The Broken Triangle (30 page)

Lips that had been on Vin’s in that impulsive kiss on Christmas Eve. Startled, Vin had broken free, but the jolt of arousal he’d gotten had been less easy to reject. He hadn’t wanted to reject it. He’d wanted Patrick to kiss him again, craving that sweet shock, but by then Patrick had withdrawn into flippancy and it was too late.

He let his head turn a little bit too much toward the right, and his eyes met Marnie’s. Her expression, which had been dazed, distracted by the movie that he’d been ignoring, sharpened, and Vin jerked his head back toward the screen, knowing it was too late. She knew. Knew stuff he’d barely begun to recognize. The question was, would she keep quiet about it?

“You okay?” Patrick whispered, and Vin nodded, pretending to be engrossed in the movie.

He didn’t know what was going on. Clearly he was having new and confusing feelings about Patrick, but why now? It couldn’t be just because of that kiss. It hadn’t been the first time Patrick kissed him, after all, though the level of enthusiasm this time had been higher. Just thinking about it made Vin feel warm with guilty desire. He hoped it didn’t have anything to do with the fact his body had gotten used to regular sex with another person. Patrick was making such an effort to turn his life around—not that it had been that bad before, as far as Vin was concerned—and it wouldn’t be fair to fixate on him now and mess things up.

If anyone had asked him what the movie was about when they emerged into the light, Vin would’ve had to fake it, because he’d spent the last couple of hours doing nothing but going between arousal and guilt.

He wasn’t that guy, the one who could hop happily from partner to partner, never looking backward with regret. Patrick was, or had been, and maybe Riley was too, but Vin had been steadfastly loyal to one man for years. To discover he was interested in Patrick days after finishing with Riley felt like a betrayal of that long-held love.

He tried to tell himself it was physical, nothing more, his body reacting to Patrick, biology at work, but he couldn’t believe it. Under the lust, uncomplicated, intense, had been tenderness. He’d wanted to slide his hand into Patrick’s and feel it grow warm in his grasp. Turn his head and nuzzle a kiss against Patrick’s neck, feel those gelled spikes of hair brush his cheek, and smell the sweet, fresh scent that he associated with Patrick without being able to define it.

Riley. He was in love with
Riley
. Sure, they’d broken up, and Riley had disappointed him, but love couldn’t be switched off like a light. Shouldn’t he be devastated, not just disgusted with Riley’s way of thinking? Waiting for a call, a text? He’d turned off his phone before the movie began without giving a thought to missing a message from Riley, and it was still off.

Patrick pointed at the washrooms. “Won’t be a minute. My hands are all greasy.”

“I have to disappear, so I’ll say good-bye now,” Marnie told him and exchanged exaggeratedly affected air-kisses with Patrick before they grinned and hugged properly. Vin watched Patrick flit through the crowds, his hair a bright, bobbing point.

“Oh, you’ve got it bad,” Marnie murmured in his ear. “Is that why you and Riley split up?”

“No. And don’t say anything to him.” Vin sounded like he was begging, and he probably was. “I don’t know what’s going on—I swear, I’m not playing games—but I don’t want to hurt him.”

“I can see that. Are you just figuring it out?” Marnie asked with sympathy. “Kind of snuck up on you, huh?”

Vin swallowed around a sudden lump in his throat. Maybe it was time he admitted that his attraction to Patrick wasn’t new but coming to the surface after being buried for months. He’d pushed it down, ignored it, fixated on his feelings for Riley, but with Riley out of the picture, his feelings were refusing to stay buried. “You could say that.”

“Okay. Don’t freak out.” Marnie held her hand out, palm up. “Give me your phone.”

“What? Why?” Already obeying, Vin slipped it from his pocket and turned it on, then gave it to her.

“Because I’m giving you my number so you can text me later and let me know what happens. Or in case you need someone to talk to.” She frowned and pushed some buttons, then glanced up at him. “Figure it out fast, okay?”

Vin wanted to protest that he was still reeling, that he and Riley had just broken up and so he couldn’t possibly want Patrick, that Patrick was his best friend but that was all, but even in his head it sounded stupid. He took his phone back when she gave it to him and only managed a feeble, “Thanks.”

“No problem. Good luck.” Marnie hesitated, then leaned in and kissed his cheek. “Bye.”

