The air was chilly outside, but Dustin hardly noticed it as he paced back and forth in front of his house.

He’d never had a guy pick him up for a date before. Sure, he’d had guys pick him up for sex, but that was a whole different thing. Unless this was just sex.

Don’t get your hopes up.

Hell, they could be going for a romantic drive and blowjobs. Men were like that. Dustin had gotten his heart broken once too often. He knew better, but he hoped anyway.

Totally worth lying to his family about meeting up with his brothers to get out of another painful family supper where he’d be interrogated about his dating life.

Avoiding those questions because he had a dating life was a whole new ballgame for him. He was used to avoiding them so that he didn’t have to talk about his lack thereof.

A dark blue hatchback pulled up, and Leo leaned out of the driver’s side and waved.

“You came,” Dustin said breathlessly as he tumbled into the passenger seat. It sounded much dumber—and needier—than he’d planned.

Leo just smiled at him. “I told you I would. Notice I resisted the immature joke there.”

Dustin laughed. “I admire your self-control.”

“It takes a great deal to be me.” Leo’s eyes sparkled with amusement as he waited for Dustin to buckle up, then drove.

“Where are we off to?” Dustin folded his hands in his lap, trying to subtly wipe his palms on his knees in the process.

“I thought a restaurant first, and we’ll see how tired or full we are afterward,” Leo offered, the end of the sentence rising in a question.

“Yeah. That sounds great.”

Too late. Dustin’s hopes were so far up that he was in danger of a commercial airliner collision. Or maybe a Space Station impact.

He’s taking me to an actual restaurant.

“It’s… honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve gone on a normal date,” Leo said with a sheepish chuckle, glancing sideways at him. He looked anxious about Dustin’s reaction.

“Oh, that’s fine. Me too. I was literally just thinking that.” Dustin laughed, reaching over the center console to lay a hand on his date’s knee. “I won’t judge if you can’t remember which fork to use.”

“God, no. It’s not that fancy a place,” Leo pretended to be horrified. “I wouldn’t subject you to that.”

He was dressed nicely, though, in slacks and a collared shirt. He looked sort of like he’d just gotten off work but was going out for Friday drinks. Dustin had a pretty similar look going on himself, since about all he owned anymore were work clothes.

“You’ve been living here a couple months?” Dustin tried to make conversation, letting go of Leo’s knee before it became awkward. “But you grew up here?”

“Yep, I was here all through high school.”

“Me too. I grew up here, went to school, stuck around…” Dustin shrugged. “Just never really left. I appreciate the city more now that I’m older, I think. I couldn’t wait to get out as a kid, but once I found out everything Knoxville really has…”

Leo nodded. “I appreciate more now that I’m back, too. Do you mind me asking how old you are? Or is that off the table?”

“A lady never tells,” Dustin gasped.

Leo flushed bright red and looked over at him hastily. “Sorry. I just asked because… same class at high school…”

Dustin laughed. “No, it’s fine. But—wait, did you go to my school? You do look kind of familiar.” He’d just assumed he’d seen him around, but if he’d been gone for years…

“I think so. Did you know George Lovett?”

“Oh, shit,” Dustin laughed. “Who didn’t?” The popular kid from the first day of high school, George was the guy to know if you wanted to be popular. Naturally, he hadn’t, and his brothers hadn’t, either. “Know of him, I mean.”

“Yeah? I hung out with Victor’s crowd, if you remember…”

Dustin made a face. They’d been assholes, largely. This guy had hung out with them?

Before he could say anything, though, Leo sighed. “Yeah, I know. I talked to Victor the other day. God. Was he always that much of an ass?”

“Uh…” Dustin couldn’t say he’d kept in touch to find out how much worse Victor could have gotten, but he wasn’t about to give a character reference to him based on high school. “He didn’t actually shove anyone into lockers, but he sure as hell stood back and laughed.”

“They didn’t,” Leo gasped, glancing over.

Dustin shook his head hastily. “Only a couple incidents here and there. I was buddies with a bunch of bigger guys—Nico, Roman, Blane, Josh, Ty.”

“Shit. I know you,” Leo exclaimed. “I mean, we never really talked, but the six of you were like a clique in the last couple years, weren’t you?”

Dustin brightened up. “Yeah! Significant brothers.”

“That rings a bell but…” Leo shook his head. “What’s that from?”

The story never got old. Dustin recounted it in brief: the school dance where they were told they had to bring girls as significant others, and offered each other up as significant brothers.

“And it just stuck.”

“Man. I know I heard something about that back then—” Leo started, then cleared his throat.

“And it was in the middle of a gay joke, wasn’t it?” Dustin half-smiled. Nostalgia rarely took hold of him. All it took was remembering how things had really been back then in Tennessee—hell, still were in most places. “It’s okay.”

