“Hey,” Ridley said, then added with concern, “you look like shit.”
Jace had a rugged handsomeness, but the rugged aspect was dialed up to ten today. He hadn’t shaved in a couple of days, and his scruff was verging on all-out beard. His sunburn had faded to a tan, and when his eyes fluttered open, the green was pronounced against his darkened skin tone. That and the dark rings under his eyes.
Jace’s lips quirked. “Thanks. I’d like to return the compliment, but you don’t look like shit,” he joked. “You going somewhere?”
Wow, he didn’t look like shit. That was sort of a compliment, right? Jace had obviously noticed the clothes.
“No, I’m in for the night,” Ridley said. “I have a lasagna in the freezer I can pop into the oven if you want to hang out for dinner.”
“You’re awesome,” Jace said. “Tons of carbs I have to work off later sound great.”
Ridley hesitated. Jace wasn’t usually one of those fit guys who obsessed over his eating habits. He loved pizza and beer too much for that.
“Uh, I have salad too?”
“Hell no. Bring on the carbs,” Jace said. “I can work off my frustration later.”
“Frustration?” Ridley sank down on the edge of the sofa next to Jace, wincing as the tight jeans strangled his junk. He shifted, trying to get comfortable, as Jace waved a hand.
“It’s fine. Just some trouble with Leo.”
“Leo?” Ridley’s heart clenched. “Are you two still …”
“Nope,” Jace said, popping the P. “I was willing to try the long-distance thing, but the little shit told me I was too old for him. Also, apparently my abs aren’t packed enough for him.”
“Ouch.”
Jace yanked up his T-shirt and flexed his stomach. He didn’t have the six-pack he’d had right out of high school, but the man had nice, hard abs. “Tell me that my abs aren’t like rock.”
When Ridley didn’t immediately touch him, he added, “Go on. Touch me.”
Ronnie walked in just then. “Whoa, should I leave?”
Ridley shook his head. “Shut up,” he said. “Jace was just telling me that Leo dumped him for being old and soft.”
“Oh, soft? I’m sorry Jace,” Ronnie said teasingly. “I didn’t know you had those kinds of problems.”
“Hilarious.” Jace turned to Ridley. “Well?”
He could see Jace was serious, so he put his hand against Jace’s abs, heart skittering as he felt warm flesh, then the resistance of muscle underneath. He pushed as Jace flexed, impressed, even though he’d always known Jace was much fitter than him.
“Nice,” he said, pulling his hand away before he was tempted to linger. “You’re in great shape.”
“I knew it,” Jace said proudly, tugging down his shirt.
Ronnie extended the bottle of beer she’d brought out. “Now that we’re done with the show, how about a drink?”
“Bless you,” Jace said as he took the open bottle of Sam Adams.
“I know you like beer, but I don’t think it’s become a holy sacrament just yet,” Ronnie said dryly.
She glanced at Ridley, eyes scanning over him. Then smiled and gave a slight nod of approval. “Did you want a beer?”
“I’ll get it,” Ridley said. “I need to start dinner anyway.”
Ronnie followed him into the kitchen. “Well?” she asked.
“Well, what?”
“You know what. Did he notice?” she asked, reaching out to finger his shirt. “You look nice. This color is good on you.”
“Thanks.”
“I didn’t even know you had this much muscle,” she added, grabbing his bicep and squeezing. “You’re supposed to be my scrawny brother. What happened?”
Ridley grinned, chest warming. If Ronnie was noticing new things about him, maybe his plan wasn’t so crazy. Ridley had been a scrawny teen. He hadn’t really filled out until well into his twenties. By then, his image as the scrawny, geeky guy was kind of set. Even though his work often required wrangling patients and he kept a set of barbells in his room to keep toned, no one had ever seemed to notice his body. He mostly hadn’t minded because he hadn’t thought there was much worth noticing.
“Just let me do something, though,” Ronnie said after he’d straightened from sliding the lasagna into the oven and setting the timer.
“What?”
She unbuttoned each cuff and rolled his sleeves up to the elbow. “Nothing sexier than exposed forearms,” she said, making him laugh. “Trust me. You’re instantly sexier.”
