Bailey was still perched in the passenger seat when Nate pushed out the door and crossed the parking lot. His eyes followed Nate’s approach, head on a swivel as the driver’s side door opened.

“Here,” Nate handed the coffee across to him. “Four vanilla cremes and no sugar. And I got you this.”

He stepped up into the truck, keeping one eye on Bailey’s reaction. His reaction was, to put it simply, stunned. He put the cake in his lap, held the coffee up against one thigh, and stared down at them with parted lips. As Nate slammed the door shut, Bailey glanced up with a little crease between his brows.

“How do you know how I like my coffee?”

“Remember when we had that History project for Mrs. Carlisle junior year?” Nate slid the key into the ignition. “We used to come here and work on it, and that’s how you always got your coffee.”

“That was…four years ago?” Bailey murmured.

“Oh.” Nate pressed his lips together, disappointment lancing through him. “Do you not like your coffee that way anymore? I shouldn’t have assumed, sorry.”

“No, it’s still how I like it.” Bailey lifted the cup, and Nate almost reached over to stop him because it was still scalding hot, but he was just sniffing the aroma. A slow smile crept over his lips. “My Dad and I always come to this diner when he’s in town, and I get the coffee no matter what time of day.”

“Yeah,” Nate said, eyes on Bailey’s smile. “I remembered you getting coffee even at, like, ten at night.”

There was a beat of silence.

“If you keep being nice to me like this, I’m going to start getting the wrong idea,” Bailey warned, tone light. It was airy as if he could not quite catch his breath. Nate tore his gaze from his mouth to look him in the eyes and winced. He still looked incredibly taken aback, sore, red eyes wide. The cake had probably been too much—as were the words that came out of Nate’s cursed mouth next.

“Wouldn’t want to piss your boyfriend off any more than he already is.”

He would have thought it impossible, but Bailey managed to look even more shocked. “My boyfriend?” Then, his eyes rolled. “You mean Tanner? We’ve been broken up since high school.”

Heat crept up the back of Nate’s neck from beneath his shirt, where he was starting to goddamn nervous sweat.

“Right. Well then, you’ve probably got some guy back at college, don’t you?”

He should shut the hell up. He should get out and let Bailey drive himself home to save them both the embarrassment. He could pick the truck up from Bailey’s house tomorrow. That would just mean some walking. He needed the punishment for this kind of ridiculous behavior anyway.

Those words would have been an advance if he had said that line to anyone else. And that’s precisely what it sounded like—as though he cared whether Bailey was single.

Which was none of his goddamn business.

“I’m not dating anybody,” Bailey said with a soft chuckle.

“Okay.” Nate exhaled, willing the heat to dissipate from his cheeks. It was probably time to bring this strange night to a close before he could make an even greater fool of himself. He turned the key in the ignition, and his truck roared to life.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have teased you about that,” Bailey ducked his head, seemingly abashed, although Nate would have thought such a thing was impossible. “How’s Tessa?”

Nate’s hand landed on the door handle like he was about to pop it open and take a few laps around the parking lot. Get some fresh air. Because he could not handle this.

Bailey apologizing for teasing him?

Impossible.

They had always been unapologetic assholes to one another. How scary was the ex-boyfriend Nate rescuing Bailey from him was enough to flip his whole personality?

And he’d asked about Nate’s ex-girlfriend. Maybe he was trying to be nice. Or maybe he was trying to see if Nate was single, too. Nate was delusional, was what he was. He tossed the last idea out the window and pretended it had never occurred.

“I guess she’s okay,” he shrugged and lifted his arm to put it against Bailey’s seat while he looked back to ease the truck out of the parking space. “We broke up right after high school when she moved away to college.”

She did not want to stay tied down to the boy back home, and Nate did not blame her. They had fun in school, but he had never expected it to last anyway.

“Oh, so are you seeing anyone new?” Bailey asked.

Nate glanced down at him, frozen for a moment with his arm around the back of Bailey’s seat, practically around Bailey himself, lost in Bailey’s big eyes as they peered up at him. He did want to know if Nate was single. That was Nate’s first thought; his second was to beat that down with a hammer. There was no way.

He cleared his throat and twisted to face forward again, pulling up to the parking lot's exit. As soon as he turned onto the road and got up to the speed of traffic, he admitted, “I haven’t dated since high school. I guess this one guy in the welding certification program and I got kinda serious, but it didn’t work out.”

 Bailey was totally silent for a solid ten seconds. Or something like that. Nate was not counting, but it was long enough for his heart to climb into his throat.

