Advance & Retreat (The Midwest Series Book 4) by Brigham Vaughn

Author:Brigham Vaughn [Vaughn, Brigham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Two Peninsulas Press
Published: 2020-07-13T16:00:00+00:00

An hour or so later, Micah took a seat on the couch next to Ian. Ian had been talking to Nathan about the hockey team he was coaching, but he’d gotten up to get another drink, and Ian had just been sitting and watching the crowd for a few minutes.

“So, you and Ricky, huh?” Micah asked.

“Yeah.” Ian smiled at the thought.

Micah snickered. “You are so gone for him, dude.”

“I can’t deny that,” Ian admitted. “I don’t know ... it’s been a long time since I’ve met someone who just lets me be myself, you know?”

“Yeah, I hear that,” Micah clinked glasses with him. “Well, I’m glad it’s going well.”

“Thanks.”

“You and Justin are doing good?”

“We’re doing great.”

“Awesome.” Ian smiled at him. “You know, this is nice. We should all get together more often. Before meeting you, I can’t remember the last time I hung out with friends on a regular basis.”

“You don’t hang out with your team?” Micah asked quizzically, and Ian shook his head. “Why’s that?”

“I don’t know.” Ian scratched his head. “There’s this one guy, Bryce—he’s a pretty big dick. We’ve been swimming together since we were like twelve, but we don’t really get along.”

“Is it because you’re gay?”

“No. He doesn’t give a shit about that. He’s just ... Bryce.” Ian struggled to put into words how to describe him. “My best friend used to be on the team, but he’s not around anymore, so ...”

“Did he get recruited to swim for another team?” Micah asked.

“Uh, no.” Ian cleared his throat. “He died earlier this year.”

“Shit.” Micah grimaced. “I am so sorry, man.”

“Thanks.” Ian looked down at his hands. “I don’t know, the rest of the team is fine. We just never really got that close at the beginning.” Mostly because when Ian had joined the Lakeshore team, he had still been drowning in grief from losing his parents a year and a half before. He’d clung to Andy, but he hadn’t been able to connect to anyone new. And now, it seemed too late. At the end of the year, many of them would be graduating, and Ian would start training for the Olympic trials.

“Yeah, I hear that,” Micah said. “I always kept my distance because I was afraid of them finding out I was gay. It’s weird, though. And it’s not great for the team.”

“No, it’s not,” Ian admitted. He gave Micah a grin. “You clearly got close to someone there, though.” He nodded toward Justin, who was deep in conversation with Caleb.

Micah chuckled. “I did. But it’s different, you know? And until I met this group, I didn’t really have friends. So this is all new to me too. Although—” He paused as if considering something. “There was one guy who I got to know a little while I was playing. Berrera’s cool as hell, so we still hang out. And it’s way easier now that he knows I’m gay. You know, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I should probably invite him to one of the drag shows.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.