“Not sure I want my twin thinking about me that way.”
She slapped his arm. “Don’t be gross. You’ll always be a Lego-playing gamer geek to me.”
“Aw, you’re gonna make me blush.”
“Can you believe Jace, though?” she burst out. “I was like, ‘Whoa. Ridley’s makeover worked fast!’ ”
He snorted. “If only.”
Ridley served large slices of lasagna on paper plates when it was ready, and Ronnie cleared off enough furniture for them all to sit and watch a movie. Ridley’s jeans continued to squeeze his balls in a vise, and he squirmed uncomfortably. His shirt was nice, but overly warm while lounging on the couch beside Jace, who always had enough body heat to compete with a furnace.
“Don’t you want to change?” Jace asked.
Ridley glanced down at himself. “Why?”
Jace shrugged. “Doesn’t look very comfortable for being a couch potato. You have a date today or something?”
“No,” Ridley said. “Just trying something new.”
“Why?”
“Stop encouraging my brother to be a slob,” Ronnie chimed in. “I think it’s nice when a guy makes an effort.”
“Ohhh, I see,” Jace said with a grin. “You like someone.”
“Why would you assume that?” Ronnie asked.
Jace waved to Ridley. “Please, it’s obvious. He’s stepping it up, trying to get noticed. No guy does that unless he’s trying to impress someone. Am I right?”
He held up a hand for a high five. Ridley gave him a halfhearted slap. “You’re not entirely right,” Ridley said, only fibbing a little. “I want people to see me for who I am now, not the geeky kid I was in high school. I never really updated my look as I got older, you know?”
Jace smirked, not fooled. “Especially the guy you like. Right?”
Ridley rolled his eyes and stood up. “I’m going to change into some sweats. Don’t start the movie without me.”
14
Cole lost count of how many drinks he’d had. Also lost track of Gabriella and Anita who seemed to drift in and out of the room getting refills and snacks. At some point, Cole found himself alone for the first time in a few hours. Impulsively, he pulled out his phone and sent Ridley a text message.
Cole: Sry about today
Ridley: You don’t need to apologize. I’m just not good at taking compliments
Cole: You need practice. Soon you’ll accept that you’re hot!!!
Ridley: If I’m delusional maybe
Cole: You said it’s been three years since you’ve dated?
Ridley took his time answering, but just as Cole wondered if he’d gone too far, another message appeared.
Ridley: Yeah, sadly.
Cole: You’ve forgotten how it feels to be apprciated
Ridley: I guess
Cole: I’m gonna keep complimenting u
Ridley: I’ll try to tolerate it
Ridley: It really has been a long time tho. Even if I could get Jace to say yes to a date, I’d probably run him off with a sloppy ass kiss or something
Cole: U need practice
Ridley: You volunteering?
Cole: I wouldn’t mind
Ridley: Yeah, right. Well, that still won’t make me any less awful in bed
Cole: You’re awful in bed??!! Nooooo. Guy like u would be genrous lovr
Ridley: I can’t believe I’m talking about
sex with you. No, I’m not awful. At least, I don’t think so. But again, it’s been a long time, and I don’t have the experience he does.
Cole: Sweetie, don’t worry. Most sex is crap!
Ridley: Uh ok
Cole: Stranger hookups never as good as sex with someone u like
Ridley: Oh
Cole: But if u want some practice ...
Ridley: What? You’re offering that too?
Cole sent over a smiley face and was preparing to respond with another flirty comment when his phone was whipped out of his hand.
“Hey!”
“Oh, Cole, no,” Anita said. “You can’t do this!”
“Is it the ex?” Gabrielle asked.
“It’s the crush, and Cole is offering to let the guy practice his fucking skills on him so he doesn’t fall short with his true love. What the fuck, Cole? Do you want this guy to stomp all over your heart?”
“I didn’t say those exact words,” Cole protested weakly.
Cole’s phone buzzed, and he made grabby hands. “Lemme see what he said.”
