Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 65346 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65346 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
“Benji?”
“Yeah, what, huh?”
“I was asking if you remembered that one Christmas barbecue I had. I invited your family over. That was before my dad went full brain-washed mode. Before Sylvia really sank her claws in.”
I nodded, remembering that Christmas clearly. It had been the year before our Costa Rica trip. We’d all gone over to Rex’s house, and he cooked us a mouthwatering meal. They lived on a huge estate that sat right on the water, which I remembered had surprised me. I knew Rex’s family had money, but he never carried himself with the kind of attitude I expected from someone who had been raised in a waterside castle. His dad was part of a fast-food chain empire, using the money to invest and grow their name even larger. He got into politics right before I met Rex.
“You cooked us these blue-cheese-stuffed burgers that I still dream about to this day.” My mouth, in a Pavlovian response, started to water.
Rex laughed, nodding. Tammy rolled over so that the back scratches could become belly scratches. Her small paws, almost humanlike in their ability to grab things, scratched the air in pleasure as Rex and I doubled up on her.
“I’ll have to make that next, then.”
“Yes, please.” Warm memories filled me. “It was a great Christmas. One of the best.”
“It really was. Even if Sylvia was there, fucking everything up.” Rex shook his head, eyes turning downward. “My dad always seemed uncomfortable around gay people, but he never truly seemed to hate them, not until Sylvia wrapped him up in her organization. He changed.”
“I remember her treating my moms’ pretty bad during that Christmas dinner.”
So bad that we didn’t go back the next year, and weren’t invited ever again after that.
“My dad fought with her that night, I’ll give him that. I was going to sleep and heard him arguing with her, saying she should have been kinder and more welcoming. That Mia and Ashley are good friends. I couldn’t hear her part, she spoke too low, but it seemed to go on for a while. I just left them.”
My turn to shake my head. “What a monster.”
As Rex’s gaze turned out toward the calm lake, I took that as an opening to admire the man sitting next to me. One I was sure I’d never connect with again, not like this. He was my brother’s best friend, not mine. I didn’t expect to be looking at his face again, loving the way his beard grew in, perfectly trimmed to highlight the warmth of his face, the breathtaking glitter in those cerulean blue eyes. His nose was perfect, and his ears, and the three freckles he had spread around his forehead. His lips looked like pillows and his neck—
“You’re out of it today, huh?”
Damn it, again?
I flitted my gaze to the center of the lake, hoping Rex didn’t notice how blatant my staring was.
“Just thinking about a lot,” I said. “What were you saying?”
“Nothing, forget it.”
“No, say it again. I’m listening this time.”
“I was asking if Christmas was still your favorite holiday?”
I huffed a breath. “Does a reindeer shit in the woods?”
“I don’t know, does it?”
“Yes, I think.”
“The North Pole doesn’t have woods, though.”
“Yeah, but they’re flying around all over the place. I’m sure they cross woods eventually.”
“So they have to wait until they’re over some woods to go to the bathroom?”
I laughed, waving my hands in the air as if cleaning the board. “Yes, Christmas is still my favorite. Why?”
“Just wondering,” Rex said. His tone took on a curious note. “You haven’t changed much. That makes me happy. Too much shit in my life’s been changing lately. It’s good to know the good things sometimes stay the same.”
“I’ve changed a bit,” I said, lifting an arm and playfully flexing my bicep.
“Oh, I’m not disputing that.” He smiled his toothy, bright grin.
“But you’re right.” I leaned back on the blanket, both hands behind me, eyes straight ahead. The sky had turned a dark purple, the stars ready in the wings, waiting to take center stage. “I don’t feel all that different from the kid I used to be. You might think it’s good, but I don’t know, part of me is ready to change. Grow up. Get out of my moms’ house and spread my wings. I thought that’d be what’d happen after college, but no one warns you that real life is nothing like the fake college life, where everything is still so contained and on track. I graduated and I’m still lost, still the same fourteen-year-old kid you met in the movie theatre.”
“You’re not lost, Benj. It takes time to figure things out, and I know you will. I’m three years older than you, and I feel ten steps behind you. A dropout with an impending sex tape, disappointing zealous fathers, and manipulative stepmothers all around the world.”