Love Me Like A Rock by Amy Jo Cousins Page A

chilly room was easier when there wasn’t a cozy body next to him under the covers.
    He waved off Vinnie’s questions about his weekend foray to the woods, letting the bleariness of his lack of sleep do the talking for him.
    On the river, the wind was kicking up a chop that had Coach scowling. Austin crossed his fingers and shot up a Hail Mary prayer she’d let them on the water. Days when conditions were too dangerous were miserable in the boathouse. Coach inevitably burned the rowers even harder in erg drills than she did on the river, and bruising their way through 2k after 2k sprint was way less fun than digging into the water with their oars.
    And Austin had less than nothing to do during erg drills, which was his least favorite position ever. He could sit through a fair number of sprints himself, pulling and sliding until his shoulders and legs and core burned with the lactic acid buildup—way more than most physically fit people could—but he had nowhere near the stamina of the rowers, a fact which they were only too happy to rub in.
    But sticking with his team was one of the core commitments of Austin’s life, so even when Coach announced they were stuck on the ergs for the day, he rowed and cheerleaded their way through drills until everyone was exhausted, and the ache of sore muscles distracted everyone from asking about his weekend away.
    For now, at least.

Chapter Eight
    When Austin finally looked up on Wednesday night from the watercolor he was creating from his mountainside sketches and memory, Vinnie was back from the library and draped along the length of their couch, feet hanging over the arm and pointing in Austin’s direction.
    An open beer bottle dangled from Vinnie’s fingers, brown glass cold and shining with condensation, which meant Vinnie had finally turned in his politics paper. The man only ever unwound with a beer the night after turning in an important paper. By the next morning, he’d be focused on the future once more and wound tight with stress and effort.
    “Thought you were never going to notice me,” Vinnie said, his voice soft and teasing, the come fuck me tone he used solely when he was about to tumble Austin onto the nearest bed, or floor.
    Funny, I’ve felt exactly the same since freshman year at Choate.
    But he kept those words tucked behind his teeth and let the snappishness subside before answering.
    “You know how I get when I’ve got a new idea going.”
    “I know how you get when you do anything at all.” Sly words meant to pull him closer, but for once, the reminder of their longstanding friendship and fuck-buddy habit fell flat.
    No, you don’t. Sean does, though.
    Which felt sort of like a betrayal of years of friendship, to put the guy he’d been banging for six weeks on a pedestal higher than the guy who’d been his friend since they were fourteen, but he couldn’t help it. Because even though he’d felt at first like he was cheating on Vinnie, sort of, by hooking up with Sean, now it felt like the other way around.
    Listening to Vinnie flirt with him, now that Vinnie had finished everything else for the week that could possibly require his attention and had a couple hours free to turn to Austin, just assuming he’d be up for it…for the first time in ages, Austin didn’t get that tingle of excitement at finally pulling Vinnie’s focus.
    Instead, he thought of Sean, and wished the geology department hadn’t chosen this week to take another freshman group out on one last field survey before the really cold weather started settling in. Frost painted the grass on the green in the mornings now, although it melted as soon as the sun hit it and the afternoons were still warm enough.
    “Put that down and have a beer with me,” Vinnie said, pulling Austin’s attention off the image of Sean hiking in the woods, competent and happy.
    I’m not the one who needs to be drunk to fuck.
    The words almost came out of his mouth, and Austin gasped at his own