Page 7 of Brad & Finn (Gomillion High Reunion #3)

Brad huffed, remaining in his bent-over position, but mirroring Finn and taking a swig of his drink. “I guess Chloe did have more friends than I could hope to count back in high school,” he said, as if he was trying to give Finn some sort of out.

“She did,” Finn said, remembering the overflowing parties Chloe would throw in her backyard.

It felt like the entire town was there, chatting and laughing until the fireflies came out.

“But I was actually on the cheerleading team with her. We sat together at lunch and went to the same parties…including that final grad party at Cory’s place. ”

The grad party where teenage Brad had cupped Finn’s jaw, pressing lightly into that spot that always tensed up, and Finn had let the captain of the football team press his chapped lips against his.

Brad’s eyes widened, and he did a pretty good interpretation of the old Paul Bunyan statue, his body going stone still on the edge of the bed.

“You were a cheerleader…” Brad whispered, his eyes going unfocused as he stared somewhere past Finn’s shoulder.

There hadn’t been any boys on the cheerleading team, and they both knew it.

Finn could practically see the moment everything clicked into place, because Brad’s head knocked back in surprise. “You’re?—”

“The second co-captain of the team, yes,” Finn interrupted, before Brad could bring his dead name into the room with them.

It was just a name, but in this town, on these streets, it felt more like reciting an incantation or speaking a curse.

He didn’t know what types of feelings it would conjure up.

“Wow,” Brad said, his voice sounding far away. When he met Finn’s gaze, his shoulders softened, and something sparkled in his honey brown eyes. “You sure do look different.”

Finn snorted, and the sound was inappropriately loud in the quiet room. All things considered, it was far from the worst thing Brad could have said. “Thanks…I think.”

Brad sat back, bringing one arm behind himself to lean on.

He tilted his head up, and Finn spied a scar across the base of his throat.

Finn had been there, cheering from the sidelines, when Brad had gotten that scar.

He’d been playing his third quarter in a row with no relief, and he’d tried to dive for a first down, but an opponent’s cleat caught him in the neck.

Finn remembered hearing Brad arguing with the school nurse that it was just a flesh wound, and he could keep playing.

Brad had always pushed too hard, too fast. Kendall would complain at practice that Brad was in every club at the school, always doing volunteer work in the evenings between practice and studying.

It was one of the many reasons they seemed to be broken up about as often as they were back together in those days.

Kendall required a lot of attention, which she’d finally found in her doting husband, but Brad, the hot yet sometimes clueless football player, had never been able to measure up.

Brad’s eyes were glossy as he stared at the ceiling, as if he was taking his own trip down memory lane.

“You know…I’ve always wondered where you ended up.

Kendall friended me on Facebook a few years back.

I think Chloe and I are friends too, but she doesn’t post much, and I was looking for you…

I mean—” Brad coughed to try and clear his throat, took a quick sip of his drink, then hurried to say, “I tried to find some other members of the cheerleading and football team as well, but with limited success.”

Finn pulled his bottom lip into his mouth and ran his front teeth over the slight stubble directly below his lip. Facial hair was one of the first changes he’d experienced on T, and he’d never quite been able to break the habit of checking to see if it was still there.

Brad glanced at Finn’s mouth and then away again.

“The past few weeks were the first time I ever wished we’d gotten high school yearbooks so that I could look people up.

I don’t remember all that many of our classmates, but…

I definitely remember you. You were really attractive back then.

At least, my dumb teenage brain sure thought you were.

But now, you’re–er…is it okay to say I think you’re absolutely gorgeous now? ”

Finn’s mind went utterly blank. He didn’t have time to process, let alone respond, before Brad sat up straight, like he’d just been scolded by one of their teachers.

“Sorry,” Brad continued, “and you use he/him pronouns, right? I’ve been assuming this whole time, but I guess we never really said, did we?”

Finn’s mouth must have fallen open because he could feel the stale hotel air passing over his tongue.

In the span of two minutes, the high school football captain had admitted he’d been attracted to Finn back in high school, said he now found him gorgeous, and then proceeded to ask for Finn’s pronouns. Was this really happening?

Brad was watching him, a look of consternation on his face, like he was afraid he’d done something egregiously wrong.

Between the two of them, it seemed like Finn had more to apologize for than he did.

