Dating Washington (Discovering Me #2)

by Ann Maree Craven

Gold-and-black leather bar stools stood behind a counter where they could enjoy the food and drinks and still watch the concert. Behind that, a buffet waited for them.

  “Sounds like a plan.” Asher went to help himself. He really wasn’t hungry, but he needed a minute to prepare himself for spending a whole evening with his former best friend turned asshole.

  But Kenny seemed to have the same idea. When Asher turned to get a drink, Kenny was right there, so close Asher almost dumped his plate of appetizers right on his clean white shirt. “Sorry.” Asher took a step back to a safe distance.

  “I forgot how much of a klutz you are.” Kenny’s mouth pulled into a half-smile, but Asher wasn’t sure if it was mocking or…flirty. “The media shows you as this super cool fashion dude.”

  Asher laughed at that. “Yeah, well, you should know better than anyone that’s all smoke a mirrors. I mean, people change. But not that much.”

  “So you’re still you. That’s good to know.” Kenny popped a mini crab cake into his mouth. It was a perfect mouth, too.

  Stop looking at his mouth, Ash. He walked back to the front of the room. “How much of the show have I missed?” He perched on the edge of a leather chair, positioned perfectly so he could see the stage.

  “Not much. Becks just went on a few minutes before you got here.” Kenny took the seat beside him.

  “You’re not his biggest fan, I take it?”

  “Not especially, but I’m friends with Nicky, so I’m trying for his sake.”

  “Hello, Cincinnati!” Beckett’s voice boomed through the arena after he finished his opening set. “It’s good to be home, let me hear you roar!”

  The crowd went wild. Asher stood up and clapped, but there was something underwhelming about sitting in a fish bowl in the middle of so much chaos.

  “It’s overrated down there. You’re not missing anything.”

  “How do you know what I’m thinking?” Asher sat back down and pushed some of the food around his plate, too nervous to actually eat any of it.

  Kenny leaned closer. “You forget, I know you, Asher Brooks. And I remember how stifling the White House was for you. I can’t imagine that’s gotten any better.”

  “Definitely not.”

  “It always fires me up when I get to perform so close to my hometown.” Becks continued to work the crowd. “Any of my Twin Rivers people in the audience tonight?”

  Several areas of the arena went crazy with Twin Rivers fans. From the sound of it, the whole town showed up to see Beckett Anderson perform.

  “I know I have lots of friends in the audience tonight. A couple of VIPs too.” Becks cast his gaze up toward the VIP lounge.

  Kenny groaned, setting his plate aside. “Don’t do it, Becks.”

  “He’s gonna do it, he can’t help himself.” Asher let out a real laugh, his insides finally relaxing at the look of utter embarrassment on Kenny’s face.

  “I’ve been sworn to secrecy,” Becks continued. “You guys know my boyfriend, Nicky, right?”

  The crowd went wild at the mention of Nicky’s name.

  “Wow, you sure you guys are here for me?” A face-splitting grin lit up Becks’ face. “We’ve got quite a few Nickophytes in the house tonight.”

  The cheering made Asher wince, and for the first time that night, he was grateful he wasn’t down there with the fans.

  “That’s right, of course, Nick-Nick’s here with me. He’s hiding, though. He doesn’t think I know about his followers. He just forgets I’m the original Nickophyte.”

  He had the crowd eating out of his hands.

  “If Nicky is here, then where the hell is he?” Kenny asked, looking over his shoulder like Nicky might be there right behind them.

  “Nicky is working his butt off tonight behind the scenes,” Becks continued. “He’s playing matchmaker. Shhhh, I’m not supposed to tell.”

  “Matchmaker?” Asher glanced at Kenny. What was Nicky up to?

  “Looks like we’ve been set up,” Kenny said, propping his ankle up on his knee.

  “So, to my good friends in an undisclosed VIP room in this arena, I better see some good old-fashioned smooching going on up there.” He pointed right toward them. “I’ll even set the mood for you.” Becks reached for his guitar and began to play his next number.

  “I love this song.” Kenny scooted to the edge of his seat. “Just don’t ever tell him I said that.”

