Chapter Six
“Can you give me a minute to discuss this? You can put me back on hold,” Riley said.
Brent was amazed at how calm he’d managed to stay. Just the thought of having to call the customer service line at an airline made his blood pressure rise, but there was Riley, speaking in his usual soft, melodic tones, unfazed by the fact that he seemed to be getting nowhere.
Even though he’d been on the phone for over two hours now.
Riley set his phone down on the kitchen counter, putting it on speaker while Brent watched.
“Okay, so… cancelling flights is a non-option on your particular fare type. Not even if you die. But because of the circumstances, they’re willing to let you change your flights instead for any time in the next six months and whatever destination you want, as long as you pay the difference if it would have cost more. If that’s something you’re interested in?”
Brent sighed. He wasn’t in the mood to think that far ahead.
“Just leave them. I don’t care.”
“I was actually thinking… you’ve already moved your schedule around to take some time off. You don’t wanna sit around here staring at the walls the entire time, and you just had a fairly traumatic experience. You could use a break.”
Brent snorted. “What, head to the Caribbean myself for a week? No. Imagine being the guy who turns up to his honeymoon alone.”
“You don’t have to go to the Caribbean. That doesn’t sound like your choice of destination, anyway.”
“It wasn’t,” Brent admitted for the second time. He knew what Riley was doing. He was just barely coming to the conclusion that he’d spent the entire time he’d been with Rose trying desperately to make her happy so she wouldn’t leave him.
It wasn’t impossible that he’d developed some abandonment issues, even though he’d been an adult when his parents died. It had left him with a little sister to take care of and with the sense that he was alone in the world.
Even though Riley had been there for him. He knew he couldn’t ask Riley to stay forever. That wasn’t fair on either of them. Riley’s life didn’t have to be over because Brent’s felt like it was.
He’d still stayed for months. Sleeping on the couch, insisting that he didn’t want to be anywhere else. Brent had practically had to throw him out to get him to go.
And then watching him go had felt like being abandoned all over again.
Brent was kind of a mess when it came to people he cared about not constantly being close enough for him to reach out and touch. The fact that Rose hadn’t wanted to move in until after the wedding had been killing him.
In hindsight, he was glad she hadn’t. Getting rid of her stuff would have been painful.
But if she’d really wanted to be here, there would have been something to get rid of. Riley had asked him about it, and Brent hadn’t realized it was weird until he’d had to explain that there was really nothing of hers in the house, as far as he knew.
There was more of Riley’s stuff hanging around.
“Okay, so… where do you want to go? Like, if you didn’t have to think about anyone else, where would you have wanted to spend this week?”
Brent shrugged. He hadn’t really thought about it. “I dunno. Somewhere quiet, I guess. Close enough to the beach to go for early-morning walks along the sand. Lots of trees.”
“So Hope Springs, but with a beach?” Riley raised an eyebrow.
“I like it here,” Brent defended. He knew Riley had seen the whole country end-to-end and gone exploring in Canada and South America too, but he’d never even been inclined to. He liked his home. He felt safe here.
Riley wet his lips. “I have a friend who has a cabin in Oregon. It’s pretty much on the sand. Would that work for you?”
“You don’t need to call in favors for me,” Brent said. He didn’t want Riley to go to any more trouble than he had done.
“I want to. I want you to rest and recover, and it’s a really nice cabin. You deserve time to decompress.”
“I don’t wanna be alone,” Brent argued. He couldn’t handle the thought of being stuck with his own thoughts for days on end.
“I’ll go with you,” Riley volunteered.
Brent hesitated. He missed Riley. He wanted to spend time with him, now more than ever.
“I shouldn’t leave Emily alone.”
“Do not bring me into this,” Emily said, poking her head into the kitchen. She’d obviously been listening from the hallway. “You were going away anyway. I’m eighteen. I can handle a few days alone without burning the house down.”
Brent looked between Emily and Riley. They seemed to be ganging up on him a lot of late.
Unfortunately, they were also right. He needed a break. Getting to hang out with Riley for a few days, like they had when they were kids, seemed like a great idea.
He would have given anything to be a kid with Riley again right now. This was the closest he was going to get.
“Okay. Oregon it is.”
Riley grinned at him, picking up the phone and turning the speaker setting off again, holding it to his ear.
“You won’t regret this,” he said, going back to waiting patiently for the line to be picked up again.
“Guess I better start planning all the wild parties I’m gonna have while you guys are gone,” Emily said.
Brent turned to her, taking in his all-grown-up little sister, and smiling. “I trust you, okay? You do whatever you want while I’m gone, even if what you want is to invite the whole town over. You’re an adult now.”
Emily blinked at him. Then, slowly, her face softened into a warm smile. “I wasn’t planning on it. Maybe a couple of friends.”
“I’m gonna buy you a box of condoms before we go,” Riley said.
“I’m super gay,” Emily responded.
“Oh. Did I know that?”
Emily chuckled. “No, I don’t think I ever told you.”
“I’m guessing Brent already knows, judging by his total lack of reaction,” Riley said.
Brent did know. He’d been a little surprised when Emily told him, but it wasn’t as though he was totally unused to the idea.
He’d come out to Riley as bi when they were seventeen, but he’d never acted on it. He’d never told Emily, either. Or anyone else.
Just Riley. Riley was the only person who knew Brent was kind of, sort of attracted to men, sometimes.
Brent was as confused about that now as he had been then, since he hadn’t given it a whole lot more thought.
Since Riley hadn’t immediately declared that he loved Brent and they’d be together forever, which had kind of been what Brent had been hoping for at the time, he’d swept the whole thing under the rug and never spoken of it again.
He wasn’t even sure Riley remembered.
“Yes, I’m still here,” Riley said. “We’ve decided to change the flights to Oregon, and we need to change the name on one of the tickets.” He paused. “For tomorrow, please. Doesn’t matter what time.”
“Riley Jules,” he added after another pause. “Thank you so much, you’ve been wonderful. How do I leave positive feedback?”
Brent smiled to himself. Of course Riley wanted to leave a good review. That was who he was.
He had no trouble seeing the good in the world. All the wonder. Brent couldn’t figure out how he did it all the time.
“So, do you have a girlfriend?” Riley asked as soon as he got off the phone.
“No,” Emily said, but she was blushing.
“There’s someone though, right?” Riley grinned. “You have to tell me so I can embarrass you in front of them. What’s the point of having a weird uncle, otherwise?”
“You’re not weird,” Emily said.
Brent noted that she didn’t say Riley wasn’t her uncle. He was fairly sure she did actually think of him that way.
“I am weird. And that’s okay,” Riley responded. “I wish you the courage to tell her how you feel. I know how hard that can be.”
“Thanks, Riley.” Emily smiled at him. “Girls are just so…”
“Pretty? Oh, and intimidating. Also so soft. And they always smell nice,” Riley said. “I mean, I like boys too, but a lot of them are gross and you’re probably better off with girls.”
“All of those things,” Emily agreed. “Mostly pretty.”
“So pretty,” Riley enthused, grinning broadly.
Brent actually hadn’t heard Riley talking about men for a while. Maybe he’d grown out of them.
Not that it mattered. Brent had moved on, and Riley had never been interested in him romantically. Riley had always been his best friend, and that was more than Brent could ever have asked for.
“I probably need to re-pack if I’m not going to a tropical island anymore,” Brent said, standing.
“Keep the bathing suit, there’s a great hot tub.” Riley wiggled his eyebrows. Brent chuckled, stretching his arms high over his head.
A few days away with Riley was exactly what he needed.