Finn had never reached out to any of his former classmates for fear that they’d respond poorly to the news.

Maybe he owed them more credit than what he’d given them.

“I…uhm, sure?” he said, causing Brad’s face to morph from concerned to highly confused. Finn cleared his throat as heat crept up his neck. “Sorry, that was pretty incoherent. I’m just…well, shocked is a bit of an understatement.”

One side of Brad’s lips lifted in a wry smile. “I think we both might be a little shocked—in case my rambling wasn’t a good clue.”

Finn took a drink, surprised to find his hand was shaking. Brad’s warm brown eyes took in the movement, but mercifully, he said nothing.

“You’re right. I’m sorry if this all comes as a shock. I didn’t intend to surprise you with it.”

Brad waved his empty hand in the air between them. “Hey, no harm, no foul, seriously. I can’t imagine it’s an easy thing to burst out with in the middle of a bar. Could we maybe…start over?”

Brad surprised him by standing up and extending his hand out in front of him. It took Finn’s muddled brain a painful few seconds to catch up before he scrambled to his feet. He thrust his still shaky hand into Brad’s and shook it once—and then again for good measure.

“Hi. I’m not sure if you remember me from high school, but I’m Brad. I was captain of the football team, and I dated the captain of the cheerleading team for a while,” Brad said, maintaining a firm grip on his hand.

The palm of Finn’s hand itched, which meant he was about to start sweating, but he didn’t want to let go yet.

When he’d declined Brad’s kiss, he’d assumed that was the end of any physical intimacy between them.

If the last thing he got to do was shake Brad’s hand, he was going to appreciate the moment.

“H-hi,” he stammered, like they really were meeting for the first time. “I’m Finn. I definitely remember you, and I, uh, hope you remember me, too. I was the co-captain of the cheerleading team, and I spent a fair amount of time around the football team with Kendall and Chloe.”

Brad grinned at him and tipped his head in a way that seemed to imply he should keep going.

Finn tightened his fingers around Brad’s and cleared his throat. “Uhm, I use he/him pronouns, and I don’t have a preference for compliments—I mean…if you happened to want to give me one, I don’t mind most of them, but you also, obviously, don’t have to if?—”

Brad’s rumbling laughter rolled over Finn, cutting off his spiraling monologue. “So, just so we’re clear, words like ‘beautiful,’ ‘gorgeous,’ and ‘sexy’ are okay?”

Finn flushed from the tips of his ears down to his stomach. His hand was definitely sweating now, but Brad refused to let go. “Y-yeah…those are fine.”

Brad gave the second most endearing smile Finn had ever seen. The first had been earlier at the bar, and it had nearly taken Finn’s breath away. Here, in his tiny hotel room, it shot straight to Finn’s groin.

“I’ll be sure to remember that,” Brad whispered, and Finn finally pulled his hand free in an attempt to cover a full-body shiver.

Finn didn’t do this. He didn’t have one-night stands or even weekend flings. He preferred to date, and while he’d only been moderately successful with that, it was still better than playing the “get to know Finn and his parts and preferences” game with a stranger.

Some part of him—probably the part between his legs that didn’t get nearly enough attention—tried to object that Brad wasn’t a stranger, but he ignored that. He settled back on the edge of his bed, and this time, Brad sat down next to him, leaving a respectful several inches of space between them.

“So, you didn’t have any kind of plan for how you were going to handle running into people you used to know, did you?” Brad asked, his voice curious but not judgmental.

Finn sighed and swirled his drink between his semi-spread legs. It was mostly ice now, and he considered getting up to refill it, but the warmth Brad’s body was putting off was nice, and he realistically didn’t need anything more to drink.

“I want to say I intended to figure out a plan tomorrow before registration, but I was probably just going to wing it. Overhearing you and Miles talking so openly about your sexuality has given me a bit of hope that maybe things have changed, but…”

“But sexuality and gender are different,” Brad finished softly.

Finn turned sideways, pulling his leg up onto the bed between them. His knee just barely pressed against the outside of Brad’s thigh, and neither of them made any attempt to readjust.

“You seem to know a lot about gender identity,” Finn said, attempting to keep the incredulity out of his voice. He must have done a pretty poor job of it because Brad gave him the side eye.