  “Wait.” Asher shook his head. “What is he even talking about? Nicky’s trying to set us up? Like me and you…together? Like on a…date?” Asher tried to swallow, but he couldn’t seem to remember how his throat worked.

  “It appears that way.” Kenny didn’t look nearly as confused as Asher.

  “But…you’re not gay.” Or was he? Asher thought about some of the things he’d seen in the tabloids about Kenny, but Asher tried really hard not to give them much attention. The tabloids were always dead wrong when it came to facts.

  “No, I’m not, but where have you been, Ash?” Kenny laughed. “The cat’s out of the bag. Has been for a while now, didn’t you see the media shit storm about me?”

  “I stopped paying attention to the media a long time ago. I’m a lot happier if I don’t know what they say about me or anyone else I know.”

  “You must have had your head stuck in the sand all summer, then.”

  “I saw the photo, but all that crap about Nicky assaulting you? I know that’s not true.” There was some big hoopla about Nicky kissing Kenny, but it was so ludicrous Asher didn’t give it a second thought.

  “Asher, I dated Nicky for almost two years. He didn’t tell you?”

  “No.” Asher sat back against the leather seat, wondering how he’d missed that.

  “I wasn’t out yet when we dated. I was still figuring things out for myself, and I didn’t treat him very well. That last kiss that ended up on the gossip sites—I kissed him. It was stupid. I knew he was already falling for Becks, but I missed him. Since then, I’ve found out we make much better friends than boyfriends.”

  “Boyfriends? Wait, weren’t you dating a congressman’s daughter a while back? Penny something?”

  “Yeah, I’ve dated Penny off and on for a while.”

  Asher’s mind couldn’t seem to put it together.

  “Ash. I’m bi. I thought you knew. Or I thought you’d at least figured it out since I kissed you.”

  “Oh” was all Asher could think to say. “Oh.” His eyes widened when he realized Kenny might have actually meant that kiss in the pool the night of his birthday party. And if he did, then this was a date.

  15

  Kenny

  Kenny had only seen Beckett Anderson in concert once before. At the beginning of the summer, Becks played a music festival. It was there he’d kissed Nicky for the first time—to save him from Kenny. Now, all these months later and Kenny sat beside the person he’d never expected to spend time with again.

  It was almost as if they were kids again, enjoying music and crowds, with secret service lurking in the background.

  Kenny eyed Danny, the agent who’d been with Asher since the president’s son was running around climbing trees and scraping knees. Well, since Kenny was doing all of that. Asher had always been more of a watcher, preferring his books and his art. The two boys had little in common, yet they’d been the kind of friends that didn’t come around often.

  Glancing sideways at him, Kenny studied Asher. They liked to think they’d each changed, but really, they were the same scared kids. The only difference was back then they didn’t know just how hard life was going to get for them.

  Asher caught him watching, and his lips tugged down.

  “Nicky said you watched my game last week.” The words spilled out before Kenny could stop himself. He wanted to believe Asher was interested in his life. As kids, it became a running joke how many peewee games of Kenny’s Asher attended. Kenny’s teammates gave him endless teasing about the constant presence of the secret service, but he hadn’t cared
. Not while his friend was there.

  Red tinged Asher’s cheeks and he ran a hand over the top of his head. “Yeah, uh, Nicky asked me to. Said something about needing the game explained to him.”

  “Which I’ve done a million times. That dude is hopeless.”

  Asher didn’t smile at that. “You… That was a rough game.”

  “You mean the hit? I was fine.”

  Finally, one corner of Asher’s lips tugged up. “You used to tell me that after every game. I never liked seeing you get hit. But this one looked bad, Ken. You scared the crap out of me.”

  Kenny met his gaze. “You were worried about me, Ash?”

  “Yeah, I mean, who wouldn’t be?”

  “Careful. I might start believing you care.”

  Asher was silent for a long moment before speaking with low, measured words. “It wasn’t me who didn’t care.”

  Kenny looked away. Asher wasn’t wrong. Back when their friendship ended, when Asher came out, Kenny tried not to care about him.

