Lost and Found (Twist of Fate #1)(4)
“You haven’t stopped drooling over him since we got to the trailhead. This is a fucking problem, Bennett.”
I took a deep breath and looked at my best friend. My current best friend. Fuck, why did that feel like a betrayal to Xander— who currently wanted nothing to do with me?
“Am not,” I said stupidly.
“Oh god,” Aiden muttered, throwing out his sleeping bag and reaching for mine, presumably so he could put it into my tent for me. “Just go hump his leg and get it over with, for fuck’s sake.”
I smacked his shoulder and cracked open my water bottle to wash away all evidence of the drool he may or may not have been correct about. “Shut up. You’re imagining things. But you have to admit it’s a shock.”
“That’s an understatement,” he said dryly. “Should I go tell him I know what your cum tastes like and see what he says?”
I choked on my water, spilling it down my neck and onto my boots.
“Jackass! Seriously?” I gaped at him. “You’re such a fucking ass,” I hissed.
Aiden glanced behind me, presumably toward Xander, and raised his voice just loud enough for the man to hear. “Speaking of ass, I could describe how it feels to be buried so deep inside—”
I dropped my water bottle and lunged forward to clap a hand over his mouth.
“Shut. The. Fuck. Up,” I ground out between clenched teeth. “I don’t know what I ever saw in you to begin with.”
“C’mon. You were in love with me. Admit it,” Aiden said with a grin.
“I was young and stupid,” I muttered.
“You had excellent taste,” he corrected with a wink. His eyes slid to my ass again. “And the whole bossy bottom thing you’ve got going on is hot as fuck.”
“Jesus,” I muttered, as I bent forward slightly so I could pull my wet shirt away from my skin.
“Can’t wait to tap this ass while I’ve got you bent over some boulder or up against a tree,” Aiden purred, and I jumped when his hand slid over my ass.
“What the fuck?” I said. Aiden was a handsy guy, but we still had boundaries.
“You two about done?” Xander’s low voice grumbled from somewhere behind us as he approached and glared from a few feet away. The light formed shadows along his jaw and I noticed Bear trailing close behind him. I wondered if he had anyone else in his life who loved him as much as that dog appeared to.
I sent Aiden a death glare. I knew he’d grabbed me and said all that shit because he’d seen Xander heading our way.
“I’m not sharing a tent with you if you’re going to be an ass,” I said to Aiden.
“You two can’t sleep together. I mean near each other. You need to move your tents so each of you is near one of the kids’ group tents. Spread out,” Xander said.
Aiden’s mouth quirked up around the edges, but before he had a chance to make a snarky comment, Xander added, “Get some sleep. Sunrise comes early in the wild.”
And with that, Xander turned around and took his gorgeous goddamned ass to the farthest edge of the camp, leaving me alone to think about the time in my life when I truly had been young and stupid.
Chapter 3
Xander
Bennett’s gay.
What were the fucking odds?
The late morning sun soothed my skin as I realized that not only was I trapped with the asshole for seven unbearably long days and nights, now I had to deal with the fact that he played for my team. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he’d apparently brought his own teammate along for the ride.
No wonder I’d hated Aiden Vale on sight. Of course, I’d thought it was because he fit the profile of the rich Wall Street banker type guy to a T and I hated those kinds of guys with a passion. Not that it had always been that way. No, it hadn’t been until I’d walked through the doors of Knollwood Academy on the first day of high school that I’d been reminded that, despite having been golden boy Bennett Crawford’s best friend for almost ten years, I was still just a loser from the wrong side of the tracks.
Though in my case, there’d been no tracks… just the expansive, pristine acres of perfectly manicured green lawn that had separated Bennett’s family’s palatial home from the small caretaker’s cottage my father and I had shared on the edge of the estate’s property line. I recalled the first day in my new high school. I’d had to ignore the hushed whispers of the other kids as they’d marveled over the arrival of “that scholarship kid.” I’d searched for Bennett, who’d had to get to school early for crew practice, but by the time I’d found him, he’d already had his books in hand and had been among a large group of boys I’d never met before. I’d expected him to stay behind to wait for me to get my locker open, but he’d merely cast me a nod and said he’d catch up with me later.
I hadn’t seen him for the rest of the day.
I should have recognized the moment for what it was.
The beginning of the end of our close friendship.
I’d lost Bennett to guys like Aiden that very day, though I hadn’t realized it until later. And I hadn’t actually accepted it until one terrible night in late September when my life had been changed forever.