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“Speaking of kinky,” Lake said. If that wasn’t a great segue, he didn’t know what was. “If you’re not gay but have sex with a man, what would you call it?”

Zach choked on a bite of apple. Avery absently patted him on the back as he stared in shock at Lake.

“You had sex with a guy?” Zach asked hoarsely, like he still had apple stuck in his throat. “When? What the fuck, Lake?”

Lake probably should have waited for Felix for this conversation. He was the most level-headed of all of them, which made sense since he was a special forces combat medic. It came with the territory. Not that he neededadviceor anything. He’d loved having sex with Grady, and he had plans to continue doing it for the foreseeable future, regardless of what anyone thought. He just wanted to talk about it with his best friends. He missed them, and he wanted to share this with them because it meant so much more to him than just a roll in the hay with a friend.Gradymeant something to him.

Lake had been ghosting his best friends too much lately, and maybe he felt a bit guilty about that, but he’d been doing it for agoodreason. He wanted them to be happy and have the best chance at making it work. And him getting underfoot and maybe getting alittlejealous because they’d found something that Lake still found elusive wasn’t conducive to that.

Ares yipped and wriggled until Avery was forced to put him down. The second their paws hit the floor they were off again, barking madly as they left a trail of water behind themselves.

“No, wait!” Avery cried out. “Ares, get back here!” He bolted off in search of his wayward charge.

“Not gonna help him?” Lake asked.

“Nope,” Zach said. “I love it when he gets all hot and indignant. Makes for rougher sex, which is my kryptonite.”

Lake scrunched his face up. “That sounds so much fucking weirder when my brother is involved,” he said. He already knew what was probably way too much about his friends’ sex lives, but adding his brother just made it weird, not funny. It made everything different. Lake loved the idea of them together and knew that they would all make each other crazy happy, but he was still trying to work out where he fit with them all now.

“So… a guy, huh?”

Lake smirked at his oldest friend and wandered through the house instead of answering. He found Felix in the kitchen, piping meringue onto small tarts that smelled lemony.

“Someone let you bake?” Lake asked, sliding into a stool.

“Funny,” Felix said. “I didn’t do the baking. But I am in charge of piping.” He held out the piping bag, and Lake dutifully gave his finger so that Felix could make a small swirl of meringue onto it.

Lake sucked it into his mouth and hummed.

“Don’t ignore me,” Zach said loudly, joining them. “Do you really expect me to ignore that you just said you slept with a dude?”

Felix slipped and piped meringue across the counter. He stared at it for a second and then up at Lake’s face. “Really?”

“Yes,” Lake said, sounding way more confident than he felt. Not that it was a lie. Grady had fucked the life out of him. And he’dwantedto tell them; that had been the whole point of bringing it up. But maybe saying it in front of two people who were so important to him was more daunting than he’d realised. “I plan on doing it again,” he said, not wanting there to be any kind of misunderstanding.

“With the same guy or different?” Avery asked curiously as he returned to the room with the puppy firmly wrapped in a towel. All except for a tail hanging out the end that was vigorously wagging.

“Same guy.”Anotherguy? Lake tried to picture it. Going to a club and picking up some buff dude to rail him. He wrinkled his nose. No, wasn’t doing anything for him. Putting Grady in the same place? A shiver ran down his spine. He wondered if Grady would be up for that; going to a club together, pretending not to know one another, and then fucking in the bathroom.

He’d have to suggest it because his dick was more than onboard with that plan.

“Wow,” Avery said. “That’s… not how I thought tonight would go.Why?”

“Why what?” Lake asked, confused.

“Bro, I don’t know if you noticed, but you’renotgay? You’ve had more girlfriends than I can count on one hand, one of which I thought for sure you were going to settle down with. You’ve never even glanced at a guy?”

“I know that,” Lake said defensively. “So what?” Was he not allowed to change his mind? Try something new? Why did he have to stay in one box just because he’d started there? He could switch boxes if he wanted. He could even switch back. Why were thererules?

“I was just asking. No need to be defensive about it, asshat.”

“You’re an asshat.”

“Children,” Felix said mildly.

Avery glared at him. “Excuse me—” He cut off as Zach wrapped arms around his waist from behind and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“Why this guy?” Felix asked.