  It never worked.

  His gaze settled on Becks who’d ripped his shirt off in typical Becks fashion. “I can’t believe Nicky is trying to set us up.”

  “Really? It’s Nicky.”

  Kenny laughed, breaking the tension. “Think it was his idea or Becks’?”

  “This has too much planning to be Becks’ idea.”

  Settling back in his chair, Kenny let himself sink into the music he’d tried so hard to hate. At the music festival, he’d thought he’d finally made his choice. Gay or straight. Men or women. By hurting Nicky, he’d picked a team.

  But now he sat next to a boy Nicky picked for him, one he’d kissed only a few weeks ago. What kind of universe was this?

  He wasn’t immune to Asher. The president’s son was kind and talented and so damn cute it was impossible not to want to kiss him.

  Plus, he was Ash. Sitting with him was like taking a step into a past where everything made sense.

  “Do you remember when we led Danny on a chase through Columbus because we wanted tacos?”

  Asher grinned. “We were at an event with my dad, and you found this taco place on your phone a couple streets over.”

  “We had to pay your sister to tell Danny we’d run to the bathroom, but he didn’t believe her and went after us, catching up before we made it to the taco place.”

  “Then he bought us tacos because we’d used all the money we had to pay my sister.”

  Kenny laughed harder than he had in a long time. The secret service agents knew to be on their guard when Kenny was around because he’d had the habit of getting the First Son into trouble.

  Asher went along with every one of Kenny’s shenanigans. It was only then, with older eyes, Kenny realized why. “You trusted me.”

  “With my life.”

  Those words deflated Kenny. Asher had trusted him, and when things got hard, Kenny cut him off. “I’m sorry.”

  He didn’t ask what Kenny was sorry for. Instead, he looked away. “We were kids, Ken. Sometimes I forget that. I’ve been out for so long, it’s easy for me. My family supports me. Half the country loves me more because I’m gay. But you… I didn’t know. I hated you because I thought you were another bigoted asshole straight guy. But you weren’t. You were just…”

  “Confused.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m still confused.”

  “I know.”

  They didn’t talk for a while as Becks’ music filled the silence. Kenny watched Asher rather than the prancing knucklehead on the stage. Could they get their friendship back? For years, Kenny had focused on hockey, telling himself casual friends were all he needed.

  Then Nicky refused to stop caring about him. Then Killian and Wylder showed up at the hospital for him.

  Now Asher…

  He wasn’t sure what to make of people caring what happened to him. His parents certainly didn’t.

  But something still bothered him. “Can I ask you a question?”

  Asher nodded.

  “Why did you want to punch me? Was it because of the kiss?”

  Asher covered his face with his hands. “You mean the text?” His voice came out squeaky.

  “Yeah, the boxing glove. I assumed it meant you wanted to clock me, but I gotta say, that’s not really you.”

  Lowering his hands, Asher sighed. “I didn’t mean to send it. I was…uh…staring at my phone trying to think of something to text you. And then I dropped my phone and accidentally sent it.”

  A slow smile spread across Kenny’s face. “You were going to text me?” His smile widened into a full-blown grin. “You mean I sent you a naked dunk tank picture for no reason?”

  “When is there ever a reason for that?”

  “So, you looked at it.”

  “Of course, I did! You were sitting in a dunk tank naked.”

  “What’d you think?” Kenny cocked his head. He’d always been confident in his looks, and it was fun making Asher squirm.

  “Um…” Red tinted Asher’s skin from his neck to the tips of his ears.

  Kenny couldn’t help it. He reached out and touched the blushing skin. He swore Asher stopped breathing.

  “How often did you stare at the picture, Ash?” Kenny no longer wore a smile as his eyes bored into Asher’s.

  “Every day since.”

  Those were the words he needed to snap him back to reality. A picture didn’t matter. A kiss didn’t matter. Asher did. Their friendship did.

  Kenny withdrew his hand. “I’m glad Nicky set this up tonight.”

  “Me too. I’ve missed you, Ken.”

