Speeding down the highway hadn’t helped.
Settling back against the booth, he tuned out the sound of the patrons who had gathered to watch a football game. From the occasional cheers, the crowd seemed pleased with the score. He remembered how Alec had looked every time they’d wound up here and got caught up in a college game. Or the fucking beautiful smile on his face when he first started getting his Harley to start. But Dylan didn’t want to dwell on how he felt with Alec around cuz that wasn’t going to happen anymore.
The thought twisted Dylan’s heart in ways he’d never experienced before. Grumpy as hell, he slumped deeper into the seat.
Four beers later and Dylan’s head spun, his stomach churned, and his chest didn’t feel any less likely to detonate at any moment. And why did walking out on Alec hurt so badly? Not that how he felt right now held a candle to Rick dying, but in some ways, the feeling was similar.
Loss was loss, whether through situation or death.
Dylan clutched the handle of his mug. “Why’d you have to die, you son of a bitch?”
“Handsome, you are going to regret this in the morning.”
Dylan blinked, and for one bizarre moment, he wondered if Rick was speaking to him. But Rick never called him handsome. That was Noah’s job. And when Dylan looked up, he spied Noah, who was peering around as if he’d just entered a meat market and was dying for a prime rib.
“Mmm,” Noah murmured, eyeing the men in suits enjoying end-of-the-day beers at a table nearby. “Wall Street movers and shakers.”
Despite the headache, Dylan rolled his eyes and then winced when the dizziness grew stronger. “How did you find me?”
Noah cocked an eyebrow. “You drunk texted me.”
“Oh.” Dylan frowned. He didn’t remember doing that.
“I’m kidding.” Noah slid into the booth beside him. “If you believed that, you must be worse off than I thought. Alec called, worried you were so angry you’d crash your car on your way home from the ceremony. When you didn’t answer your cell phone, I said I’d go look for you.”
Well, damn. That was a relief. Maybe he wasn’t as drunk as his whirling brain suggested. He blinked hard, trying to clear his vision, and spied four empty mugs.
Okay, maybe he was.
“When I got to your apartment, your car was there, but you weren’t,” Noah said. “So I called Alec to report back, but he was still worried. Said I had to go find you.”
“San Francisco’s a pretty big city.”
“He told me which routes you two liked to take when out for a ride. He also mentioned Danny’s Suds and Sports. From the number of mugs on the table, clearly I’ll need to drive you home.” He picked up a napkin and wiped the table, clearing a spot for his elbows. “Why were you angry?”
Dylan scowled into his current beer but didn’t say a word.
“Alec was very tight lipped about the whole thing,” Noah went on.
During the silence that followed, a waitress wandered by, and Noah ordered a sparkling water. When she was gone, Noah hooked his arm around Dylan’s shoulders.
“Come on. Tell your Auntie Noah.”
Dylan sent his friend a frown, though his heart wasn’t in it. “You gonna try and take advantage of me again?”
“Please,” Noah said with a loud bark of laughter that made Dylan’s head hurt worse.
The waitress returned with his Perrier, which, fortunately, meant Noah had to remove his arm from Dylan’s shoulder to take a sip of his drink.
“Just because you’ve discovered you like dick doesn’t mean I want yours,” Noah said.
“I don’t like dick.” And then Dylan frowned, hating the taste of the words in his mouth. “Not most of ’em anyway.”
“You like Alec’s.”
Dylan kept his mouth clamped tight and tried hard not to think about how Alec would be surprised to learn that he could shut the fuck up. Several seconds ticked by, and Noah’s silent, speculative gaze finally did Dylan in.
“There’s something very neat and orderly about sleeping with your friend.” Proud he’d made so much sense while buzzed beyond belief, Dylan went on. “You know, like a two for the price of one kind of thing.”
Even after the words left his mouth, he knew they didn’t fit any better. Noah lifted his eyes heavenward, calling Dylan out on the lie. Maybe he should try something a little closer to the truth.
“I’m pissed off,” Dylan said.
“I can tell.”
“Alec shouldn’t have pushed,” Dylan said, growing angry all over again. “He wants me to make some kind of goddamn commitment. Just because he said he loves me—”
“He said that?” Noah looked positively stunned.
“What? Is that so hard to imagine?”
“To be perfectly blunt, yes. You wouldn’t be an easy man to love.” Noah crossed his arms, regarding Dylan calmly. “In fact, you might never get this chance again.”
“Be serious.”