“What’s he even doing here?”
My brother shrugged. “Judging from the packed bags, it looks like he’s been offered to stay here. That’s just a hypothesis, obviously. You ran off so fast, I wasn’t even able to say hi to the guy.”
“And on my birthday. What a jerk. He clearly hasn’t changed.”
“Right,” Dusty said, looking down at his sneakers.
Electra grabbed the apple from my palm, the loud crunches that followed working as well as those addictive whispering videos I sometimes watched. Or the videos with the people cutting through clean layers of colored sand. Those got me hooked for hours.
“Are you ever going to tell me what happened between you two?”
I put my head against Electra’s, rubbing her cheek. No one else would have been able to do this without getting a stars-out kind of head-butt from her.
“You already know what happened,” I said.
Most of it.
“Yeah, but Benji, come on. I know you. Something else happened in Costa Rica. I know you two kissed but… why this reaction? Why the anger?”
“Because he’s as closed-minded as the family he comes from, and he said some stupid shit. Shit I can’t forget.” I went to grab another apple from the bag. Electra clopped in a little happy dance that made me want to do one in return.
Animals always had that kind of effect on me. I could be in the middle of a roaring storm and still feel comforted by a nuzzle from Electra or a cuddle with Tammy.
“Maybe he’s changed, Benj. People change.”
“I doubt it. Not with the way his dad’s been acting, trending every other day for some new dumb ‘save the family’ speech.”
“That’s his father, not him. Plus, he’s up for reelection, isn’t he? All that bullshit is going to float to the surface during times like these.” Dusty came over to my side and pet Electra’s head, rubbing the spot between her eyes. “Has anything been said about him?”
“I don’t know, I don’t keep tabs on them. His dad’s just such a big name, it’s hard to ignore.”
“Maybe he does ignore it, then. Maybe he’s not even involved with it.”
“Maybe—”
Another voice cut in. One as familiar as my own and still stranger than a random passerby. “Maybe I got into a fight with my father and it’s the reason why I’ve pretty much lost everything, having to take my best friend’s—your brother’s—offer of staying at his family’s sanctuary for a few weeks.” Rex lifted a hand and—fuckin’ hell—he smiled. Not just any smile either. It was the kind of smile that implanted itself deep into your brain, like a brand that marked a lifetime commitment to a sunshine and sex cult.
If I wasn’t so embarrassed at being overheard by him, I would have probably started to actively drool.
“Rex, I, uh, we uhm, we were just talking about you.” I motioned between my twin and me, completely lost for words. I wasn’t expecting this. None of it. All I had been looking forward to was a generous portion of vanilla-and-strawberry birthday cake and a long, substantial nap, followed by a Matrix movie rewatch that I had planned to last until at least four in the morning, around the time I’d be able to go to sleep.
Yeah, that’s what I had planned for my twenty-fourth birthday. Not… not all this.
“It’s good to see you, Rex.” Dusty offered a hand to shake. My twin was dwarfed by Rex’s six-foot-three stature, his presence made even larger by those ocean-blue eyes and pillow-sized lips. He had short dark hair that caught the sunshine in bright highlights.
Dusty and I weren’t mirror images of each other. There had come a point in college where I dove into sports and fitness while my brother focused more on his smarts and succeeding at pretty much anything he ever put his mind to, something I was finding difficult lately. So while Dusty may have looked tiny and pocket-sized next to Rex, I felt more… well, more like a perfect fit.
“I’m gonna go check on the cleanup.” Dusty dipped, waving over his shoulder as he walked away, back toward the yard.
The stable felt a hundred times smaller. I wanted to rear up like a pissed-off Electra and run into unbound pastures, running far away from Rex Madison and his perfect freakin’ face, framed by that perfect head of hair, with that perfect fuckin’ beard.
Instead, I said, “You look good.”
Not exactly running, but whatever.
He bit his lip. The fucking asshole bit his lip. “Is that what you were saying about me?”
“No, I actually wasn’t.” Okay, find your footing. Rex was good at disarming me, always had been. Ever since we were teens, when he’d come into my life as my brother’s best friend, when he was completely forbidden from me.
And when he also seemed to be completely straight.
Funny how quickly all that changed.
Just one night. One sweaty, steamy, unforgettable tropical night was all it took for me to find out the truth.
“I was just wondering why you were here, that’s all. From everything I see online, your life in New York is pretty great.”
Rex huffed. “We all know how accurate online photos are.” He moved to Electra, slowly. The large thoroughbred horse hadn’t stomped off, surprisingly. She stood there, the sun shining on her dappled gray body, her silky mane falling like a waterfall. She was looking at Rex with liquid amber eyes, studying him from head to toe. “Right, Electra?” Rex put a gentle hand on her snout.
I braced myself for a snort and a head whip, but nothing happened.
“She remembers you.”
“It hasn’t been that long, Benji. You’re acting like I crawled out of an ancient crypt.”
“Six years is a long time.”
“Six years and a day might be the perfect amount of time.”
I arched a brow but was able to suppress an eye roll. Aside from always having devastating good looks, Rex also had a tendency to sound like a walking fortune cookie. Sometimes, his nuggets of wisdom were golden, and other times they were the leftover nuggets that fell out of the bag and rolled under the refrigerator.
This was one of the refrigerator nuggets. Still, I’d bite.
“Has it really been six years and a day since you’ve been here?”
“I moved to New York the day before your birthday. Six years ago.”
“Damn, and I was just throwing that ‘six’ out at random.” I huffed a laugh. That wasn’t entirely true. I knew damn well it had been six years but I wasn’t about to pull out my calendar for him. “Well, you’ve clearly always had perfect timing.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said. “If I did, I think I would have shown up sooner.”
My brow arched and my face cracked, revealing my thoughts without needing very many words at all.
Then why didn’t you, Rex? Damn it. Why didn’t you?
4
Rex Madison
Benji looked exactly how I remembered him and, at the same time, completely different from the boy who had taught me so much about myself years ago. He still had the same bright eyes that never failed to lighten up a room, and he still carried himself with his shoulders high and chin proud, even when I could tell all he wanted to do was bury his hand in the sand.