  He should have said he missed him too. He should have kissed him. But Kenny Montgomery couldn’t kiss the president’s son. Not again. Being with Asher meant finally cutting all bridges to his parents. It meant the country knowing what he’d always tried to hide.

  And he definitely wasn’t ready for that.

  “Admit it,” Asher sing-songed. “That concert was pretty great.”

  Kenny shrugged. There was no way he’d let anyone hear he didn’t hate Becks’ music.

  Danny opened a door for them after showing a security guard their backstage passes. They entered a long hall teeming with people hoping to meet the country music star.

  Whispers followed them as they pushed their way through. Asher Brooks, gay political icon, was on his way to hang out with Beckett Anderson, sort of gay country music icon. It was an LGBTQ dream.

  Nicky appeared at the end of the hall and waved them forward with a gigantic grin.

  Kenny reached him. “You’re in so much trouble.”

  Nicky shrugged with an “I don’t know what you’re talking about” look.

  Asher only shook his head with a laugh.

  “Come on.” Nicky led them through another door to where band members lounged on white leather couches. At the end of the room was a final door. It stood open, and a very sweaty Beckett Anderson leaned in the doorway, laughing at something Nari said.

  Nari broke away from him as their manager called her over.

  Becks wiped his face on the shirt he held in his hand. Sweat glistened on his bare chest.

  Nicky sighed and rolled his eyes. “He thinks he needs to live up to his hashtag basically all the time.”

  “SexyBecksy?” Kenny choked on a laugh.

  “I swear, I spend half my time just trying to get him to keep his clothes on in public.”

  Asher stifled a laugh. “I don’t know, Nick. I’d be totally okay if he never wore a shirt again.”

  “You wouldn’t be if you had to deal with screaming girls constantly inflating his ego.”

  Becks grinned when he saw them. “Are you two now madly in love? It was all my idea, so you can thank me.”

  Nicky groaned. “Do you insist on being embarrassing, babe?”

  Becks responded by grabbing Nicky and pulling him in for a bruising kiss. When he finally released him, Nicky stumbled back against the wall.

  “Now, who
wants to enter my lair?” Becks led them in to his dressing room where a wraparound couch sat in the corner.

  Kenny jumped onto it, sinking into the plush leather. Asher sat next to him while Nicky perched on the arm.

  Becks hopped onto the dressing table, letting his legs dangle over the side.

  “Did you guys have fun?” Nicky asked.

  Kenny shrugged, not wanting them to know he actually had. “It was okay except for the music.”

  Asher matched his frown. “Yeah. If you’re going to try and set me up with someone I have zero desire to be around, at least let it be somewhere fun.”

  Becks crossed his arms. “So, it didn’t work?”

  Kenny almost laughed at the fact he didn’t care they’d insulted his music, only that they weren’t now hopelessly in love.

  Nicky shook his head with a laugh. “It was a long shot. And, Becks, you didn’t even know my plan until five minutes before the concert, so I don’t know why you’re so upset.”

  “Well…” Becks scratched the back of his neck. “It’s just so sad. They were best friends, Nick-Nick. Asher comes out as gay, and his supposedly straight best friend can’t deal. But that friend turns out to be bi. They should be made for each other.”

  He released a dramatic sigh. “And then the whole kiss thing.”

  “Becks,” Nicky warned.

  Becks went on as if he hadn’t heard him, and he looked like he might cry. “Asher loses his kissing virginity to Kenny but assumes it was a drunken action by a straight dude. Then the hockey game where Ash was freaking out about the hit…” He sniffled. “It’s just so…sad.”

  Nicky got up and walked to his boyfriend before slapping him upside the head.

  “What was that for?”

  “Stop talking, Beckett Anderson.”

  Kenny barely noticed their interaction because he was stuck on only a few of Becks’ words. He turned to Asher. “That was your first kiss?”

  Asher swallowed heavily and nodded. “I…yeah.”

  He didn’t ask how because it made sense. Asher lived in an ivory tower. Kenny had been one of his only true friends.

  Before he could truly process it, Kenny’s phone dinged. Pulling it out, he saw Wylder’s name and almost ignored it, but something inside him told him to open the message.