Ty’s Caught Feelings

TY'S CAUGHT FEELINGS

Tyler

I gently pressed my lips to Cooper's and melted at his affection. Usually, my instinct was to climb him like a tree, tug on his long hair, and ravage the gorgeous hunk of a man. After everything today? I wanted to crawl onto his lap and cuddle while I let him address each one of my fears about us.

Birds chirped happily around us, oblivious to my inner turmoil. I stepped back to give myself space before I let even more spill from my mouth and scare him away. Things I hadn't yet sorted out for myself.

Coop could read me like a book despite only knowing me for a few months. After giving me an understanding smile, he rubbed his hands together and glanced around at the remnants of my parents' fortieth-anniversary party.

"Looks like that's it for the chairs. What else can I help clean up?"

I shook my head. "You've done more than enough. Thank you for everything you did for my family today. And that gift was incredible. God, you're so talented." I stopped myself before I gushed more, but I needed to show him how much this had meant to me. Another time. "I'm going to grab Gavin and head home. I'll text you, okay?" I meant it. I would. I was ready for the hard work.

After a brief conversation about my big pitch meeting for the brewery on Monday with his best friend and former sister-in-law, we said goodbye. I watched him walk away, trying not to let the dread creep in that I'd fuck it—us—up somehow.

I pasted on a smile and joined the lingering guests helping return Grandpa's farmhouse to its pristine pre-party condition. Though the party had been fun, I was exhausted from the constant jabs and "jokes" about my lack of a relationship history. The remarks stung worse than expected, like a stage spotlight shining on my perceived failures. The thing was, they weren't wrong. Expecting me to be a good romantic partner was like asking a high school student to run a billion-dollar company. No practical experience and a hell of a lot of responsibility.

I didn't know shit about relationships, and I was supposed to care for the heart of a man who'd lost the love of his life. After the death of his husband, Coop was taking one hell of a chance on me.

Putting those thoughts aside, I joined conversations about how great the party had been. When we finished, I was ready to head back to the house to get some quality time with Gavin before he left town again.

Dom, Ethan, and Seth piled into Dom's truck and took off. Gavin and I headed over to my car.

I stared at him over the roof. "I seriously can't believe you're here. This is the best surprise ever." How long had it been since I'd last seen Gavin in person? Three years? We texted and FaceTimed often, but physically being around him brought me back to our childhood when we were inseparable. Today, he'd shown up exactly when I needed him. Gavin would hear me out and give it to me straight.

He grinned. There were more laugh lines around his eyes than before, and I was sure he could say the same about me. "I thought you might get a kick out of it."

"Understatement of the century."

After chatting about his plans before heading back to Seattle tomorrow, I glanced at him as we neared the house. "What's going on with your work? I thought you were supposed to be filming?"

He shifted uncomfortably in the seat. "Can we not talk about it? It's been such a good day, and I don't want to think about work right now. I'd much rather talk about what's happening with you and Cooper. He's fucking hot, by the way."

I couldn't keep the grin from spreading across my face. "I know, right? He's a great man too."

I parked in front of Dom's house and looked over at a silent Gavin. "What?"

"This is different, isn't it?"

Gavin was one of the few people who truly understood how big of a deal it was for me to have Coop in my life.

Dom climbed out of his truck in the driveway and nodded at us as he headed inside. He reached out when Seth stumbled, but Seth caught himself. My brother had more to drink than usual today, but he'd also gotten remarks about his single status. Those could be weighing on him too.

"Maybe we could talk about it later? I could use your perspective, but I don't want the full audience. Dom is more anti-relationship than me, Ethan would marry Cooper and me off today if he could, and Seth's already heard enough about it."

"You're talking to Seth about it?" Gavin's eyebrows shot up.

I smiled. "Yeah. I told you we're pretty close now." The three years between our ages had seemed insurmountable in school but were nothing now. Having him back in Dahlia Springs, for however long he planned to stay, was incredible.

He shook his head. "That's amazing, Ty. And, of course, we can talk. Whenever you want."

"How about you bunk with me tonight like old times?"

He narrowed his eyes. "You hog the bed. I'm pushing you out."

I locked my car. "I don't hog the bed."

He snorted.

The next few hours were a blast. Austin and Caleb came over, and we had a great time drinking our Tap That Brewery beer and swapping stories. It was incredible having everyone in the same room. My brother, my cousin, my best friend since we were runts in elementary school, and the two guys I'd met in college who'd become like brothers to me. All my favorite people were in one room—except for one. I glanced at the door, wishing Cooper would walk in.

