Chapter Sixteen

DAKOTA

Dakota had been wondering if their adventure on the side of the road would ever come up, and now it had, albeit obliquely. He knew what Bryce was hinting at. It would be pretty easy for them to keep playing ‘how gay is Bryce’ if they lived a hundred yards apart.

Too bad that was never going to happen. A tragedy really, because Bryce looked so fucking edible Dakota wanted to drag him up the steps and onto the big couch in the front room.

Dakota exhaled and ran his hand through his hair. He had to stop doing that, or he’d be bald before he hit thirty. Remembering how Bryce’s thick silky hair felt running through his fingers and dragging across his skin wasn’t helping him stick to his convictions.

“We can’t screw around again.” He tried to sound like he meant it.

“Oh.” Bryce took a step back. “God. I’m – I mean – of course—”

He looked mortified. Great. And Dakota thought this situation couldn’t get any more awkward. Looked like he was wrong. “It’s not you. Well, I mean it is you, but because of you being you and me and this whole thing.” He waved his hand at the house and the orchard. “Of course I want to. I mean, look at you.” Oh, very nice Dakota. Well said. He resisted the urge to smack himself on the head.

“What do you mean?” Bryce frowned.

Dakota stepped closer to Bryce. “In your head, what do you see happening between us in the next hours, days, whatever?”

“Well, first I thought I’d get changed and then we were going to get lunch.”

Bryce’s hesitant smile and hopeful eyes made Dakota want to punch someone. He settled for shoving his hands deep into his coat pockets, tilting his head back, and exhaling up at the sky. “Why couldn’t you be the asshole you were supposed to be? Can’t you just go away and let me try to be angry again?”

Bryce took a step towards him, standing close enough that Dakota had to tilt his head up to look him in the eye. Dakota fought the urge to step back.

A strong gust of wind scattered dead leaves across their feet and rattled the bare branches of the raspberry bushes lining the driveway. Dakota pulled his coat tighter against himself.

Bryce’s eyes flicked down. “That’s a really nice coat.”

“Look who’s talking.” Sure Dakota knew his black leather shearling-lined coat looked good. He’d spent enough on it, it should.

But Bryce wore a long black overcoat over his dark gray suit. It came down to his knees, and, like the suit, was tailored to fit perfectly across his broad shoulders and enormous biceps. He looked rich, Dakota realized. Everything about the outfit screamed money.

Bryce’s sweet nature and propensity for blushing made it easy for Dakota to forget that Bryce was ten years older than he was, a multimillionaire, and, oh yeah, a famous professional athlete with his own freaking line of merchandise.

Every part of Bryce’s world was so far removed from Dakota’s normal life that his brain refused to retain the information. Except the being older thing. Dakota had plenty of experience with older men, and none of it was good.

Okay. So maybe Dakota had googled Bryce last night. He’d found him pretty quickly. There weren’t that many pro-hockey players named Bryce. He may have even watched some highlight videos.

Goddamn, the man could move. He was sex on skates, somehow even hotter when he was body-slamming another guy into the side of the rink. And Dakota had been the lucky bastard who’d been the recipient of the man’s first blowjob. If only he could go back in time and tell his teenaged self what he had to look forward to.

Dakota had spent some quality time with his hand thinking about what they had done and what they might possibly do in the future.

Then Bryce had walked into the lawyer’s office looking like everything Dakota hadn’t even known he’d wanted and everything changed.

And now he was offering Dakota the world on a plate. Keep his farm, keep his house, save the orchard, and, if Dakota knew men, hot and cold running sex.

The fallout from when that all came crashing down would be nuclear.

“How much was that coat anyway?” Dakota asked.

“What?” Bryce blinked at the non-sequitur. “Dakota,” Bryce said then trailed away as if he didn’t know what to say next.

Dakota stopped pacing. “I googled you last night.”

Bryce sighed. “Yeah?”

“You’re kind of a big deal.” He knew, theoretically, that pro athletes were kind of celebrities, but finding the Bryce Lowry Fan Club had really driven it home.

Bryce shrugged. “I worked really hard at one thing. I got really, really good at it, and people decided to pay me a lot of money to do it. It’s not all I am.”

