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“Plus, it’s just...how we are,” Matt said with a shrug. “Nothing has ever really been hard, not when it came to the two of us.”

“You said you guys were on the same team,” Eric said.

Matt nodded. “It’s...more than that, but that’s a big part. The rest is just how we are, how we’ve always been.”

Eric sighed. “It must be nice to have someone like that in your life. I’ve never been with anyone I felt that way about, that I was that close to.”

Matt glanced at him, cocking a brow. “You think we’re together?”

Eric blanched. “Aren’t you? Oh, shit, I’m sorry, I just…the way you guys are and the way he was looking at me the other night.”

Matt laughed. “Don’t worry about it. You’re not wrong. At least, I’m pretty sure you’re not.”

“Pretty sure?” Eric asked.

Matt shrugged. “Us being...a thing, is new, like, really new. And he’d probably have a stroke if he knew I was telling someone.”

“Okay, so why are you telling someone else if he’s unsure?”

“He’s not sure because?—”

Well, probably because he’d wanted it for so long and to have it seemed too good to be true. He was sure Nick was still hung up on the whole Matt was supposed to be straight thing. Personally, Matt wasn’t all that hung up on the idea. If he’d found guys attractive overnight, he would have celebrated a new avenue for finding someone to spend his life with. That he discovered he was attracted sexually to the same man he could easily spend his life with was perfect.

“Because he’s him. He’s a thinker, he thinks everything right into the ground. Then he digs it back up and examines it again. You just have to let him do that while showing him he has nothing to worry about.” Matt grinned. “Nothing I haven’t had to do in our many years of friendship.”

Eric grunted thoughtfully. “There’s a story here, one I’m missing.”

“And you know what, when the dust has settled and everything’s been figured out, I’ll tell you. Maybe you can comesee us out at the fort and we can find you a nice…” He looked Eric over, “girl?”

Eric snorted. “Yes, girl, thanks. Some guy hit on me last month because he’s into ‘twinks,’ whatever that is.”

Matt looked the guy over, evaluating his slight frame and pretty features. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

“See, that’s what other people said!” Eric proclaimed in frustration. “Which does fuck all for my dating life. Apparently, if I was into dudes, I’d be set.”

Matt laughed. “I wasn’t really into guys until recently, and it’s only one guy.”

Eric scrunched up his nose. “Maybe that’s what I need?”

“Don’t ask me,” Matt said.

“What’s dick like? Is it weird? Is it weird having another dude’s dick touch you?” Eric asked.

Matt tried not to laugh but failed miserably. He was spared having to answer by the sharp sound of someone clearing his throat. When he looked over his shoulder, he laughed even harder when he spotted Nick standing in the doorway to the den, brows raised.

“Of course, that’s when he walks in,” Eric muttered, staring at the floor, red in the face.

Matt honestly didn’t know what was funnier, the mortified look on Eric’s face or the confused annoyance on Nick’s. He winked at Nick, saluting him with his drink before patting Eric on the back.

“You’re allowed to run away if you want. I won’t think less of you,” Matt told him, unable to hold back his grin.

“A wise man takes the tactical retreat offered to him with gusto,” Eric muttered, scurrying out of the room with a glance toward Nick as he passed.

Nick waited a beat before sighing. “Do I want to know why he was asking you about other people’s dicks?”

Matt turned, leaning against the back of the nearby couch and smirking. “I want to tell you he was trying to get in my pants, but that would be cruel and unnecessary.”

“Mm, probably. I’m sensing a ‘but’ somewhere in there,” Nick said, cocking his head.