Eventually, Austin drove a tipsy Caleb home, Dom went to bed, and Ethan said he needed to call Parker to "say goodnight"—good thing I didn't share a wall with him—leaving me, Seth, and Gavin.

A rosy-skinned Seth glanced at Gavin. The man needed to hydrate.

"Gonna bed upstairs. Go upstairs." He frowned. "Go to bed upstairs." He enunciated the words slowly in a drunken intonation.

"Hey, have some water first, okay?"

He frowned at me. "I'm not a baby." Seth tried to cross his arms over his chest, but he missed, and his arms fell along his side. He huffed. "Okay. Fine." He stumbled over to the kitchen cabinets, gripping the island as he passed, then pulled out a cup. He filled it, chugged it with the faucet still running, refilled it, and then started toward the stairs.

"Seth?" I pointed to the sink.

"Shit. On it." He turned back and shut off the water. "Night." He glanced back at us and frowned when he looked at Gavin. He was probably still as surprised to see Gavin as I was. Seth and Gavin might not have been as close as we were, but Gavin had been around enough to practically be the third kid in the family.

"He's going to be hurting tomorrow," Gavin said once Seth stomped up the stairs.

"Yeah. He doesn't drink often. I'm surprised he's had so much." I sighed. "Let's move to the couches. I want to be comfy if I'm going to spill my guts."

Gavin laughed and followed me into our television room.

We each stretched out on a leather couch. I collected my thoughts for a minute, and Gavin waited me out.

"I had a big realization today."

Gavin raised his eyebrow and sipped from the beer he'd been nursing for a while.

I blew out a long breath and gathered my nerve to say it aloud. "I think I'm falling in love with Coop." I scrunched my face and braced myself to watch Gavin spew his drink and start laughing. Except, he didn't.

Instead, he draped his elbows on his thighs, his beer hanging between his knees. "Wow. That's huge, T. You must be fucking panicked."

I snorted. "You could say that." I gave him a quick run-down of what I'd said to Coop earlier about my fears of hurting him and needing some time to figure my shit out. I also told him that I now identified as demiromantic, which he said made a lot of sense. I supposed I was the last to know.

Gavin studied me, and I got the feeling I was being weighed and measured. "You're not going to run, are you?"

I sat up and blew out a breath. "Honestly? I've thought about it. A lot."

"Ty—"

I held up my hand. "I'm not saying I will, but I've thought about it. I'm just being honest. I have no actual relationship experience, and statistically, we won't work out long-term. The further we get in this, the more it will hurt when it falls apart."

" If it falls apart. Do you want long-term with Cooper?"

That was an easy question. "I do."

Gavin's smile was warm. "Do you remember what you told me when you guys decided to open the brewery?"

I shook my head.

"When you told me what percentage of new businesses and breweries fail, you said yours wouldn't be one of them. That you'd defy the odds, even though none of you had professional brewery experience. Why are you so willing to prematurely admit defeat in the odds of your relationship with Cooper?"

"Damn, G-spot. Hitting me with a truth bomb."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know I hate that nickname."

"And the more you tell me you hate it, the more I want to use it."

"You're such a child." He shook his head but smiled.

I put my hands under my chin and batted my eyelashes innocently.

Gavin wasn't taking my shit. He waited me out.

I huffed and got serious again. "You're right. I shouldn't be so defeatist." I wanted to defend myself. Defend my fears. Make him understand. "But it's not just me at risk. His heart is on the line too."

"And he's an adult who can make his own decisions. He's a widower, right? Well, what if something he learned from losing his husband is that if you click with someone, you hold on with both hands, no matter how long it lasts. What if having his heart broken by losing his ex is why he wants to make it work with you? Maybe he thought he'd never find someone again."

A lump formed in my throat. He raised a damn good point. "What if I suck at it?"

"You probably will at first, but you've sucked at things before and figured it out. You telling me you were a marketing whiz when you took Marketing 101?"

I smirked. "I'm a prodigy."

"You're an asshole."

We grinned at each other. I was lucky to be surrounded by a group of people who loved the hell out of me and weren't afraid to call me on my shit when I needed it, and right now, I definitely needed it.

We were quiet for a few moments as I considered what he'd said. A few words from Gavin wouldn't erase my worries, but they gave me ammo to combat them. I needed to keep Gavin's voice in my ear in the coming days. Once I got my shit together, I hoped Coop would still be there like he'd promised. I didn't want to lose him, but I wasn't sure I was equipped to keep him.

Gavin

My screaming bladder woke me from a blissfully dreamless sleep. I hadn't slept that hard in a while. When I'd returned to the Pacific time zone after my long-haul flight from New Zealand, I'd expected to crash hard, but stress had kept my sleep light. No. Nope. Not the time. If I started thinking about my work shit now, I'd never get back to sleep.

