“You have a friend named Casper?”
“Nickname. Dude wouldn’t tan if you spray-painted him.”
Jace laughed, then his smile turned upside down. “You know I’m only nineteen, right?”
“Oh, well, you don’t have to drink. I usually don’t.” And that wasn’t a line. He hated alcohol—yet something else he could thank his jerk of a sperm donor for. “It was just a thought.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
Jace grinned. “I don’t have any plans tomorrow. What time’s the party?”
“Nine-ish. I can pick you up.”
“Okay, cool. I’ll get your number before I leave today.”
“Sure, awesome.”
Gavin stood there for several seconds after Jace walked back to his family. He wasn’t going to make anything out of the “date” until something actually happened, but the fact that he was going to hang out with this crush-worthy boy for a few hours was enough to float him through the rest of the afternoon.
College had definitely been good to Jace Ramsey.
Chapter Two
Music blasted through his earbuds from his iPod, giving Jace a foot-stamping beat to pace to and keep blood flowing while he waited for Gavin to pick him up. Waiting inside would have been warmer, but he was too nervous to sit still and his parents would have noticed him pacing the living room. At least out here he had a line of hedges and two pine trees blocking him from view of the house’s front windows, and no one but a few neighbors could see him.
He’d been blessed with totally cool parents who accepted “I’m going to meet some friends” as an explanation for why he’d left the house five minutes ago. He was a sophomore in college, home on a short break, with friends home for the same reason, so he let his parents assume those were the friends he meant. If he told them about Gavin, they might start wondering.
Headlights turned onto the quiet street a block down. An ‘89 Jeep Wrangler pulled up alongside the curb, and Gavin smiled at him from behind the plastic window. Jace’s heart kicked. His literal run-in with Gavin yesterday had been one of the most embarrassing and startling encounters of his life. Embarrassing because of his clumsiness and startling because of his body’s reaction to Gavin’s proximity.
He knew Gavin Perez the way most people knew each other in this small town—the gossip chain and Dixie’s—but they hadn’t shared more than twenty words their entire lives until yesterday. And Jace had never noticed how tall and lanky Gavin was, or the sharpness of his cheekbones, or that he could smile with his eyes even when his mouth was relaxed. A mouth Jace had watched devour a plate full of food with amazing speed, attached to a body that was always in motion.
A mouth and a body that Jace was distractingly interested in—and seemed quite interested back, given tonight’s party invitation.
Jace yanked the earbuds out and turned off the iPod. He dashed around to the other side of the Jeep and climbed in, as much to get into the warm interior as to avoid prying eyes. The heater was on full blast and Jace began to sweat almost immediately.
“Hey,” Gavin said. The force of his grin seemed to fill the Jeep.
“Hi.” Jace felt like an idiot for not having something more clever to say. “Cool ride.”
“She’s my baby.” He stroked the steering wheel in a slightly lewd way as he drove down the street. “Only woman in my life besides my mama.”
“Lucky girl.”
“Mama?”
“The Jeep.”
Gavin laughed, and Jace studied the way streetlights and shadows played across his profile, accenting the sharp planes of his face. His golden skin was perfectly smooth, his dark eyes slightly almond-shaped. Exotic and yet somehow still perfectly average. Gavin caught him staring, and Jace fumbled for something to say. “So where’s this party?” he asked.
“Other side of town,” Gavin replied. “Casper’s parents have a house out on Tillman Road. They’re away for the weekend, so he’s got the place to himself.”
As a track star in high school, Jace had been to more than his fair share of unsupervised parties, complete with kegs and beer pong and the occasional drunken fight. His stomach fluttered with nerves tonight. This was his first party with a bunch of older, post-college guys, and definitely his first showing up with a guy. Even if he and Gavin weren’t actually together, it was no secret in Stratton that Gavin was gay.
No one in Stratton, however, knew Jace was gay.
Maybe one person, if Gavin’s curious, appreciative glances were any indication. Accepting the invitation to this party had been pretty out of character for Jace, but he hadn’t been able to really kick back and relax in months. Not since April. Gavin and his adorably spastic behavior yesterday, coupled with tonight’s barely begun non-date, was the best thing that had happened to Jace since the spring. He planned to take full advantage of it.