Anita held his phone out of reach. “Uh-uh. You can’t be trusted. I’ll send him a reply, and then you’re crashing on the sofa. You can have your phone back in the morning.”
Cole gasped. “That’s theft.”
She was unmoved.
“That’s phonenapping. Phoneduction. That’s a federal offense!”
Gabrielle laughed at them, standing close to read the phone over Anita’s shoulder.
“At least tell me what he said,” Cole begged.
Gabrielle answered him. “He said, ‘I couldn’t ask you to do that. There are favors and then there are favors.’ ”
“Tell him—”
Anita interrupted. “I’m telling him, ‘I drank too much and need to crash.’ You’ll thank me tomorrow when you’re horrified by this exchange.”
Cole slumped with a pout. “Fine.”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
“Yep.”
“He’s a really nice guy,” Cole said almost pleadingly.
“A nice guy who’s in love with someone else.” Anita stroked his hair. “Don’t do this to yourself. Don’t walk into another doomed relationship.”
Cole nodded morosely. “Okay.”
“If it’s really meant to be, he’ll change his mind about that friend,” Gabrielle said gently. “Maybe he’ll choose you.”
He tried to smile. “No one ever chooses me.”
“What are you grinning at?” Jace asked, startling Ridley as he read Cole’s final text, which said that he was drunk and going to bed. Well, that explained his crazy offer to help Ridley practice. Jesus, that put some interesting pictures in his head.
“Nothing,” he said quickly, tilting the screen away from Jace’s eyes.
Ridley had been texting with Cole off and on for the past twenty minutes as the movie played. Jace and Ronnie had seemed engrossed, but now he saw that the credits were rolling. He’d missed the ending, too caught up in texting to pay attention.
“You were texting for half the movie,” Ronnie pointed out.
“Just chatting with a friend,” he said. “No big— Hey!”
Jace grabbed his wrist, trying to turn the phone screen toward himself. Ridley flicked his thumb over the screen, making the text scroll in a desperate attempt to keep Jace from seeing anything too embarrassing.
“Somebody thinks you’re hot?” Jace asked.
Damn it. Ridley had only managed to scroll to the beginning of the night’s chat. Thankfully, Ridley’s comments about Jace and being bad in bed were hidden. Just the thought of Jace seeing that made him queasy.
He jerked his hand from Jace’s grip and turned off his phone. “None of your business, asshole.”
“So, who is it?” Jace pressed. “First the clothes, now the texting. You got a new guy?”
“No.”
“You doing the sex app thing? Be careful. Those guys are superficial as hell.”
“So I’m not hot enough for Grindr?” Ridley said, amazed at how quickly the night had gone from flattering to insulting. “Good to know.”
“No, I… Shit, Rid. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Right.”
“I didn’t,” Jace insisted. “Guys on those apps are sometimes jerks, is all. I’m just trying to be your friend.”
That was the problem, wasn’t it? Jace always saw him as a friend. Not just a friend, but the little guy he took under his wing in high school. When they’d first met, Ridley had been a sixteen-year-old still waiting on a growth spurt, and he’d been the target of bullies. He’d stupidly come out because his family was cool with it, and most people at school were fine too. But there were three guys who harassed him nonstop. Until he became lab partners with Jace, who was a year older than Ridley but taking the class because he’d recently transferred from a high school that didn’t teach it. They’d become friends, and it had changed Ridley’s life.
Jace was on the track team and the basketball team. He was good-looking, skipping over that awkward phase so many teens went through, and was instantly popular. He was also straight, or so everyone thought, and rumors flew all over the school that he was dating a college girl because he showed no interest in the girls in his classes. No one suspected he was gay until the day he came out in senior year. Not even Ridley.
“You don’t need to protect me,” he told Jace now. “I’m a grown man. Do you really think I need you to tell me that those app users are shallow?”
“I guess not. Sorry.”
“But for what it’s worth, my friend at work, Callum, met his boyfriend on an app like that. They moved in together and everything.”
“I remember Callum. We met at a birthday dinner one year.”
