“For next time?” Canaan’s head tilted as he worked on the phone, neck a long, lean line that practically begged for a kiss, but still Renzo held back.
“Yeah. We need to do this again.” Next time sounded pretty darn good. Something concrete to look forward too. Renzo waited for him to finish with the phone, then put the truck in drive, started following the directions to get back on I-5.
“So...if you’re serious about wanting to hang out again, I’ve got an idea...” Canaan’s voice was too careful for this to be a spontaneous idea. The back of Renzo’s neck prickled, same as it did on missions when things were about to go sideways.
“Oh?”
“The band and some hangers-on like significant others are doing this camping trip next weekend. I’m supposed to go, and you could come too. Might be fun, right?”
Renzo groaned. “I get enough camping when we’re deployed. Only good thing about being back stateside for a while is sleeping in a decent bed.”
“This is more like glamping.” Canaan’s speech had sped up, the way Renzo had noticed he was prone to when he got worked up. “First night in a hotel in Flagstaff, then two nights with a tour company in the Grand Canyon that’s providing all the equipment, then another night in Flagstaff. Band’s paying for it all, so you’d just have to come. We could split gas or whatever.”
“I don’t know.” The senior chief had urged him to take leave, but four days with people he didn’t know in the desert when he got plenty of desert in training and missions wasn’t exactly his style. Plus, he didn’t know Canaan that well at all yet. What if things got hella weird fast? He’d be trapped, and he hated being trapped. The GPS directed him from I-5 onto I-8, and he focused on the interchange while thinking.
“If I said that sex could be entirely optional or off the table altogether, would that help?” Canaan said eventually, filling the silence that had stretched on almost a full song track.
“Not sure.” On the one hand, sex would be a nice incentive to make the trip, but on the other, four days was a long damn time if things didn’t go like they were supposed to.
“Well, it can be. I’m serious, Renzo. I’m not going to pressure you into hooking up. I just think it would be fun if you came. I need...” Canaan trailed off.
“You need what?”
“Okay, I’m gonna be honest here because you deserve that. The guys are all pressuring me to bring someone because all of them are coupled up now. I kinda already said I had someone, so you’d be doing me a huge favor if you came. And yes, I know it was stupid to say that to them.”
“So like anyone would work?” A sour taste gathered in his mouth. This was Toby all over again—the dude he’d brought to Curly’s wedding only to find out later that he’d been part of Toby’s grand make-my-ex-jealous plan. For a few minutes, he’d felt a little...special maybe that Canaan wanted to bring him along. But now it turned out that any warm body would work, and he was decidedly less enthusiastic about the prospect. “That why you wanted to hang tonight? You figured you’d butter me up for some fake boyfriend scheme?”
“No. I asked you to meet me before I talked to Damian. I wanted to hang with you. And it was amazing. Best night I’ve had in forever. And I mean it about wanting a repeat. Badly. This other thing is just...convenient.”
Renzo snorted because it was only really convenient for one of them.
“And I’m not lying that it would be fun. I’d love to road trip with you. You’re fun, and it would be so much better than making the drive myself.”
“Last guy I hooked up with used me to make his ex jealous so they could get back together. Being used sucks.” Figuring out that Toby only wanted hot, temporary arm candy had hurt more than he thought it would.
“Oh, man, that does bite. But this isn’t like that. I promise. I’m not looking to use you like that. Just have a fun weekend together, and if people think we’re a thing, so much the better, but I don’t want to use you.”
Renzo made another scoffing noise because he wasn’t convinced.
“Listen. How about you think about it?” Canaan asked as the GPS bleated that they should take the Texas Street exit.
“Don’t you need a fast answer so you can get on with holding pretend boyfriend auditions or whatever?” Yeah, Renzo was just a little bitter. The memory of how Toby had ditched him so fast after Curly’s wedding wasn’t his favorite thing. And he’d had such a damn good evening with Canaan. Sucked to think he might have an ulterior motive.