He’d walked through battlefields and felt less nervous. So why the hell was walking into the locker room making Leo’s stomach drop?

The answer was easy: because he knew who else was there. Victor Frank, his best friend from childhood. They hadn’t talked in five years—since he’d left Knoxville. It was easy to lose touch in a foreign country.

But now that he was back, and his shifts were more normal, they’d wound up on the same shift. It might work out well, Leo reasoned. He could sure use a friendly ear right about now.

“Hey. Victor?”

The man leaning against a locker and texting looked up, then lit up. “Holy shit. It is you!”

“Not many Leos around here,” Leo laughed and strode up for a quick, manly hug.

“No shit!” Victor exclaimed. “Holy—are you all right, man? I thought you ran off and got shot. Jesus.”

“Thanks for the positive thinking,” Leo snorted. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been all right, yeah, man. Just been here, doing the city’s work.”

“Ah, jeez. Did you wind up heading to UT?”

“Nah. Man, who can afford that shit? Besides, they were giving all the good spots away to the underprivileged students,” Victor snorted, his tone mocking. “You know, no scholarships anymore for plain old normal kids like us.”

Leo blinked a few times as this sank in. He remembered Victor being kinda stupid about people who weren’t from his very sheltered, middle-class, suburban world, but… not that badly. “What?”

“Yeah, man. So I ended up staying here. So I do a lot of traffic stops. Tickets. Fucking broke-ass losers begging me not to fine ’em. But what about you, man?” Victor punched his arm.

Leo’s enthusiasm to talk to his oldest friend was rapidly waning. “Well, I was a pretty broke-ass loser,” he said carefully. “So I enlisted. Photography.”

“No shit! Like propaganda? That’s so cool! Did you get to shoot the videos where they’re like, running through the surf?” Victor made gunfire noises.

Leo jolted, his lip curling before he could hide his expression. “Yeah, a bit of it. A lot of documentary stuff.” He kept it vague, not really wanting Victor to say anything about what he’d seen. He had the horrible feeling Victor’s only experience of the military was glorified, stupid shooting games. “Got out, came here, learned forensic photography, and now I work here.”

“No shit. That’s awesome. Forensic photographer? All the horrible stuff?”

“Yep,” Leo answered. He’d seen them enough, sure, but it didn’t mean he liked it. “Not a lot of violent crime here. Lots of B&Es, that kind of stuff.”

“Sweet, man. You liking it?” Victor laughed, his tone steel-edged.

Shit. He’d changed. Leo snorted. “Yeah, sure. Anyway, I better get going,” he told him. “Thought I’d say hi since I’m back in town.”

“We should hang out sometime. Cruise the chicks. Right? If you ain’t tied down yet?” Even that was said with a jaded, ironic edge to Victor’s voice.

“Sure, I’m free and easy. Thanks, man. See you.”

Leo made his escape as quickly as he could and headed home, shaking his head as he strode for his car. At least he’d gotten that out of the way with, but clearly, things had changed with Victor.

Or had he always been like that? Was Leo the one who’d changed while he was away?

Leo sighed. No way could he talk to that guy and admit he was, like, the town’s only virgin his age until two days ago, until fucking a guy and really liking it and having no idea what to do next.

He had real friends—friends who weren’t assholes like Victor had apparently become—in the military. Some still serving, some who’d gotten out when he had or earlier. He could talk to them, but man, they wouldn’t let him live this down.

No, I gotta work this one out on my own.

Leo turned to the best source for research on anything: Google.

Once he was home, he pulled out his laptop and typed in the query before he even thought it through: how to be gay.

It sounded dumb to his own mind, but he had to know. He had a fairly good idea how to date women from watching his friends and playing wingman for years. But men? What were the protocols?

There were different expectations, he was sure of that. He’d had a couple buddies in the military who swung that way. He knew there were procedures for everything from hitting on them in bars to, apparently, the order of sexual acts on Grindr dates.

Did he just text Dustin late at night one day and ask for a booty call? But he also wanted a friend—needed one. Whether he was ready to believe it or not, he thought he might need a friend way more than he needed the incredible sex. Which was a sad state of affairs.

Hell, romance didn’t seem off the table. Dustin was sweet and interesting and nice. Leo had never seriously tried it before. No reason he couldn’t try to woo him, right? Once he figured out how.

I gotta get out there and make new friends. Make a new life for myself.

Classes were a good place to start, and he had to leave now, or he was gonna be late for his today. Work, lunch, school, supper, sleep. That was his life lately.

Leo pushed himself to his feet and grabbed his bag from where he’d left it, already packed and sitting next to the door.

He had a Google search to get to. Maybe at the back of the class, while he tuned out another lecture on why their essays were unacceptable for the professional environment.

Sure enough, not even half an hour later, Leo found himself tucked in a corner at the back of the class, ignoring Professor Park. He was several weeks ahead of reading anyway, and the class was useless. The professor just read from the textbook. He’d heard better presentations in the mess hall.

Leo could kind of see the professor’s point about useless reports, though. Everything he was finding about gay relationships was aimed at either older guys who were just coming out after marrying women or teens and even younger kids.

Nothing for the twenty-something who was stumbling into the obvious after a lifetime of managing to ignore it. Certainly nothing for guys his age who were already part of the workplace and weren’t leaving notes in each other’s lockers.

Unless…

Leo smiled, alt-tabbing to his word processing document and pretending to look attentive as Professor Park looked around the room to take notice of who was listening. He had an idea, and he could probably squeeze it in after class if he hurried.

It’s gotta be worth a shot.