“I never really teased anyone, but… I guess I didn’t notice what anyone else was doing. I was in my own little world,” Leo admitted. “It took a long time before I learned to watch my surroundings. Through a lens. Darkly,” he chuckled.

They were pulling into the parking lot of a nice Italian place. Traditional, safe choice—and romantic, Dustin couldn’t help but notice.

“Okay. Ready?” Leo asked, like they were about to walk into a laser tag place.

Dustin laughed. “To tackle some serious spaghetti? You bet.”

“Lady and the Tramp-style?”

“Oh, God.” Dustin shook his head. “Kissing with spaghetti sauce? No.”

“And I’m not sure I can watch you suck a limp noodle into your mouth without my noodle getting… less limp.” Leo’s cheeks were red as he laughed. “Okay, I think I undid my hard work avoiding the innuendo earlier. Sorry. I’ll try to be appropriate in the public eye.”

Dustin grinned at Leo and squeezed his knee again, then unbuckled. “Only in the public eye, though.”

“Yes, sir,” Leo teased.

As Dustin let Leo lead the way, he felt a hand settle in his lower back and his heart raced. Being shown around in public—shown off, even… But then it was gone as they approached the door, and Dustin bit back the disappointment. It was only sensible not to invite trouble.

“This way, please.”

They got the fuss and rituals done with—the host looked slightly confused about whose chair he should pull out. He settled on Dustin, no doubt because he was the smaller one of the two.

Dustin exchanged looks with Leo, who looked like he was trying not to laugh.

“I get it a lot,” Dustin said once they were alone with the menus and a candle between them. “The sweet, delicate one must be the girl, right?”

Leo shook his head. “I don’t get it. Next time I’ll insist I get served first since I clearly have more curves.”

“If we’re counting biceps, sure,” Dustin snorted. “You’re more graceful, though. I’ll give you that.”

“You’re efficient,” Leo countered. “The way you walk—you’ve got somewhere to be, and you don’t let anything stop you.”

“Are you watching me at work?” Dustin playfully accused Leo, who turned red again.

“Anyway, the menus! I checked them out online. They looked good.” Leo buried his face in his.

Dustin had to choke back his laugh. It was all so early and new, but he felt like he was getting to know Leo. There were no pretenses with this man. So far, he was just him, as far as Dustin could tell. It was so refreshing.

Choosing food was the easy part.

The hard part came after they’d handed back the menus and had nowhere else to look but each other. Dustin could only kill a few seconds by looking around the place and commenting on how nice it looked.

“So, uh,” Dustin said instead, steeling his nerves. Just pretend you’re friends. Get to know him. It hadn’t escaped his notice that of his coupled-up friends, many of them had started as friends, or at least hadn’t intended to date seriously. Taking the pressure off had to help. “It took you a while to start noticing your surroundings, you said.”

“Ah. Yeah,” Leo nodded. “I’m a photographer—well, you know that part. I got hired here because of a buddy. Just got out of the military, doing the same kind of stuff, but with more glory.”

“Oh, wow. Overseas?”

“Yep. All over—wherever they wanted me,” Leo told him. He looked tired just saying it. “It’s good to be home, in one place, just… putting down roots. You know?”

Dustin nodded. He’d never moved around like that, but he could imagine. “Why did you get into that?”

“Needed the money,” Leo admitted easily. “There weren’t a lot of other career options that interested me. I could make a living from photography. Back then I never would have considered forensic photography. Now, it doesn’t seem like such a big deal.”

Dustin nodded slowly. Suddenly Leo’s steady mannerisms and maturity made sense. “Yeah, I see.”

“How about you? How’d you end up in that sexy lab coat?”

Dustin found himself tongue-tied for a moment and had to take a quick gulp of ice water. Hearing himself casually called sexy was nothing new. But usually it was by a guy who was trying to persuade him into bed, and it felt manipulative. Which definitely had nothing to do with Bryce, whatever his friends had to say about it. But the way Leo said it? It just sounded like a casual comment, even a statement of fact. Like he wasn’t trying to woo him, but calling things as he saw them.

“Um,” Dustin finally answered, “I was always into science. I wanted to do something to help the country, and… well.” If Leo was going to share, he might as well. “Honestly, I wish I’d been able to enlist, too. My family was pushing me to do it since I didn’t know what I wanted to do except help the world, you know?”

“Uh huh.” Leo watched him intently, like he was drinking in his words.

Dustin blushed again. It wasn’t as hard as usual to be the center of attention when it was Leo’s attention. “But can you imagine me getting through boot camp? And even then, what would I really do? They wanted me to either join the military or marry a rich guy. They didn’t care it’s a guy, just that he’s rich, you know? But that’s not me. I wanted to do something specialized to help the world. So I thought: police, fire, ambulance, that kind of stuff. Which led me to thinking about forensics as a way of… solving crimes, helping people. Getting justice.”

