When he looked at the other man, he was already grabbing his shirt. Noah closed his eyes and shook his head before saying, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what that was about.”

“Then you’re a fool.” Wes pulled the black T-shirt over his head.

I wish. “It’s not that. He’s straight. He just found out I’m gay, and this is the first time he’s seen me with someone. I’m guessing, it was harder for him to accept than he thought.”

Wes chuckled. “It would have been fun.”

“Yeah…yeah it would have. Maybe we still could—”

“No.”

Noah figured Wes was right. “Let me walk you out.” He followed Wes to his truck. When they got there, he leaned over in the seat, scribbled something on a piece of paper and then handed it to Noah.

“Depending on Chelle, I’ll be around for a while. Gimme a call if you ever want to have a drink again.”

The tone of Wes’s voice told him that’s all it would ever be. And he was okay with that. He liked the guy. He could hang out with him. “Thanks for understanding—not that I really have a clue what’s going on.”

Wes nodded.

“Take care of your sister. I hope she’s okay.”

Wes started the truck, and he was gone. Noah sighed, but didn’t have much time to try and figure out why in the fuck, Cooper had walked away from him because he heard the house door close. Coop walked around the side of the house with a woman, to where he assumed they’d parked.

Fuck. Maybe that was it. Coop had brought someone home, and Noah having someone there at the same time, made him uncomfortable.

Or maybe…he wished like hell, Wes could have been right.

***

“Are you okay?” Adrianna asked Cooper, as she climbed into her car.

No, he wasn’t. He really fucking wasn’t. “Yeah, I’m sorry tonight had to end before it really had the chance to get started. Something came up. I didn’t realize my roommate was bringing someone home.”

“No, it’s fine. I need to be home early tonight, anyway. I’m just worried about you. You were white as a ghost when you came upstairs.”

That’s because I saw my friend with another man. Saw them together and wanted… “Rain check?” he asked.

“If you’re lucky,” Adrianna winked, started the car, and drove away.

Part of him wanted to stay out here all night but he forced himself inside. He couldn’t look at Noah when he closed the door, but rather, started pacing the living room. His muscles hurt they were so tense. His heart pounded harder than he ever remembered it beating before.

And his brain? Fuck, he wanted nothing but to turn the thing off. To turn anything off inside himself that could think, feel…or become aroused.

“What’s wrong, man? You’re scaring the hell out of me.” Noah leaned against the living room wall, his arms crossed. Cooper groaned, wishing like hell he didn’t look at the man. Didn’t see concern in his eyes. His hair tousled from the hands that had been running through it. Wished like hell he would put on a shirt.

“Fuck!” Cooper punched the wall. Pain shot through his hand and up his arm, but he didn’t care. He wanted more of it to help him block the thoughts he tried to evict from inside him.

“Christ,” Noah hissed. “Talk to me. What happened? Did it freak you out that I brought someone home? Did it make you more uncomfortable than you thought it would?”

Yeah. Only not in the way he expected. Cooper actually felt like he could cry. Scream. He didn’t understand anything going on, and he wanted nothing more than to set fire to the thoughts. Burn them into ash so they could never form in his brain again. A dream was one thing but this? This was… “What the fuck’s wrong with me? There’s something wrong with me.”

He slid down the wall and crumpled to the floor. He sat there, back against the wall, but feeling like he had nothing to hold him up.

“Coop.” Noah’s voice cracked, and Cooper couldn’t stop himself from looking at his friend. The pain and understanding in his dark brown eyes simultaneously comforted, scared, and embarrassed him. In that moment Noah saw something in him, Cooper knew no one had ever seen before. Saw deeper than Coop even knew was there.

And he couldn’t turn away.

As much as the words scared him, he couldn’t not share this. Couldn’t not trust his friend with what he was feeling, even though it killed him. “I saw you with him.” It was hell when the one person you always felt like you could tell everything to, was the one to have you tied in knots. The one you wanted to run from. Needed, too, yet Cooper couldn’t make himself flee.