“Still. I can buy things with your face on them. I could walk around with your name on my back. That’s not normal.”

“You’d look really good in one of my jerseys,” Bryce said with a grin as if he were picturing Dakota in the jersey and nothing else.

It was so hard to think around Bryce. Once he’d learned who he was, Dakota knew even a friendship between them came with an expiration date.

What could they even be to each other? Bryce was older, richer, and more together than Dakota would ever be. He was also Dakota’s landlord-slash-boss.

And once he figured out how to handle being gay, either by coming out while he’s still actively playing or waiting until he retires, it would only be a matter of time before Bryce ended up with some rich, gorgeous boyfriend. Dakota would be reduced to a part of his coming out story.

He wished he had half the confidence Bryce did that any of this was going to work out.

Dakota searched for the words. He’d already done more talking in the last twenty-four hours than he normally did in a week.

“I’m really not trying to be a dick, and I’m not saying I won’t sleep with you just out of spite.”

“Then why?”

Dakota exhaled in exasperation. “Bryce, how do you imagine this going? You swoop in, throw money around and fix everything. You figure out how gay you are with me and make up for lost time. We have great sex for however long you stick around for, and then you get on a plane and fly back to your celebrity life and back into the closet while I live a hundred yards from your mother and try to get on with my life.”

Bryce reeled back, hurt on his face.

Dakota reached for Bryce, running a hand down the lapels on his coat. “I can tell you’re a good guy. And you want to do the right thing whatever that is. But the truth is, this is my home and my life. And I need to protect it, it’s all I have.”

Bryce put his hand over Dakota’s. “I know. And I would never take your home from you.”

What about my heart? Dakota thought helplessly. He couldn’t lie to himself. As ludicrous as it was, Bryce had stolen a piece of Dakota’s heart the second he’d seen Bryce’s gorgeous, terrified face.

That alone was reason enough to walk away.

“This situation is already so complicated, Bryce. The last thing we need to do is add sex to it. You’re my boss and my landlord. How can that be anything but a disaster waiting to happen?”

He dropped his hands and paced a small circle in the dirt. Lu and Beezy jumped up and circled around him, barking like the insane canines they were.

Bryce broke the silence between them. “Come on. I’m just a guy who can’t change a tire, doesn’t know the first fucking thing about how to manage a fucking apple orchard, and didn’t realize he was gay until yesterday.”

Dakota stopped pacing. “What about the will?”

“What about it?”

“I know it’s a longshot, but what if that other will shows up? Are you just going to give me everything back and walk away? What happens then?

Exasperated, Bryce ran his hands through his hair. They caught on the elastic band holding it in place, and he yanked it out, throwing it on the ground. The wind whipped his hair around his face.

“Look,” he said. “Can we talk about this inside? I’d like to sit down and get out of the wind.”

“Where’s your brace?” Dakota asked.

“What? I have a thin one under my pants. I don’t need the big one all the time. Now, please. Can we go inside?”

Dakota looked at the house he had spent so much of the last twenty years in. The house Tommy had died in. The home he’d spent the last few weeks dismantling.

Then he looked back at the gorgeous man who had crashed into his life like his worst fears and deepest desires all rolled up together.

And he couldn’t deal with it right now. Any of it.

“No.”

“No?”

“I can’t. I’m sorry.” Dakota pulled his key chain out of his pocket and worked a ring of keys off it. He held it out and dropped it in Bryce’s hand.

“Here are the keys. It’s not locked. Walk around, drive around. You’ll see the paths. Your car should fit, or you can take one of the ATVs from the barn.”

“Dakota…” he said, voice deep.

Dakota didn’t meet his eyes. “Watch out for the beehives. The bees should be quiet because of the cold, but just in case.”

“Bees?”

“Are you allergic?”

“No. I don’t think so. But…”

“Okay. Good. Good.” He dashed to the truck and was inside the cab before Bryce could say anything. He backed up quickly, carefully maneuvering around Bryce. The dogs ran alongside the truck. Dakota looked in his rearview mirror and tried not to notice how lost Bryce looked.