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“Um.” He swallows, tries again. “What else did you get?”

Skyler’s eyes light up like he was hoping to be asked. He runs off and comes back a few moments later with a reusable canvas shopping bag. “I got some treats. They had these fancy gourmet dog biscuits that looked so pretty, I had to buy them.”

Trevor smiles, thinking Stella would be happy with a cheap box of Milkbones, but he doesn’t interrupt.

“And a couple of rawhide bones, I hope that’s okay.” At Trevor’s nod, Skyler grins, clearly pleased with himself. “And then I got toys. I wasn’t sure if she liked the squeaky toys or rope ones or tennis balls, so I got everything.”

Trevor’s heart might burst. “That’s, um. You didn’t have to buy so much.”

Skyler frowns. “Didn’t we just go over this? I wanted to.”

“No, I know. I don’t mean it like you shouldn’t have. Only that you didn’thaveto do all this. But you did, and it’s really nice of you. So I guess what I’m trying to say is thank you.”

It sounds lame, not adequate to convey how he feels about the gesture. But Skyler smiles shyly, and maybe he understands that Trevor’s thanking him for more than the hundred bucks he spent at the pet store.

They hold eye contact as Skyler says, “You know I’d do anything for you.”

Trevor’s heart starts beating a bouncy musical interlude. How can Skyler say big important things like that as if they’re something simple and casual?

But Skyler’s never been afraid to put himself out there. Trevor remembers it like it was yesterday, the day Skyler looked at him and asked when Trevor wasgoing to kiss him. It feels like his whole world was built upon those words. Everything he ever wanted, offered up to him by a beautiful, fearless seventeen-year-old.

He wonders what would happen if he asked Skyler that same question now. Would it rebuild his crumbled world? Or would it destroy everything that’s left of it? Burn the broken remains until there’s nothing but ashes?

He doesn’t know if he can handle finding out. He’s never been as brave as Skyler.

Before he can get his mouth to work, Skyler says, “So can I give her a treat?”

Trevor glances down to discover that, while he was busying staring at Skyler, Stella has already made herself at home on the dog bed. “Go ahead.”

Skyler crouches down to give her one of the fancy biscuits, then scratches her head affectionately before standing up again. He turns back to Trevor. “Want to go make some dinner?”

“You sure you’re cool with leaving her here on her own? I don’t know what she’ll get up to.”

“I already closed the door to the music room and the yoga room. I’m not too worried about anything else.”

“Okay,” Trevor relents, then follows Skyler into the kitchen and asks what they’re having for dinner.

“I was thinking stir-fry. With shrimp?”

“Sounds great. Do I actually get to help this time?”

Skyler rubs his chin, pretending to consider it. “I suppose it’s safe to let you chop the vegetables.”

“I promise not to chop my fingers off.”

“Yeah, don’t do that. I like those fingers.”

Trevor’s eyes go wide, and his mouth flaps open like an idiot, but Skyler is already turning around to pull things out of the fridge. How can he justsaythings like that?

He manages to recover, not think too much about his fingers in relation to where they’ve been on Skyler’s body—orinSkyler’s body—and focus on the task of dinner. It’s incredibly domestic, the two of them preparing a meal together. Navigating around each other in the kitchen, which is larger than any kitchen has the right to be, and yet somehow, Skyler keeps managing to brush his hand over Trevor’s lower back as he moves past him.

While everything’s cooking, Skyler offers Trevor some wine.

“Oh. Uh, it’s okay.”

“Really? I could go for a glass.”

Trevor frowns. “But I thought you…”