Page 9 of Fanboy in the Falls (Devon Falls #3)

I’ve never felt drawn to anyone the way I feel drawn to him—except for Tom, of course. But that’s different. —Colin Templegate

“Order! Order, please!” Amelia, who I definitely think of as the mayor with the rainbow hair , taps against a podium with a wooden gavel.

Then she points it at a guy with a pale complexion, long beard, and suspenders.

“Burt, I already told you to stop talking once. You keep up the jibber jabber and I’m not bringing my famous lemon bars to the next church potluck. ”

“Amelia’s also the minister at the local community church,” Tom whispers to me.

We’re sitting all the way in the back row of the Devon Falls town hall, but he still glances up as he says the words.

Probably nervous that the sixty-something-year-old with the gavel and pink, purple, and teal hair is going to come for him if he gets caught talking.

“Right. I forgot that part. And she’s married to a nudist, right?”

“Yes, that’s Ellie. She’s Benson’s partner at the law practice. Benson is Jack’s husband,” he adds.

“I fucking know who Benson Lewis is,” I tell him as I roll my eyes.

It’s not like Tom doesn’t also have trouble keeping track of everyone in this town.

I keep meaning to ask Sam to draw me a murderboard of all the people in Devon Falls.

I just never seem to remember exactly how everyone is interconnected.

Burt holds up his hands in surrender. “Sorry, Ames,” he calls politely. “That’s my fault. I was gossiping about the famous people in them back seats there.” He turns to wave at us over his shoulder, and I swear, the entire town turns with him.

I’ve got no response to that, but Tom waves back and puts on his brightest smile. “Happy to be here, loves,” he calls out. “We’re only helping out at the inn. No plans to bring the paparazzi down on you all, I promise.”

A woman with brown skin and a green-haired pixie cut crosses her arms. “I wouldn’t be upset if you wanted to bring some paparazzi over to the Farm-A-Cy.

” The crowd starts mumbling and talking about whether Devon Falls could go viral.

“Can you put us on one of those picture apps? Where the pictures disappear?” Burt calls out loudly.

Amelia pounds her gavel loudly again. “My good gracious! Town, we have business to take care of!”

Things settle down after that, and Amelia launches into the first item on the agenda: a proposal to purchase a giant leaf costume for someone to wear during the leaf festival.

There are a few rounds of conversation about who should wear it, and finally they settle on asking Benson, who’s missing from the meeting.

He’s still at work, Tom tells me. “And I do very much hope I get to be in the room when someone has to ask Benson Lewis to dress up like a giant leaf and dance around for crowds of tourists,” he adds.

Bethany and Evelyn take the stage and lay out some of their plans for the events the winery will hold during the leaf festival, and then someone asks whether the inn will be fully open again by then. Bethany smiles tightly.

“We’re hopeful,” she says. “You know we’ve got people working on it. Tom, Colin, and Gabe, we’re grateful to have you three on the job!”

She waves to us in the back row, and both Gabe and I sink down in our seats. Tom and Lou, on the other hand, sit up brightly and grin.

“Oh, Gabe! By the way,” says Amelia. “Can I catch you after the meeting? I’ve been meaning to ask you when Dave’s back in town. I need to talk to him about that large tree with all the dead branches that’s crossing both our yards.”

I watch as all the color seems to drain from Gabe’s face. “Uh, sure. No problem, Amelia.”

“Excellent!” She claps her hands. “I’ve been trying to chat with you for days now, but you’re a busy little bee!”

Tom and I glance at each other again. I grimace. “Gabe looks like you did that time you entered that pepper eating contest back when you were in college,” I whisper. He’s biting his lip and clutching at the back of Lou’s shirt as Bethany keeps talking about timelines and goals.

“I went all the way to the Scotch Bonnets before I threw up, at least.” Tom frowns. “But yes. You’re right, bestie. He does.”

I’m not even a little bit surprised when Gabe jolts up from his seat at the end of the meeting.

“Benson texted me,” he says quickly. “He asked if we could come over to his and Jack’s place and catch the two of them up on what happened.

” His eyes are darting across the crowds of people milling around.

It’s like he’s a bank robber trying to escape a crime scene.

Tom purses his lips. “I think the mayor wanted to talk to you, little one. Is she your neighbor?”

Gabe gulps. “Um, yeah. Well, she’s Dave’s neighbor.

It’s no big deal, though. I’ll just talk to her when Lou and I get back to the house tonight.

