Page 30 of Hard Check
He’d kissed a man in Port Haven.
Not a stranger in Milwaukee, whose name he’d forget before he hit the highway. Not in Madison after two drinks at a bar where nobody knew him. In Port Haven, under a streetlight, where Maria could’ve walked out to dump the trash and seen him. Where Ford, Nadine, and Charlotte could’ve come through the door. Where anyone could have been driving past.
For the first time in his life, he hadn’t let the fear overtake him. If he let himself think about that too much, he’s start freaking out.
The road curved along the lake. No headlights ahead of him, no one behind. Just dark water off to the left, the tree line on the right, and his pulse refusing to come down.
His mind was stuck in a loop, replaying what was one of the best kisses of his life. Leo’s mouth. Leo’s hand in his shirt. The noise Leo had made, that caught-off-guard sound. Dawson had surprised him. The open, wrecked expression on Leo’s face as they broke the kiss was one that would forever be seared in his mind.
He turned onto his road. The house was dark. Ethan’s truck wasn’t in the driveway, which meant Ethan was still at hisgirlfriend’s or at the bar with his buddies. That was for the best because Dawson wasn’t sure he could face his brother right now without spilling his guts. He was so damned tired of keeping this piece of himself hidden.
He parked. Killed the engine. Sat in the cab with his hands still wrapped around the steering wheel and the smell of pizza grease filling the truck, and he did not feel like a man who’d made a mistake.
That was the whole problem. He was supposed to be scrambling to figure out how to walk it back, rehearsing the text he’d send in the morning:Had too many beers, sorry if I made it weird.
But his hands were shaking, and he couldn’t stop smiling. The panic and the grin were happening at the same time, and he didn’t know which was winning.
He went inside. Set the box on the counter. Stood in the dark kitchen with his keys still in his hand, staring at the window above the sink where the yard light turned the glass into a dim mirror. Same face. Same guy.
His phone buzzed in his pocket.
Dawson pulled it out. The screen lit up the kitchen.
Leo Vargas:You owe me a do-over. I wasn’t ready.
Dawson stared at the message. He was still shaking. He was still almost smiling. He put the phone face-down on the counter, braced both hands against the edge, breathed, and let the freefall have him.
He didn’t text back. Not yet. He didn’t know what to say, and for once, the silence didn’t feel like hiding.
CHAPTER TEN
Leo woke up grinning and couldn’t figure out why until it all came back. The parking lot. The streetlight. Dawson’s rough hand on his neck, and then Dawson’s mouth. And then nothing. Just taillights pulling onto the county road and Leo standing there with his lips buzzing and his brain wiped clean.
He pressed his face into the pillow and his stomach flipped. He couldn’t tell if it was the good kind or the bad kind because it felt like both at once. Dawson had kissed him and then driven away before Leo could get his feet under him. It was everything he wanted, other than the fact Dawson kept himself locked in the closet for reasons Leo couldn’t understand, and Leo had long ago promised himself he’d never close that door behind him again.
Leo rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling, replaying the kiss for the dozenth time since he’d gotten into bed. Dawson’s aim had been off at first, catching the corner of his mouth before correcting. The grip on his neck, callused fingers against skin. Leo couldn’t remember the last time he’d been kissed and left speechless.
That was the part he kept circling back to. Not the kiss. The way it made him feel, the way it was still caught in his brain. He laughed into the pillow, muffled and strange. Half giddy, half rattled because this small-town mechanic affected him in ways no one that night in Milwaukee had been able to with nothing more than a single kiss.
Dawson had gotten under past Leo’s defenses without even trying, which meant Leo was either falling for someone who could actually see him or he was in serious trouble. Possibly both.
He got out of bed and stood in the kitchen for a full minute before remembering he was supposed to make coffee. The machine did its thing while he sat at the kitchen island in boxer briefs and a T-shirt. The coffee wasn’t good, but he hadn’t been bothered enough to order anything better online.
He’d texted Dawson when he got home last night, and Dawson hadn’t responded. Which was fine. It was fine. Leo picked up the phone, checked the screen, set it down, and then picked it up again.
He seriously needed to get a grip.
Leo grabbed the phone so fast he knocked his mug sideways when it buzzed with a notification, caught it with his other hand, and didn’t care about the splash across the tile.
Dawson
Hey. About last night. That shouldn’t have happened.
Leo read it three times. Then he set the phone down, pressed both palms flat on the granite, and exhaled through his teeth.
He was disappointed, but not surprised. Of course Dawson had spent all night building an escape route, and this was the best he’d come up with.That shouldn’t have happened.NotI’m sorry,orI don’t know what I was thinking, just a flat denial, like if he said it with enough conviction, he could undo what had happened. As if Leo hadn’t texted him a damn invitation for a repeat performance. As if Dawson hadn’t felt Leo’s pulse hammering under his thumb and kissed him anyway.
The smart thing to do would’ve been to agree.You’re right, no big deal.Dawson would take the out, and they’d never mention it again. Leo would go back to being the new guy, and Dawson would go back to his garage, his books, and his careful, walled-off life.