I blinked my eyes open and adjusted to the neon glow of an alarm clock. It wouldn't take much moving to get out of bed since Ty's starfishing ass had me sleeping on the edge of it, just like when we'd bunked together as kids. I didn't know how Cooper put up with it.

I smiled, thinking about everything Ty had shared with me last night. My life might be a wreck at the moment, but the bright spot was seeing my best friend happy. I'd never expected him to find it in a relationship, but it all made sense once he told me he identified as demiromantic.

I kicked his foot away from mine, and he mumbled something about crows and rolled over. Carefully climbing out of bed, I made my way to the bathroom and released the pressure on my bladder. After finishing and washing my hands, I left the bathroom and closed the door behind me. Another door opened in the hallway. A plugged-in light along the floorboard illuminated Seth's frame as he shuffled toward the bathroom. When he spotted me, he froze.

"Hey, all done." I jerked my thumb back to the bathroom.

Seth had surprised me today. He'd changed a lot since we were kids. He wore bow ties now? Turned out, bow ties were hot. I'd had no idea. My attention had kept wandering to him throughout the day, which was disconcerting.

He'd had quite a few beers tonight, so I was glad to see he was at least mobile.

"Feeling okay?"

"Dehydrated as fuck, but fine." His voice was rougher than usual and there was still a slur to his words.

"I'll get you some water while you're in there."

"You don't need to—"

I was already headed downstairs. If I could help prevent a hangover, I was happy to make a sleepy trip to the kitchen. By the time I returned with a plastic water bottle I'd found drying on the rack and was now full of cold water, Seth was exiting the bathroom.

"I feel like a dried-up husk. Husk is a weird word. What are they made of? Plant or animal?"

I chuckled quietly. I remembered the time Ty had let him try alcohol when we were in high school and their parents were out of town for the night. A drunk Sethy was a rambling Sethy with lots of random questions. It was cute.

Hopefully, the water would help. I passed him the bottle. "Here." He wrapped his hands around it, catching my fingers in the process.

"Oh." He looked down at our hands.

I wasn't sure if he had a good grip on it, so I didn't pull my hand back yet.

"Nice of you." His words sounded a little drunk and a lot sleepy.

"It's no problem. Don't want you to be hungover tomorrow. Don't you have to work?"

He groaned. "Yeah." His breath held a slight minty scent.

I grinned. There was a thread of petulance with him this evening that I hadn't seen before. It was adorable.

"You should drink." The bed was calling me to attempt to sleep away the last of my tipsiness, but I wanted to make sure Seth was okay first.

He nodded as he watched me. "I wish you were ugly."

I let out a surprised laugh. "Okay?"

In the faint light, I saw him scrunch his nose and shake his head. "No. Not ugly. It's just—I mean." He huffed. "You're nice and hot, and s'not fair."

I tucked my lips between my teeth to hold back the laugh. Sleep could wait a bit.

"Not fair, huh?" I grinned. I couldn't help it. He was being so fucking cute tonight.

I mentally chastised myself. Thinking Seth was cute was totally out of bounds. He was my best friend's little brother.

His thumb brushed over mine twice as he stared at our still-touching hands. "Am I awake? You're on the other side of the globe, so I must be dreaming." He looked up at me and angled his head, then shrugged one shoulder. "Well, if I'm dreaming." He stretched onto his tippy-toes and clumsily pressed his lips to mine.

Before I could react, he'd pulled back and opened his eyes wide. Then he yanked the bottle fully out of my hand and scurried back to his room.

I stared after him as my now-free hand traced my lips.

He closed the door with enough force to wake the whole house. I wasn't sure how long I stood there, trying to figure out what had just happened before I returned to Ty's room. Hell, maybe I was the one dreaming.

I quietly closed Ty's door behind me and climbed into bed.

Ty rolled over to face me as I climbed into bed. "Did I hear voices?" His own was groggy.

"Huh? Voices?" My own went high. "Oh. Just Seth getting up to pee."

"Hope he's okay. Drank a lot." He shoved his face into his pillow.

"Yeah. He has water."

"Mm. Good." He stretched out again as I resigned myself to the edge of the bed once more, staring at the minutes ticking by on the clock.

I just needed to pretend that hadn't happened. Seth probably wouldn't even remember, and the secret would die with me. I just needed to put some distance between us. Tomorrow morning, after breakfast with my folks, I'd drive back up to Seattle and wait until I got the call that things were clear for me to get back to work. Back to work and traveling—living my life away from Dahlia Springs.

Away from the thoughts about Seth now racing through my mind.