Let’s go, okay?” He basically runs out of the room ahead of us, holding onto Lou’s hand tightly as he dodges small groups of people chatting.

I watch as his eyes find Amelia at the edge of the crowd.

He looks away, fast, and heads right for the door.

Tom raises his eyebrow. “Very interesting,” he says softly.

Yeah. My thoughts exactly.

Benson and Jack live in an old Victorian house on Main Street.

It’s only a few blocks from the town hall, and I swear, the thing looks like it’s right out of a Hollywood small town movie set.

Front porch with a swing, flowers in boxes, bright blue and white paint, the works.

It’s about as many miles as you can get from the black, gray, and glass condo I call home in New York.

I wouldn’t mind if I could get my place on the lake to feel like this house, though.

I always feel a weird sense of calm when I walk into the place.

It’s as if the space itself just invites you in or something.

“Hey, you made it.” Jack pulls a pan out of the oven and sets it on the stove. “Thanks for coming over. Benson needs his fix of the town gossip. He gets antsy when they put meetings on nights when we both have to work late.”

“Hi. Dr. Jack!” Lou waves and steps toward him. “Are those cookies?” he asks.

“Sure are.” Jack comes over to lift Lou up so he can see the tray. “And Benson’s going to grill hot dogs and zucchini in the backyard. How do hot dogs, zucchini, and cookies sound for dinner?”

“Yay!” Lou wraps his arms around Jack’s neck, and Jack laughs as he hugs him and then sets him down.

“Your brother has a much better relationship with doctors than I did when I was his age,” Tom says to Gabe quietly. “If I ever saw my doctor in public as a child, I’m quite sure I would have run in the other direction as fast as I could.”

“He was terrified of needles,” I fill in for Gabe. “Screamed bloody murder every time he had to have a shot.”

Gabe smiles. “I think Lou’s the one kid on the planet who probably likes going to the doctor’s office.

Jack and Benson kind of saved Lou’s Christmas last year when…

um, well, I was sort of struggling for money.

They came to the rescue. Uh, never mind.

Hey, there’s Benson!” I catch Tom’s eye and watch him raise an eyebrow again as Benson comes through the back patio doorway into the kitchen.

He’s wearing a green sweater and jeans, and his blond hair is sticking out in a few different directions.

“Benson!” Tom crows, and he runs to grab him up in a hug that Benson pretends to hate. I’ve seen the two of them do this dance before.

“Geez, movie stars,” Benson mutters. “No concept of personal space, I swear. And who’s this?” he scrunches his nose and pretends to carefully study Lou. “This can’t be Lou Avid… can it? No, it can’t be! This person is so much taller than the last time I saw him!”

Lou giggles. “Mr. Benson, it’s me!” he throws up his hands. “My teacher says I had a growth spurt!”

Benson fake gasps. “Well. My my my!” Then the prickliest man in Devon Falls, as I’ve heard him call himself, reaches down and lifts Lou up in a hug.

Gabe’s facial expression has gone back to that strange, almost wistful look. Tom’s expression, on the other hand, isn’t that hard to read. He’s watching Gabe’s every motion, staring at him like his gaze is tethered there. It’s more focus than I’ve seen Tom give anyone in a long time.

Huh.

We end up in the backyard, sitting on Adirondack chairs under the falling sun, drinking beer and eating hot dogs while Lou does zoomies around the backyard like some kind of puppy.

“Your kid cracks me up,” Benson tells Gabe.

“He’s just my little brother, not my kid,” Gabe says, but there’s no heat in his words. He almost sounds wistful.

“Hey, now.” Jack hands Gabe another hot dog and raises an eyebrow.

“I’d say you’re much more than a big brother, Gabe.

You’re the one who brought Lou in for his last three doctor’s appointments.

You’re the one who was at Lou’s field day with him during the opening week of school this year.

When is Dave getting back from his latest job, anyway?

Feels like it’s been forever since I saw him at the diner during lunchtime.

” He frowns. “I’d eat with him whenever we ended up there at the same time.

I noticed he was a little out of sorts the last few times I saw him. Is he doing okay?”

The color is draining from Gabe’s face again. “Um, he’s fine. He’s been back and forth between here and New York for work a lot lately. Lots of chances to make money fixing up holes in roads, you know? But I don’t mind helping out. I love spending time with Lou,” he adds quickly.

