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Lake had parked out front in his mum’s car that he was borrowing while the insurance dealt with his. He would need to look at buying a new one soon. But it explained why Grady hadn’t realised he was there: he hadn’t parked in the driveway and it was an unfamiliar car.

“Your situational awareness isn’t very good,” Lake teased.

“I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

“People that plan on robbing your house don’t generally call ahead.”

“Are you planning to rob me?”

“You do have really nice cutlery,” Lake said, grinning. “I could probably pawn it for a hefty profit.”

“My… cutlery?” Grady shrugged out of his suit jacket and draped it over the back of a dining chair. He rolled his sleeves to his elbows, the same way he did every time he took his suit jacket off. This time Lake’s body flushed as he stared at Grady’s strong forearms.

“Yeah,” Lake said distractedly, “cause they’re—” He cut himself off. “It doesn’t matter. I wanted to talk to you.”

“You have my number.”

“You didn’t answer any of my texts today, so I had to use my last resort. Be thankful I didn’t confront you at the station.”

Something that looked awfully like guilt flashed in Grady’s eyes, and Lake felt a brush of satisfaction. Heshouldfeel guilty. They were both adults here, and ghosting was childish behaviour that was beneath them.

“We have nothing to talk about,” Grady said. He filled the kettle with water and then flicked it on before leaving the room.

If he thought he was going to deter Lake that easily, he had another thing coming. Lake followed him into the lounge, away from the noise of the kettle.

“I want to kiss you again,” Lake blurted out. He’d intended to go in more carefully than that, but he guessed it all boiled down to the same thing.

Grady froze, his back tensing. He didn’t turn as he said, “Why?”

“Why what?”

He turned then, and his eyes were hard. “Why do you want to kiss me again, Lake? What is this?”

“Why does it have to be more than that?” Lake couldn’t even explain it to himself, so he had no hope of being able to articulate it for anyone else. Why did he have to justify a want? Why couldn’t he just want it?

“I’m not interested in being your gay experiment,” Grady said flatly.

“I’m not asking you to be,” Lake sputtered. “What thefuck, Grady? That’s an insult to both of us.”

“Then what do you want?” Grady asked. “Because I’m having a hard time figuring that out, Lake. You’re confusing the fuck out of me.”

“You,” Lake replied, rendering Grady silent. “I just want you. Don’t ask me what that means, because I don’t know.”

“You don’t like men.”

“So? I like you.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m all male, and I have no interest in changing that.”

“I’ve noticed.” He’d definitely noticed. He’d thought about their kiss more times than he could count over the last few months, but he’d also spent a lot of the day thinking about it more in-depth because of their kiss the night before. And the only conclusion he could come up with was that it didn’t matter. It wasn’t about what gender Grady was. It wasGrady,and that changed everything for him.

“No, Lake,” Grady said, shaking his head. “We can’t do this.”

“Why not?” He knew that Grady thought he was attractive. He’d seen Gradylookat him with intent, and all it had done was make him preen and feel good about himself. Why was Grady denying them both if they both wanted it?

“I’ve been burned by this before, and I value our friendship far too much to have you turn around and realise that you made a mistake.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”