Are We Good..?

By Heather Mar-Gerrison

"You two would make such a great couple."
I rolled my eyes. I heard this sort of crap at least five times a day.
Snap chats sent to me of Ben and I together with little captions, “Couple in the making” and all sorts of other shit.
We were mates. End of. I didn’t see him as boyfriend material (well, I totally did but it was never gonna happen) and he’d fancied the pants off one of our other (female) friends for months so it was totally futile ever thinking anything would ever happen. He was all set to ask her to the final prom but somehow or other, even though I’d primed her (see what a good friend I was?) and assured her he was definitely going to ask her, she ended up getting all antsy at how long he was taking to ask her and she agreed to go with Lewis Jones instead. Lewis Jones? How insulting – I think I was more offended than Ben... And, well good luck there, girl... no one could love Lewis Jones any more than he loved himself.
Ben and I had been friends for years – just friends and for the main part, we were perfectly happy the way things were, thank you very much... Well, I assumed that Ben was anyway.
“No – we wouldn’t.” I said with about as much patience as I could muster. I hated this time of year when there were more wet breaks than dry and everyone congregated in the common room. This latest onslaught had been going on for a fair few hours now, on and off, and I was really beginning to get pissed off. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ben and I made the perfect couple – because we’d been the perfect couple for as long as I could remember – we just weren’t romantically involved – well, apart from a couple of random ‘moments’ anyway... The first being the day we got married when we were six and I, being the bride, made damned sure I got my kiss... I’ll get around to the second time a little later because at that moment Ben appeared, “’S’up guys?” he grinned.
I felt happier almost immediately, “These guys are all crazy.” I said, “They’ve been trying to fix us up – can you believe that?” Please say you can... please say that Paris’s birthday party wasn’t just a drunken mistake...
This is number two in the Boys Next Door series, with a decent helping of adorable guys, a little drama and just enough naughty bits to keep you turning the pages...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heather Mar-Gerrison
• Release date: Apr 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310124952

Heather Mar-Gerrison

I love to write M/M romance and as a sucker for a HEA, you're guaranteed one in my books. #happyheatherafters

Book preview

Prologue

Ross

You two would make such a cute couple.

I rolled my eyes. I heard this sort of crap at least five times a day.

Snap chats sent to me of Ben and I together with little captions, Couple in the making and all sorts of other shit.

We were mates. End of. I didn’t see him as boyfriend material (well, I totally did but it was never gonna happen) and he’d fancied the pants off one of our other (female) friends for months so it was totally futile ever thinking anything would ever happen. He was all set to ask her to the final prom but somehow or other, even though I’d primed her (see what a good friend I was?) and assured her he was definitely going to ask her, she ended up getting all antsy at how long he was taking to ask her and she agreed to go with Lewis Jones instead. Lewis Jones? How fucking insulting. I think I was more offended than Ben and, well good luck there, girl… No one could love Lewis Jones any more than he loved himself.

Ben and I had been friends for years – just friends and for the main part, we were perfectly happy with the way things were, thank you very much… Well, I assumed that Ben was happy, anyway.

No, we wouldn’t. I said with about as much patience as I could muster. I hated this time of year when there were more wet breaks than dry and everyone congregated in the common room. This latest onslaught had been going on for a fair few hours now, on and off, and I was really beginning to get pissed off. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ben and I made the perfect couple – because we’d been the perfect couple for as long as I could remember. We just weren’t romantically involved – well, apart from a couple of random ‘moments’ anyway… The first being the day we got married when we were six and I, being the bride, made damned sure I got my kiss… I’ll get around to the second time a little later because at that moment Ben appeared, ’S’up guys? he grinned around at us all, his eyes resting on me the longest.

I felt happier almost immediately, These guys are all crazy. I said, They’ve been trying to fix us up. Can you believe that? Please say you can… please say that Paris’s birthday party wasn’t just a drunken mistake…

He looked at me in horror, Us? he asked, a slightly worried look in his eye before looking away again and making my heart crack a little, What the fuck? He forced a huff of a laugh out and I knew it was more to take the heat off us, but it hurt nonetheless that he was determined to continue being the straight guy and to ignore the chemistry between us that we both knew was there.

I nodded, putting a brave face on it, I know, right. I agreed; part of me relieved that we weren’t going there again and partly wanting to die because we weren’t. But seriously, I was beginning to wonder if Paris had broken my confidence and that the rest of our mates were onto the fact that something had gone on between us – and that would be a disaster…

We’re just mates, guys. Get over it. He laughed, "Gay guys and straight guys are allowed to just be friends these days. It is allowed you know. It doesn’t mean I’m bi or anything because he’s my best mate. I’m as straight as a die." He went a little pink.

Katrin giggled and whispered something in Paris’s ear and they both started to laugh.

I scowled at her, What are you two giggling about now? I grumbled.

She just shook her head, Nothing. She snorted and I narrowed my eyes at her.

Ben nudged my shoulder and shook his head, Ignore them, he said patiently, They’ll find someone else to annoy soon enough.

