Page 32 of Rebound

He couldn’t think.

The noise of the group quieted to a background hum, and Thomas reached for the door to the gelato shop and pulled it open.

“After you,” Thomas said, his voice low.

Ben blinked and forced a smile, tearing his gaze away and severing whatever had passed between them. But his skin prickled, senses heightened, and when Thomas settled his hand at the small of Ben’s back to walk with him to the counter, Ben didn’t shy away from it.

CHAPTER12

THOMAS

Thomas triedto ignore the slope of Ben’s throat as he spent entirely too long perusing the dozen gelato flavors available to choose from. He took his time, looking from the bins of gelato in the freezer case and up to their names scrawled in chalk marker on a blackboard on the far wall of the shop and back again.

It had been a long week. Jennifer was combative when the topic of her new boyfriend came up and Thomas had dared to ask if he was someone she’d slept with while they were still together. While their divorce had been amicable enough, her answers to him turned malicious and cruel, and that was as much of a yes as he needed. On top of that, Kenzie had stopped answering his messages, and that was probably what hurt him the most. He was sure they’d made real progress over brunch on Sunday, so her silence was perplexing. He hadn’t heard a peep from Dakota, but he hadn’t heard from him since Christmas, so that wasn’t as surprising as the rest of it.

Work had been work, and he hadn’t been able to get Ben’s line of questioning out of his head. He sat behind his computer, day after day, answering phone calls and dealing with supply chain issues, wondering if he was destined to spend the rest of his life in a job that made him miserable. He didn’t have a family to provide for anymore. Only himself, and his rent, and his plants.

But was it too late to change?

“I can’t decide,” Ben said softly, his nose scrunched. “What are you going to get?”

Thomas huffed, hoping his cheeks didn’t darken from his embarrassment. “I haven’t even looked yet.”

“There’s almost too many choices,” Ben said.

“Have you narrowed it down?”

“Mint chocolate, I think. But the caramel cake one sounds good too.”

Thomas finally looked at the gelato descriptions on the wall. “The caramel one sounds really sweet.”

Ben made a disgusted face and nodded, decision made. “You’re right. Mint chocolate it is.”

Thomas gave a cursory glance to the menu, opting for cookies and cream, which was a pretty consistent flavor as far as he’d ever been able to tell. They each got a single scoop, then took them onto the sidewalk and settled at one of the small cafe tables in front of the window.

“There’s something to be said about green mint ice cream,” Ben muttered, spoon hanging off of his tongue.

“Better or worse?”

“It’s far superior.”

“I’m inclined to agree,” Thomas said.

Ben leaned his head back, again displaying the unnervingly sexy arch of his throat while he stared up at the night sky. It wasn’t terribly cold out, but it was cloudy, and the neon gelato shop sign reflected off Ben’s face like a rainbow kaleidoscope. Thomas gnawed on the inside of his cheek, forcing his attention down to his gelato so he didn’t stare.

“So, how was dinner?” he asked.

Ben sucked another flat spoon of gelato against his tongue, making an indecent popping sound as he let go.

“It was…” Ben pursed his lips and shoveled another bite of gelato into his mouth. “It was fine.”

“That doesn’t sound fine.”

“My friends were just…”

Thomas sensed the discomfort radiating out of every part of Ben’s body, almost thick enough to cut with a knife. “You don’t have to talk about it.”

“They brought up my ex. Or not my ex…whatever he was. The guy from before you.”