Chapter Seventeen
Riley’s mouth watered as the smell of cooking hamburgers filled the kitchen. It had been hours since lunch, and he’d been working hard on the porch all day.
He’d finished replacing the bad boards, but then realized that the railings were loose and needed to be fixed as well, and he hadn’t even started on sanding and sealing. The railings were beautifully ornate, hand-carved by Brent’s father, and that meant that he had to save them rather than replace them.
Just thinking about it was exhausting.
Slightly less exhausting than thinking about the way Brent had kissed his cheek, though.
A kiss on the cheek wasn’t about sex. It was the sweetest, most sincere expression of affection Riley could think of.
Brent had never kissed his cheek before.
Every time Riley thought about it, another swarm of butterflies exploded in his stomach.
But then Brent had disappeared as quickly as he could, and Riley wasn’t sure how to interpret that. Did he regret it?
They’d been so good at talking to each other as kids. They’d shared every secret they had.
Then Riley had gone and fallen in love with Brent, and suddenly he had a secret he couldn’t tell his best friend in the whole world.
And now he’d forgotten how to tell Brent everything. Especially the important things.
“You’re sticking around until I go, right?” Emily asked, settling down at the dinner table.
“Uh, sure,” Riley said. “If that’s okay with your brother?”
Brent blushed darkly, focusing on the onions he was slicing. “No problem here.”
“So how did your talk with Monique go?” Riley asked. Emily hadn’t said anything yet, so he was starting to worry.
“Okay, I guess. She’s not mad at me, but she’s not interested, either. We’re still friends, but we’re not gonna date or anything.”
Riley’s heart sank. “I’m sorry. But you feel better, right?”
Emily nodded. “Yeah, I feel better. And I guess… I’m eighteen and it’s a stupid crush. I’ll get over it. And you promised me there’d be cute girls at college.”
“There will be,” Riley said. “And there’s ice cream in the freezer. I made Owen get it out of the stock room specially for you.”
Emily grinned at that. Owen had actually offered to check the stock room without being asked. Now that he was back home, he seemed a lot happier. Riley had been to visit him a couple of times after he moved away, and he’d been miserable.
He’d needed to find his own path, though. Everyone did.
“Thanks, Riley,” Emily said. “I’m glad we talked. Thank you for pushing me.”
Riley smiled at that. “Hey, what are weird uncles for?”
He might not have technically been Emily’s uncle, but he liked to think of himself that way. Emily was a good kid, and Riley wanted to see her succeed. He was so proud of Brent for raising her alone for the past eight years.
He was so proud of Emily for having grown into such a wonderful young woman.
Riley loved this family as much as he loved the one he’d been born into.
The smell of smoke reminded him that he needed to flip the burgers. He winced at the blackened patches on the cooked side when he turned them over, but they weren’t quite inedible yet. He’d caught them just in time to pass them off as char-grilled instead of burned.
“These are well-done, because I think they’re better that way,” Riley lied.
“Bullshit,” Brent said automatically.
“Listen, I can choose not to feed you,” Riley said, though he would never have gone through with it. Brent was very rewarding to make food for. He was always grateful, and he wasn’t shy about moaning happily as he enjoyed it.
Riley had always liked hearing that.
“But you won’t, because you love me.” Brent turned to grin at him, handing over the onions.
Riley scraped them into the pan next to the hamburgers, giving them a chance to soak up all the fat that was cooking out. The burgers needed resting time once they were done, and in that time, the onions would be cooked through.
It wasn’t the most orthodox way of doing things, but it worked. A lot of Riley’s life was like that.
He did love Brent. The recent reminder of how much he loved Brent was still weighing heavily on Riley’s mind.
He was old enough now to know they’d still be friends if he confessed his real feelings, but he wasn’t sure he was ready for the heartbreak of Brent rejecting him.
Which made being kissed on the cheek even more confusing. Riley had been so sure that Brent had just needed a little rebound comfort sex, that it would all be over once he was back home.
But maybe it wasn’t?
He had no idea what was going on, and with Emily sitting right there, he couldn’t exactly ask. This felt private.
“You trying to stare those hamburgers to death, or what?” Brent asked, snapping Riley out of his thoughts.
The pan was smoking again.
“I’m going for a char-grilled effect,” Riley said, moving the burgers to the plat he had set aside for them to rest on.
“Again, bullshit,” Brent responded. “Are you okay? Seriously, I can finish up if you need to sit down.”
“I’m fine,” Riley said. “I’m just planning out what I need to do tomorrow to finish what I’ve started.”
“You still don’t have to. What you’ve already done is more than enough. Way more than enough.”
“I want to.” Riley prodded the onions, turning the heat down so he wouldn’t burn them as well. “If this house falls apart, where would I come to escape my family at Thanksgiving?”
Brent laughed at that. “I’d probably get another place.”
“It wouldn’t be the same,” Riley said. He had a lot of good memories tied up in Brent’s house. It would have broken his heart if Brent decided to sell up, not that it seemed like he would.
“Well, thank you.” Brent looked down at his feet for a moment, then reached out and grabbed the pack of hamburger buns Riley had picked up earlier. “I’ll split these.”
Riley smiled at that. All he wanted was to make Brent happy.
Well, no. All he wanted was to curl up in Brent’s bed while Brent told him that he wanted Riley to stay forever, that this could be his home, too, and that Brent had always loved him.
But Brent’s happiness was more important, and Riley wasn’t sure that was what would make him happiest.