“I…um,” Shit. Nate had never really come out to anyone except Jared, who had immediately cracked a joke, and they’d both moved right alone. This was excruciating. “My parents don’t know. Not that they would have a problem with it, I don’t think,” he hastened to ramble on. “It just hasn’t come up and, so, if you could…like not…”

Nate trailed off, feeling stupid. But if Bailey’s mom found out, Nate’s mom would find out. Then, she would be mad about not hearing it from him first. Maybe this was the kick on the ass he needed to sit down and talk to his parents about it. There had never been the right time, but this could be it.

“Oh, no, I wouldn’t…I won’t out you, don’t worry about that.” Bailey chuckled faintly, then lapsed into silence again.

Nate glanced over to see him staring down at the piece of cake with a hand over his mouth. It was not clear whether that was a good or a bad reaction. Nate frowned and felt a fresh pang of humiliation run through him. Now, everything felt awkward.

Things were much simpler when they pretended to hate each other’s guts.

Bailey cleared his throat. “Do you…uh…”

Nate held his breath.

“Do you mind if I eat this in your truck?”

Nate stared out at the stores and parking lots that were slowly giving way to neighborhoods and plots of trees. What the hell had he been expecting Bailey to ask?

“Go ahead,” he told him. “Mary gave you a fork, right? If not, I’ve probably got some in the center console.”

He lifted his elbow off the console to pop it up and rummage inside, one hand and one eye still on the road. Bailey held up a fork, though, so the search was unwarranted. He thumbed open the plastic nubs on the cake container and dug a bite out of the cake to shove in his mouth. Then he moaned.

Nate’s mouth went dry.

“They make the best cake,” Bailey groaned, taking another bite. “Oh my god.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty good,” Nate murmured, concentrating with great effort on the road. At the next light, he needed to take a left, so he flipped on his signal and checked over his shoulder to make sure he could get into the left turn lane. But Bailey’s hand rested on his forearm.

“Can you take me to my dad’s instead?” he asked. “I don’t want to wake my family up coming home this late, and my dad’s away right now, so I know I won’t wake him up.”

Nate stared down at Bailey’s fingers on his arm—bare skin touching in a way that wouldn’t leave bruises. His hand was warm from holding the coffee cup. The pink nail polish was chipped in places because it was several days old by now.

He wanted to ask if Bailey would be okay alone. If Tanner knew where his dad lived. If he was still feeling upset and maybe needed some company. But it was not his place, so he just nodded, flipped off his turn signal, and said, “I don’t actually know where your dad lives.”

Bailey’s hand slipped off his arm, and he pointed his fork straight ahead. “Just keep going, and I’ll tell you when to turn.”

“Okay,” Nate said, diving through the light and out of town. The neighborhoods gave way to extensive stretches of trees, big community parks, and freshly planted fields with massive farm equipment looming dark and silent along their edges.

“Your dad is a trucker, right?”

“Yep,” Bailey bobbed his head. “Long-haul. Gone for weeks usually. I try to spend some time with him whenever he’s home. If I’m around.”

“That’s cool of you.”

Then, they lapsed into silence for the rest of the ride, except when Bailey gave directions. He seemed wholly consumed by mauling the cake. By the time they got to his dad’s neighborhood, it was gone, and he was scraping the icing from the plastic sides with his fingers.

“Stay on the left as you turn,” Bailey warned. “There is a massive pothole on the right.”

Nate followed the instructions, carefully turning into a trailer park along the side of the main road. He peered around as his headlights illuminated the squished-together trailers, cars, grills, and carports.

The trailer that belonged to Bailey’s dad sat in a back corner of the neighborhood, with enough of a driveway for a carport in the back and space for two cars. It made sense that the guy would need enough space to park his rig whenever he was home. Nate’s headlights shone into the carport, over a car with a cover on it and some miscellaneous stuff like four tires stacked together and a snow shovel propped against them.

“Well, thanks so much for this.” Bailey cheerily held up the empty cake container and his coffee. “Next time, I’ll have to buy you a drink.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Nate waved him off, then gave Bailey a more serious look as he turned to pop open the passenger door. “You’re okay, right?”

Nate was still minimally concerned that if Tanner knew where Bailey lived, he might come by and cause trouble again. Enough that he was a breath away from offering his number so that Bailey could call if he needed help.

He could smack himself. What kind of archaic thinking was that? The cops would be a smarter distress call than him.

Bailey laughed and hopped out of the truck, “I’m fine. Thanks again. Don’t let me forget to buy you that drink!”

Then he slammed the door shut. As if either of them could forget anything about tonight. Nate knew he would not be able to, and he imagined the events had been just as strange for Bailey. He waited until Bailey unlocked the door and was inside, then put his forehead against the steering wheel for a few seconds.

“What the fuck?” he muttered under his breath.