I sighed and turned back to Ben with a nod, You’re right. I sighed. And they would. Paris and Katrin were always giggling about something. I sometimes wondered how Liam, Paris’s other best mate put up with all of his fluffiness. Liam was nothing like that. I, on the other hand, was quite a lot like that but I wasn’t all giggly and I didn’t hang around with a bunch of girls all of the time. I could usually be found with Ben, on the dry slopes helping him work through his snowboarding routine, since he had high hopes for the winter Olympics 2018. I had every faith in him, too. He was quite magnificent. I might have been a little on the girly side for a guy, but Ben was all man and he swore uphill and down dale that he was straight – until he’d had a few drinks and found himself getting a little more than what you’d call ‘friendly’ with me…

Forcing a carefree grin that I really wasn’t feeling, I asked, so, how was your date with whatsherface? I could never bring myself to remember all the names of his various girlfriends. There were far too many of them for a start and I was as jealous as hell of every last one of them…

He raised an eyebrow, Holly? he asked, the corner of his mouth twitching up into a bit of a grin.

I nodded, Yeah, Holly. I agreed. That was her name and she had staying power that really got my goat. Probably because she loved snowboarding as much as he did. He’d met her on the dry slopes… Prior to Holly it had been Ginny; the month before that, Sarah, the month before that, Eleanor… are you beginning to get the picture?

It was fine. He said with a little smile.

Fine? I echoed, trying my best to keep the bitterness out of my voice, What does ‘fine’ involve exactly? Like I really wanted to know…

He raised an eyebrow, What’s it to you? You’re not interested in girls.

I shrugged. He’d hit the nail on the head with that statement – but I was interested in him. True enough. I agreed, Just wondered, that’s all. Hell, I even sounded like I was jealous. Rein it in, dude.

He grinned at me, I took her to the SnowDome actually – and showed her my moves.

I rolled my eyes and forced a laugh but on the inside my heart was folding in on itself. That was our place to go together. To be fair, I was a right wimp when it came to the SnowDome. What with all that testosterone and plain stupidity around, the best I could do was to go tobogganing and adrenalin-tubing with him – but I absolutely one hundred per cent loved going. We always went down together on the toboggan, which was absolute heaven… but just to watch him hitting the slopes on his snowboard was something else – and the trick shots he could do were enough to give me a boner – even in sub-zero temperatures…

I’d always nursed a massive crush on my best friend, I couldn’t deny it. Even when we were only little, I always knew I liked boys better than girls. It was when we were around thirteen or fourteen I realised I was wholeheartedly more turned on by boys – and Ben was the biggest turn on by a long chalk. But it was Paris’s sixteenth birthday party, back in the long lazy summer holidays that really changed everything for me. Paris was two weeks older than me and had wanted a big party at the local community centre with flashing disco lights and fairy lights absolutely everywhere you looked – like I said, he was into stuff like that. He invited almost everyone from our year. Liam, being his best mate was into all sorts of sports and knew all of the football team, rugby team and cricket team, so, as you can imagine, we all turned up in droves.

Ben had come along with this latest girlfriend of his, who was, annoyingly enough, still hanging around him like a bad smell. I was being mean. She was a pretty girl in the year below us. She was called, wait for it, Holly Berry – I know…

Anyway, someone thought it would be a great idea to spike the punch (that would be Liam) and so of course, we all got roaring drunk – yay!

Holly ended up snogging some buff football player in the corner of the room and Ben came over to find me to cry on my shoulder…

I’m really sorry, Ben. I said, giving him a hug and kissing his cheek, She can’t be right for you if she’s happy to get down and dirty with him. She’s not worth getting upset over.

He sniffed and shook his head, You’re right. He agreed, pulling himself together in double-quick time, She’s not, He took my drink off me and flashing me an apologetic grin, took a big swig.

Wanna get some air? Go out for a walk down the river? I asked, It’s a lovely night. It was mid-August. Paris and I were the two youngest in our year and it was one of those sultry evenings, where the temperature stayed high – it would be hell to try sleeping later but right now it was about as perfect as it got.

The community centre backed onto the local nature reserve and there were a series of pathways that meandered their way along the river, crossing a little further downstream and them back up the other side. I knew the area well and was quite happy that we could get around the path and back in around half-an-hour.

Ben nodded, That sounds good. He said.

I smiled and took his hand. That was my first clue that he must have had a couple of drinks because he didn’t pull away from me the way he usually did when I forgot that we weren’t seven anymore and I shouldn’t still want to hold his hand…

We’d wandered down the path to where the bridge crossed the river. Ben slowed, Let’s just stop here for a minute. He said.

I stopped. We could sit on the grass down there. I suggested, nodding to a clearing where we usually sat when we were all chilling on a Saturday afternoon. It was deserted at the moment. Everyone was too busy getting drunk and dancing stupidly at the party.

Ben threw himself down on the ground, Wow, look at that, He said pointing up at the sky, It’s a really clear night. Look at all those stars!

I got down and lay next to him, Oh, yeah. I murmured, reaching for his hand and lacing my fingers through his, Isn’t it beautiful?

He turned to me and nodded, his eyes sparkling in the light that was only being provided by the full moon above us, Yeah. He whispered, stroking my face with his other hand that he’d only seconds before been pointing out the stars with, So beautiful.

I frowned. Was he still talking about the sky? Time to find out, What is? I asked a little flirtatiously, Me?

To my amazement and joy, he nodded slowly, "You’ve always been beautiful. He said with a smile, And you know it, too."

I smiled shyly at him, my heart beginning to pick up speed, It’s still nice to hear you say it. I said a little breathlessly.

He shifted position so he was leaning on his elbow and resting his head on his hand, Why do you put up with me? he asked.

I frowned up