“Yes.”
“Pants getting a little tight?”
“A little.”
“Nothing little about that, Big Boss.”
His eyes flashed, but he didn’t bother to look angry as he stared at me. “We still have to drive back. Quit.”
“Hmm,” I said with a thoughtful air. “You know, it is quite a drive. And it’s such a lonely road.”
“Oh, quit,” he said, bundling up the wrapper of his sandwich and dropping it in the trash can. “Now let’s get back.”
“I’m just saying, we did just buy a bunch of lube,” I said with a laugh. I knew he wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as he was acting, and if he was uncomfortable, it was because Big Boss was getting bigger in his pants at the idea I was giving him.
“I’d say it’s like dealing with a child, but I don’t like how that sounds,” he said with a sigh, shoving his hands into his pants pockets.
“Yeah, not a fan of that myself,” I admitted as I bit into the cone. “Let me enjoy the rest of my cone and the day before we go back.”
“We’re going back to the outpost, not to jail,” he pointed out. “And we’re running out of sunlight.”
“I know,” I said, leaning back to catch a beam of fading sunlight. “But we left our phones behind to have a few hours of peace, without work. Only way for them to get hold of us is through the emergency channel. So it just feels like…I don’tknow, the first time since I came to the outpost where I’m close to having real time off.”
“You can just…ask for time off. The guys do it all the time,” he told me wryly.
“True, but I’ve been here a month, feels kinda weird to take official time off. Plus, it would be my luck that I’d take a weekend off and Jake would roll an ATV or Reno would fall out of a tree,” I said, thinking of the multiple times I’d caught him high up a tree. I didn’t know if his love of trees and climbing was because of his work, or if his love of his work was born from his love of trees and nature, with the climbing a byproduct.
“I know the feeling,” he said, looking at the ground. “Last time I took time off was for court.”
I looked sideways at him. “And the time before that?”
“Mmm, court.”
“Jesus, and before that?”
“Uh, surgery on my knee.”
“Right,” I said, mind flashing to his medical file. “When was the last time you had a day off for you?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yeah, Xander, it matters. Just because a significant part of your life has fallen apart and the pieces are still occasionally dropping doesn’t mean you should hide forever and forget what it’s like to be a person.”
“I’m a person,” he said, and I smiled at his offense.
“You are. The problem is, I think you’ve forgotten it. When were you yourself with someone else?”
He stared at me. “I’m friends with Cait, have been for years.”
“True,” I said with a nod. “Alright, maybe I’m being too fussy. You have her, though you might want to remember that before she shows up randomly again. I can go a night in my bed so you two can have your gossip sessions.”
“We don’t…” he began, and then rolled his eyes. “Never mind, I know better than to argue when you’ve got that stupid smile on your face. It’s just going to end with me getting pissed off.”
“Like you don’t end up pissed off most of the time anyway,” I said as I popped the last bit of the cone and ice cream into my mouth. “I’m serious, by the way. Like, don’t get me wrong, I love visiting you at night and yes, even though the first time a couple of weeks ago was an accident, I love sleeping for a few hours with you too. But that doesn’t mean you should forget about Cait or your friendship with her, alright? Have a drinking night with her, I’ll spend the night thinking of you…jerking off in the shower in your memory.”
“Fuck off,” he said, but I didn’t miss the way he smiled as he turned away. “C’mon.”
Smiling, I followed him to the truck and hopped into the passenger side. He turned it on and looked at me. “I’ll ask her. Kinda surprised she hasn’t given me shit about doing something tonight.”