“That’s really admirable,” Leo said softly.

Dustin shook his head. “I don’t do it for admiration. It’s a need.”

“Oh, I know. I feel like that,” Leo answered, which blew Dustin away for a moment. “I got a little wrapped up in all that stuff I used to do. Won some awards. I don’t love all of what I did now, but… I made a difference, too. I showed the truth. But I was starting to tell too much of the truth—I don’t know if they would have wanted me back, and I didn’t want to go back. I was thinking about being a documentary correspondent next, because I wanted to show how much all sides of any conflict—there are never just two—hurt. And then I realized I can do the same thing on a much smaller scale right here. Settling things fairly, showing the record for the courts. It’s important stuff.”

“Really important,” Dustin murmured, still trying to process everything he’d heard. “I can’t imagine. Wow. Good for you.”

Leo shook his head. “Every piece of media has a narrative. Every photo, every song, every poem. Every TV show, even the stupid reality shows. All of it. They all have a story that someone wants you to believe. And I want to make sure the stories in the legal system are the truth. I don’t want innocent people dragged into things. I don’t want guilty people getting away. And I really don’t want victims to suffer without… justice.”

Then, as if coming to his senses, Leo looked embarrassed, his cheeks red as he stared at the table. He mumbled, “Sorry. Not really first-date talk.”

But Dustin was still breathless. There was something stirring deep in his chest. Leo’s voice was raw and authentic and true. He hadn’t had a guy talk to him like this in… well, ever. Even his ex-boyfriend had been telling stories he wanted him to believe. His eyes were hot and achy at how real the words felt to him. “That… No. No, don’t apologize. That was beautiful.”

Leo laughed quietly, glancing up at him. “Yeah?”

Dustin held his gaze, trying to convey that he was telling the truth. “Yes. That’s… I like being able to talk honestly, you know?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s not often I get to, either,” Leo said slowly.

Thank God their meals came, giving them both space and a few minutes to sort out utensils and comment on the presentation. They didn’t return to the conversation, but it still tinged the air between them. There was a rawness and trust there that left Dustin breathless.

As they dawdled over the last of their meals, utensils set aside, Leo brought up work again. “So, did you see the poster in the staff room for the cake auction?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s tomorrow.” There was a fund started for an officer with cancer, and Dustin had been meaning to contribute. “I was gonna bring something, but… I never got around to it.”

“I was going to bring something, too,” Leo said. “Wanna collaborate?”

That actually sounded fun. Dustin perked up and grinned. “Cool! Yeah. I’m not much of a decorator. Your eye must be better.”

“I guess it’s all right. I’m okay with color. Creating stuff from scratch has never been my strong suit, though,” Leo admitted. “I was worried I’d make the ugliest cake out there.”

Dustin laughed. “Me too!”

“And I don’t have any good recipes,” Leo added. “I have a cake pan, but I’ve never used since I moved in a couple months ago. I was gonna get a box.”

“No, no. We’ll do it from scratch,” Dustin told him. “What, tonight?”

“It’s tomorrow. Either tonight or tomorrow morning.”

“It’ll need time to cool off, right?” Dustin grinned. “Let’s do this. We can do it. Two great minds, right?”

“I haven’t tested my smoke detector in a while…” Leo grinned. “Can you attest to a spotless baking record?”

Dustin rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on. Have some confidence in us. I’ve never started any major fires. We’re adults. We can figure out how to make one little cake.”

When Leo grabbed the bill, Dustin tried to argue, but Leo waved it off. “Let me. Please.”

Dustin’s cheeks flushed. He looked down at his hands, twisting them together in his lap while Leo paid and made small talk with the waiter.

He’s treating me again. I’m going to need to figure out something to do for him.

“Thank you,” he said once they were on their way out of the restaurant.

“Of course. You’re saving my bacon by making a decent cake. Then I don’t have to avoid someone’s gaze for years to come, knowing they had to taste my mushy concoction.”

Dustin zipped his jacket up against the cold and winked, moving away from Leo to the passenger side of his car. “That’s a new euphemism.”

Leo burst out laughing. “You’re more trouble than you look.”

“And more than I’m worth, some say,” Dustin joked.

“No,” Leo immediately told him, pausing with his hand on the driver’s door handle. “Not at all.” He gazed at Dustin intently, like he was making sure he knew that.

Oh my God. I think he likes me.

Dustin just jerked his shoulders in a quick shrug and smiled. He fumbled to open the car door and get inside so he could open Google on his phone. Not only did it give him an excuse to cool down after the compliment, but it was a critical task. Everything rode on him finding a good cake recipe online, and he couldn’t remember the last one he’d used.

He chose one with five stars and held his breath as he looked over the ingredients list and read it out for Leo to confirm he had everything they needed.

The internet couldn’t be wrong, could it?