“Thought she was in a rush to be somewhere.” Vin turned to find Patrick at his side, watching Marnie walk away. “I love those boots of hers.”

“We got talking. You know how it is. And yeah, they’re killer, but I can’t see you in heels.”

Patrick snickered. “Oh, I’ve worn them, but they’re hell to run in. Don’t ask.”

It should’ve been easy to fall into the usual back-and-forth, but it felt forced, as if he were reading from a script. “You know if I don’t, you’ll sulk and tell me anyway.”

That got him a playful elbow in the ribs. “I don’t sulk! I pout and look cute.”

“Yeah, you do.” Patrick’s eyes narrowed, gleaming with amusement, and Vin added hurriedly, “Sulk, I mean. Not look cute. You never look cute. You’re like the anticute.”

Patrick put his hand on Vin’s forehead. “Let me soothe that fevered brow, because if you’re saying I’m not cute, you’ve gotta be running a temperature, sweet thing. Ooh, thought so. Burning up.” He drew his hand back and blew on it, sending Vin a flirtatious glance. “Or maybe you’re just hot.”

Vin opened his mouth to reply when someone jostled him from behind. “Get a fucking room, Parker. Preferably south of the border.”

He knew who it was before he turned to see, but even when his eyes confirmed it, Vin had a hard time believing it. Gary Brookes from high school, the guy who had done his best to make Vin’s days there a living hell. Vin had seen the guy here and there over the years, but never this up close and personal. “Your hairline’s receding,” he said before he’d even thought about it.

Gary scowled, and Vin’s gut clenched in response, as if a direct line connected Gary’s expression and his stomach. “Figured you’d at least have moved to San Francisco or somewhere like that by now.”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” Vin said. He doubted Gary would start a fistfight right there in public with tons of people all around them, but that didn’t make him feel any better. He was aware of Patrick standing at his elbow, hovering, confused and worried.

“Is this your little boyfriend?” Gary turned his attention to Patrick, and that was just
not okay
. “Nice hair, faggot.”

Vin shifted, half a step closer to Gary and partially in front of Patrick, his protective instincts kicking in. “Leave him out of this.”

“It’d be easier to do that if freaks like you didn’t come out of your prissy little closets and parade around in front of our faces,” Gary said with a sneer.

He had a couple of friends behind him, and it made Vin feel better to note they looked uncomfortable with how this was going down. If Gary lost friends over this, it would be a small consolation.

“I know you might have trouble with the concept of mind-your-own-business,” Patrick said, stepping to the side so Gary had two targets, not one, “but I’m happy to explain it to you. Promise I’ll use really small words.” He held up his hand, thumb and finger a few inches apart. “This small. Look familiar?” The glance at Gary’s crotch was fleeting but pointed.

“Funny guy. Someone should’ve kicked your ass in school too,” Gary said, a dull flush rising in his face.

“We’re not in fucking school,” Vin said, tiring of it all. “Grow up, Gary. Not everyone in the world is like you, or thinks the way you do. Homophobic, racist—you’re the minority, not me.”

“Gary, shut up.” One of the men with Gary plucked at his sleeve. “Leave it. Just leave it. They haven’t done anything wrong, and you’re being an asshole.”

“Fuck off!” Gary shrugged free of his friend’s grip and rounded on him. “You one of them too, huh? Mikey likes to suck cock, does he?”

“You really are an asshole, in work and out of it.” Mike shook his head, pure disgust in his eyes. “I’m done with you and your shit-stirring. Make your own way home, because you’re not getting a ride with me.” He turned to walk away, glancing at the other man, who shrugged and fell into step with him, abandoning Gary, who stared after them, mingled indignation and shock making his mouth hang open.

“You queers make me sick,” Gary hissed as soon as he’d recovered enough to speak, leaving Vin wondering why they were still standing there. They should have walked away when Gary’s friends—ex-friends—had.

“Hmm, well. I think you’ll find that homophobia is making more people sick these days,” Patrick said, fluttering his eyelashes in a way that made Vin afraid for him. There was fighting back, and there was deliberately antagonizing. “You should think about looking into therapy for that. Come on, honey,” he added to Vin, taking his hand. “We have much better things to be doing with our time than standing here listening to this bozo.”

Vin let Patrick lead him away because he knew it was the right thing to do, but by the time they’d walked through part of the mall and ended up at the food court, his anger still hadn’t dissipated. “What were you thinking?” he asked Patrick, stopping next to an empty table.