“Right,” Ridley said. “So, even if I was using an app — and I’m not, by the way — I could meet someone who’s right. You just never know where you’ll find love.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Jace said, and there was a tinge of melancholy to his voice.
“Do you want to know?” Ronnie asked from the armchair where she’d curled up for the movie. “You seem to have a revolving door in your bedroom.”
Ridley snorted. “As if they make it to the bedroom.”
She smirked. “Good point.”
“Nice,” Jace said. “Glad I amuse you two so much. Besides, Ronnie, you’re not exactly setting up house with a nice boy, are you?”
She hissed and raised her hands in claw hands. Jace flipped her off. And some of the tension dissipated as they laughed.
“Seriously, Ridley, if you like someone, he’d be an idiot not to jump at the chance to be with you,” Jace said. “You’re a catch.”
“Thanks,” Ridley said dryly.
“I mean it,” Jace insisted. “If we hadn’t been friends so long, and I saw you on the street …”
“What?”
Jace shrugged, smiling. “Who knows?”
Who knows? That was the kick in the nuts, wasn’t it? Ridley wouldn’t trade Jace’s friendship. He didn’t know how he would have gotten through high school without him. They’d been closer than close, with Jace practically living at his house for the last two years of school. But it was going to make it tough for Jace to see him as a romantic interest.
Jace had noticed the clothes, and he’d implied that he found Ridley attractive in an objective way. Now, Ridley just had to get him to see past their history and start seeing the possibility of Ridley as more than a friend.
Easier said than done.
That night, Ridley closed his bedroom door behind him, careful to lock it because Jace was crashing on the sofa, and he didn’t trust him not to come barging in unexpectedly. He stripped down to his boxer briefs and climbed into bed.
In the privacy of his bedroom, he scrolled through his text messages with Cole one more time. Cole was drunk and flirty, probably not serious at all, but Ridley still got turned on when he thought about it. That moment in the dressing r
oom, when Cole stood behind him and gazed at his exposed chest and stomach in the mirror, came to mind.
My hands look good on you.
Ridley slipped a hand into his boxer briefs and squeezed his hardening cock. For once, Jace wouldn’t star in his fantasies, and as the image of Cole in those skintight maroon pants surfaced in his mind’s eye, he was glad.
At least Cole flattered him. He might not seriously want Ridley. He might flirt with everyone. But he made Ridley feel seen and appreciated in a way no one else ever had.
You’re sexy, Cole whispered in his fantasy, and then he dropped to his knees. Ridley groaned as he tugged his cock, the thought of Cole’s lips wrapped around him taking him closer and closer to orgasm.
Just as he hovered on the brink, picturing his dick plunging into Cole’s mouth, a knock sounded on the door. He froze midstroke, heart pounding.
“You awake?” Jace asked from outside the door.
Fuck. He didn’t want to talk now.
The doorknob rattled, making his heart lurch, but he’d been careful to lock the door. Ridley lay there, dick still hard in his hand, as he waited for Jace to go away. He usually was eager for Jace’s attention, but right now, Jace felt like an intruder into his fantasy.
“Well, if you’re awake, I just wanted to say sorry again for being an asshole. If you’re hooking up, or if you met someone new, I’m happy for you. Maybe that hairdresser? He was … pretty.”
Pretty. The way Jace said it, it didn’t sound entirely like a compliment. But Cole was pretty. In all the best ways. Inside and out.
His features were delicate, and his lips were full and pink. Ridley pictured them around his dick again, and his hand started stroking. Jace was still talking, but Ridley tuned him out.
His body was strung tight, ready for release, and Ridley lost himself in the fantasy, hardly noticing when Jace finally left. He was too busy coming over his fist and biting down on his lip to keep in his cries.
But once his cum had cooled, Ridley felt guilty. What was he doing, thinking of Cole like that with Jace right outside the door?
Cole was beautiful and fun, but he was a fantasy. Jace was real. He’d been in Ridley’s life as a best friend and a man worth loving for a long, long time. So, it would take more than a haircut and some nice clothes to get through to Jace. He still had to try, didn’t he?
Operation Makeover Page 11