On a Roll by Beth Bolden (free ebook novel .txt) 📗

up, to Ren, and then to the unknown guy who would win him over? Convince him that there was love and life and happiness after pain?

“Hey, wait,” Gabriel said, getting his voice back. “Don’t . . . I’m sorry.”

Sean turned, a wry expression on his face. “What are you sorry for?”

What was he sorry for? God, a whole laundry list of things. So many it was impossible to get into now.

But mostly, right at this moment, he was sorry for wanting to be a caveman, and wanting to throw Sean over his shoulder and cart him back to his food truck for a lot of hot, messy sex.

And then after, cuddling and hopefully sharing all their feelings.

“I’m sorry I was a jerk.” That seemed like a better option than the caveman idea.

“You should apologize to your cousin, too,” Sean said reproachfully.

“Why?” Gabriel said. “We express our love through insults.”

“Maybe everyone isn’t like you,” Sean said.

“Well, that’s a pity,” Gabriel said.

Sean rolled his eyes. “Actually, it’s not.”

“That’s not what you were saying the other night,” Gabriel said, lowering his voice. “Because I remember that too. I can’t forget about it.”

“You said you weren’t interested in . . . what was it? Fucking away the memory of my dead husband.”

Ouch, he had said that. Definitely not his best moment.

"So, I thought that maybe your cousin might be,” Sean said.

“He’s not,” Gabriel said, even though he worried that Ren might. Normally, knowing Ren, he’d have been all over it, but considering Gabe’s feelings, he sure hoped that Ren wasn’t interested.

Or if he was, that he hid it well.

“You seem pretty sure about that,” Sean said, smiling. “Maybe you didn’t see him flirting with me just now.”

“Ren flirts with anything with a pulse. I once saw him wink at a labradoodle.”

“You don’t want me, so I’m not sure why you care,” Sean said casually.

The problem was, Gabriel could think of a million ways to prove to Sean that he wanted him a whole hell of a lot more than Ren possibly could, but none of those ways were casual.

“I . . .” Gabriel stuttered. He couldn’t bring himself to say, no, I do, and I’m willing to do it any way you want it. Maybe because the future felt so full of unknowns. If they got in deeper, if Gabriel gave him exactly what he wanted, he’d want to give him everything. And he was not sure Sean was even interested in any of it.

“That’s what I thought,” Sean said, and turned and walked away.

Gabriel watched him go, and wished he was not quite so familiar with Sean’s back—or his ass in those cute denim cutoffs. Or that he wasn’t so goddamned hot in them Gabriel wanted to melt through the floor.

“Wow, you really suck at this.”

Gabriel turned and groaned. Ren was standing there, leaning against the side of the truck, a knowing grin on his face.

“I do not,” Gabe grumbled, even though he was willing to accept Ren’s assessment. After all, he’d just let Sean walk away again. How many times could that happen before Sean stopped showing up?

He wasn’t sure he wanted to find out.

“Take him up on it, before I do,” Ren said.

“You wouldn’t,” Gabriel said, as he stomped to the back stairs and climbed into the truck. Surely there was something he could do, could put his hands on, so he wouldn’t go insane with boredom and frustration.

“I don’t know,” Ren said, following behind him. “I might. The guy’s practically gagging for it.”

Ren didn’t know because Sean wouldn’t have told him. He couldn’t have any idea that Sean had spent the last four and a half years being celibate. By this point, he probably was gagging for it.

“I’m just saying,” Ren continued, because the guy never knew when to shut up, even if it was good for him, “if you don’t do it, I will. It’d practically be a public service at this point.”

“It would be a public fucking service if you quit talking about it,” Gabriel grumbled.

“Fine, fine,” Ren said. “But at some point, he’s gonna meet someone who isn’t as nice and charitable as I am. And you’re going to lose him.”

“Let’s prep for tomorrow,” Gabriel said, pulling a bag of onions out of one of their storage bins. “It’s slow, and we can get a head start, and maybe even sleep in.”

“Message received,” Ren said. “You don’t want to talk about it.”

He didn’t. He didn’t want to think about it either. Sean with another guy . . . it was just wrong. It felt wrong. But at the same time, calling whatever they had between them just sex felt wrong, too. Like Gabe had already accepted that he could never live up to the man that Sean had loved and lost.

Maybe he couldn’t. But a Moretti never gave up without a fight.

Chapter Five

“I can’t believe we made it six months,” Tony said as he balanced precariously on a ladder and attached another strand of lights to the pole that sat at the north end of the lot.

Sean had been prepping for the day, roasting chicken off in his tiny oven, and setting up for the lunch crowd, when he’d watched Tony lug out the ladder. He had firsthand experience with how terribly Tony and ladders mixed, so he’d come, ostensibly to chat, but really to make sure that Tony didn’t maim himself.

“You didn’t think we’d make it here?” Sean asked, surprised. Tony always seemed so confident, so sure in what he was doing—in what they were doing.

“Nope,” Tony said, beginning to descend the ladder, which shook precariously. Sean reached out and held on. “I kinda thought we might all kill each other first.”

“You mean, you thought Gabe and I would kill each other,” Sean said.

Tony shot him a grin as he reached the ground. “Kind of, yeah.” He tucked a piece of dark hair behind one ear. “So . . .”

“No,” Sean said. He didn’t want to talk about it. Definitely not with Tony. “We’re working on