“Your stepfather’s gone that often?” I ask. I’m proud that I manage to call him “stepfather” instead of “demon hellspawn.” After the story Gabe told me and Tom in the car today, I’m definitely imagining this guy as someone with horns, hooves, and a pitchfork.

“Like I said, he does road work,” Gabe says quietly. “So I stay with Lou when he gets jobs he has to be away for overnight.”

Tom leans over and squeezes Gabe’s arm. “Well, I’m sure you deserve all kinds of credit for the way you take care of Lou,” he says softly. Gabe looks back at him, his eyes wide and a little watery, and I’d have to be dead to miss the connection that passes between them just then.

I knew what I saw in the lake today was something more than the both of them cooling off. I swear, for a moment it looked like the two of them were going to kiss or something. And now my stomach’s swirling as I think about the implications of that.

But there shouldn’t be any implications, right?

I’ve always known Tom would find someone who could return feelings for him the way he deserves.

The way I’ve never been able to. And this weird pull I feel toward Gabe probably isn’t anything real at all, anyway.

Because I’m just not a guy who gets a whole lot of feelings like that. I never have been.

So why do I feel like I’m about to crawl out of my skin right now?

“Gabe,” I blurt out. “Are you dating anyone?”

Tom looks sharply at me but doesn’t say anything. Across the lawn, Lou giggles and collapses into a pile of clover. “I’ll find us a four leaf one!” he calls out.

“Okay!” Gabe calls back. He looks over at me, and he stares for a long moment. “Nope,” he finally says. He draws in a deep breath. “Lou takes up most of my time.” I don’t miss how his eyes meet Tom’s quickly before he looks away. Tom’s expression stays thin and unreadable.

What the fuck is going on between these two?

“You’ve got plenty of time,” Benson tells him around a mouthful of hot dog.

“I barely dated at all before I met Jack. College and law school kept me too busy. And Jack was practically ancient when he figured out he was bi, but things worked out great for him.” He leers at Jack, who rolls his eyes and then leans down to peck him on the cheek.

“I’d throw back your snark, but we both know I hit the jackpot,” he says to Benson. Then he goes in for another kiss.

“You didn’t know you were bi until you were older?” I say the words before I can think too hard about them, and I don’t miss the way everyone turns to look at me. Tom’s eyebrows are raised again. If he’s not careful, they’re going to get stuck like that permanently.

“Nope,” Jack says. “Well, maybe I always knew on some level. Or maybe not.” He shrugs. “I don’t spend too much time worrying about it, to be honest. I am who I am, and I’m happy.” He leans over again to kiss Benson, and I fight the rush of heavy emotion moving up through my chest.

“Plus,” Jack says as he straightens up, “I realized that there’s nothing wrong with learning new things about yourself on your own timeline. If there’s one thing I’ve figured out over the years, it’s that sexuality and romantic love usually aren’t straight lines.”

“Pun intended?” Benson asks, deadpan.

Jack rolls his eyes and smiles. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

My heart’s going so fast now that I’m a little worried it might spring out of my chest. Words and phrases are running past my ears like the cars I used to lap on tracks.

Once you know how you feel about sex and love, that’s it, right?

That’s what I always assumed, anyway. My brother was gay, and my former brother-in-law and my best friend both identify as bi or pan, and they all figured that stuff out back when we were teenagers.

And up until recently, I’ve never been attracted to anyone who didn’t identify as female.

Not that I’ve been attracted to all that many people at all.

And then came Gabe Gomez, drunkenly falling across picnic blankets in front of me and lighting up rooms with his bright smiles.

I’ve never felt drawn to anyone the way I feel drawn to him.

But I figured whatever I feel for Gabe couldn’t be attraction; not really.

Because if a person is straight, they’re straight forever. Right?

Except that logic apparently didn’t hold true for Jack Lancer, who’s now in one of the most stable, loving relationships I’ve ever seen. And that knowledge is a little bit of a mindfuck.

I let my eyes drift over to Gabe and Tom. Tom keeps looking over at Gabe, and Gabe’s vision is locked on Lou, who’s still playing in the same patch of clover, searching for endless luck. I swallow as I do my best to remember how to breathe.

“Colin, darling,” Tom says. “Are you feeling okay, bestie?”

Four heads swivel toward me again. I panic. “Benson, the town wants to dress you up in a leaf costume!” I blurt out.

Benson studies me a minute, frowns, and then takes a sip of his beer.

“Yup,” he finally says. “That tracks.”