she was speaking to very small children. She dropped forks in front of everyone and then passed out slices. When Jason shoved a plate full of spicy-smelling sausages in front of her, she scoffed. “Eat dessert first, Jason,” she said, looking down her nose at him. “Life is uncertain.” She plucked the cherry off the top of her piece and dropped it on Scooter’s. “For you, because I know you love them.”

Jason didn’t quite wince when she kicked him under the table. He stared at his cake for a moment, then at his fiancée, then at his best friend. He heaved a huge sigh, like he was making some monumental sacrifice, and added his cherry to Scooter’s cake. “Here, pal.”

It had only been weeks, though it seemed longer, since Kat had dragged Andy out for ice cream and brightly explained that Scooter could tie a daisy-chain of cherry-stems in his mouth. Having experienced that mouth in action, Andy could believe it.