“Excuse me? I was thinking we needed to get away from that asshole.” Patrick sat in a plastic chair designed to be uncomfortable. “You went to school with him?”

“Riley kept him from beating my face in one time,” Vin said. “A couple of times, actually, though me being half-Mexican was what he fixated on.” Remembering what Riley had said in high school, he added, “Plus the guy’s sister is gay! What is he thinking?”

“Would you sit down?” Patrick asked pleadingly, and Vin did, picking the chair next to Patrick’s instead of the one across from him. Their knees bumped together. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know.” All this was too much to have happen in one day. People should at least get a couple of hours between major incidents, and seeing Gary after discovering that his previously platonic feelings for Patrick might be romantic was a little more than Vin could handle. Okay, maybe they’d never been truly platonic, but the fact remained that it’d been a hectic few hours.

Patrick leaned forward and took his hands, studying his face intently. “Did he hurt you?”

“What? No.” Vin shook his head. “I mean, not more than shoving me into a few lockers, stuff like that.”

“That’s plenty.” Patrick’s lips tightened, his hands warm on Vin’s. “When will it all
stop?
It’s not just if you’re gay. Kids got bullied at my school for the stupidest things. Having glasses. A mom who packed them cookies shaped like dinosaurs because she worked at the factory where they made them and got them cheap.”

“Bullies don’t need a reason, just a target.” He hated to do it, but Vin withdrew his hands from Patrick’s and sat back. Being that close was tempting him to steal a kiss, and he couldn’t. Patrick was in love with someone. It wouldn’t be fair. “Total change of subject. This is our day off, and we’re going to enjoy it. So tell me about the guy you’re interested in. You were about to, and Shelly grabbed you.”

“Oh.” Patrick nibbled at his lip. “That’s all up in the air. I’m going to tell him how I feel, but he’s not ready, and neither am I. I want to get on track first.” He fiddled with the wrapper from a straw someone had left behind, twisting it tightly. “You know when people diet and they give themselves a reward when they hit a target?”

“Sure. It’s how my sister justified buying herself an e-reader. Ten dollars for every pound she lost, then a bonus if she didn’t spend it when she hit a hundred bucks.” Vin shrugged. “I guess it worked for her.”

“Well, I need to turn myself around financially and emotionally.” Patrick sat up straight. “They’re connected. I don’t want to screw around now that I’m in love, so I’ve stopped drinking and clubbing. That saves me money, which helps with the debt. And when I’m out of debt and paying off my credit cards—credit card—every month, even saving some, then I’m going to go to him and ask if he’s interested, and by then, who knows, maybe things will have changed for him too.”

“Changed how?” Vin asked.

Patrick shook his head and mimed zipping his lips. “Ding! Another subject change. How’s the tattoo healing? You’re going to show it to me when it’s stopped looking gross, right?”

“It hasn’t looked gross for days,” Vin protested. “But yes, you can see it later. Not here.”

“What, you weren’t thinking about getting undressed at the mall?” Patrick loved to tease him, and when it came right down to it, Vin had to admit he liked it. Patrick was so darned cute. “I’m sure there are plenty of people around who’d appreciate it.”

“And plenty who wouldn’t,” Vin said, reminded of Gary Brookes. He looked around. “Wonder where he went?”

“That asshole? Probably running along after his friends, begging them to change their minds. Trying to convince them he was ‘kidding.’” Even Patrick’s air quotes were adorable. “Don’t waste another second thinking about him, honey. He’s not worth your time.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Vin nudged Patrick with his knee and shifted his chair back. The sound it made sliding over the tile floor was cringe-worthy. “Come on, let’s shop. What are you in the market for?”

“Today I’m not buying. I’m just looking,” Patrick reminded him. “Window-shopping, as it were. But there’s a new line of OPI nail polish I wanted to check out, if you don’t mind?”

The only thing Vin minded was that if Patrick fell in love with a particular shade of polish, he wouldn’t let Vin treat him to it. There had been nothing he could buy Riley, who had everything, and nothing Patrick would let him buy.

Frustrating.

“If you don’t want to go there, it’s fine.”

Vin shook free of his thoughts. “I do. In fact, I might get some myself.” He could buy whichever one Patrick seemed to like the most, use it once, decide he hated it, and pass it on to Patrick.