Chapter 5
Rhys never realized it took so damned long to fry a couple of eggs until he was stuck in the kitchen, listening to the sound of his mother and Thomas chatting and laughing together drift down the hall from the living room. Viv seemed to have taken Thomas under her wing, which didn’t surprise Rhys. He knew she was a goner as soon as Thomas told her about his family. Viv loved taking care of people, especially those whom she knew needed it the most.
Hewassurprised, however, Thomas had revealed so much about his past considering he and Viv had just met. Thomas rarely mentioned his family or his childhood. To hear him talk, his life started when he moved to New York City and worked both retail and restaurant jobs to pay his way through NYU. Now Rhys understood why.
Finally, he finished the eggs and served them along with wheat bread toast, strawberry fig jam, and the bacon, which he reheated in the microwave before serving. He poured cups of coffee for all three of them and brought sugar and creamer to the table, and then he went down the hall to the living room.
“Y’all coming?” he asked. “Or would you rather sit there and gossip like a couple of hens?”
“Oh pooh!” Viv waved dismissively at him, but she joined him in the kitchen and took a seat at the table, murmuring thanks for the coffee.
Thomas went to the kitchen as well, but he took a detour to the sink to wash his hands. Rhys had learned early on that Thomas was fastidious about clean hands because he hated getting sick. When he joined them at the table, he pretended to study his plate.
“Just how I like my eggs,” Thomas said, a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “Not crispy.”
“Fuck you,” Rhys said without thinking, earning a scandalized gasp from Viv.
“Rhys McAlistair Sutton! I did not raise you to speak to your significant other in such a way!” She punctuated her reprimand with a quelling scowl that made him feel like he was six years old and had gotten caught trying to sneak cookies off the cooling rack.
Then her words sank in, and he had to swallow a denial at Thomas being called his significant other. That was Andy’s title, not anyone else’s, and hearing it being used to refer to someone else — someone not Andy — made a white-hot knife edge slice through his heart.
“It’s okay, Viv,” Thomas said, shooting Rhys a concerned look before turning to Viv. “He gives me shit all the time, and I give it right back. We started as friends, remember? Picking on each other has always been part of our dynamic.”
Viv gave Rhys another long side-eye, but she appeared to accept Thomas’s explanation, especially since Thomas wasn’t upset by Rhys’s profane retort.
“So that’s how it’s going to be, huh?” Rhys mustered as jovial a tone as he could manage, not wanting Viv to pick up on how much he was hurting. “You’re going to back Thomas over your own flesh and blood?”
“This is great,” Thomas said, picking up Rhys’s cue and running with it, for which Rhys was grateful. “I won’t even have to use the Bambi eyes to get you in trouble.”
“Don’t get too cocky.” Viv peered at Thomas over the rim of her coffee cup, letting him get a peek at her inner mama bear. “Rhys is still my boy, and I don’t want to see him hurt. Break his heart, and we’ll have a problem.”
“Understood, ma’am,” Thomas said, ducking his head meekly.
Rhys dredged up a smirk even though he wasn’t in the mood for playful banter. “See? I told you there are some situations even those big Bambi eyes of yours can’t get you out of.”
“Fortunately, they’re few and far between,” Thomas said, all trace of meekness vanishing as he flashed a teasing grin at Rhys. He reached for the hot sauce and dashed it over his eggs. Rhys gave the obligatory “yuck” face, and Thomas stuck out his tongue.
“You two are a pair of brats,” Viv said, watching them with fond amusement. “If I hadn’t seen the proof for myself, I’d have to wonder if you were really dating. You act more like bickering brothers.”
Rhys froze and cut his eyes at Thomas, who had gone still as well, his blue eyes widening with alarm. This was his fault, no doubt. He wasn’t behaving like an infatuated lover, and if he couldn’t step up his acting game, he’d ruin everything. But everything in him resisted the idea of treating Thomas like anything more than a friend.
Well, almost everything, he amended as he gazed across the table at Thomas, who was familiar and yet somehow foreign to him now. He couldn’t quite shake off that odd moment between them when he’d felt something resonating between them. Not desire, no! Just an awareness that hadn’t been there before.
He knew they ought to do something — say something — before the silence went on too long and Viv grew suspicious, but Thomas was watching Rhys and gnawing on his bottom lip, which Rhys knew was a sign of nervousness. He reached across the table and clasped Thomas’s hand, and then he drew it to his lips. He caught a whiff of the lavender scented liquid soap rising off Thomas’s skin as he brushed a light kiss across Thomas’s knuckles. Thomas sucked in a shuddery breath, but when Rhys straightened and looked at him, he was smiling.
“He can be quite romantic when he wants to be,” Thomas said, still gazing at Rhys with a softness in his eyes that Rhys hadn’t seen before. Thomas was an even better actor than Rhys thought, because that besotted look was almost enough to makeRhysbelieve Thomas was in love with him, so Viv ought to be fooled easily.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Viv said, watching Rhys with approval as he squeezed Thomas’s hand gently before releasing it.
After they finished eating, Thomas cleared the table. “You cooked, so I’ll clean up,” he said, and Rhys sat back and let him because that sounded like a fair distribution of labor to him.
“Just don’t use dish soap on my skillet,” Rhys said, leveling a warning finger at Thomas, who rolled his eyes.
“I’ve worked in restaurants, and I’m a Southerner,” Thomas said. “I know how to treat a cast iron skillet. Just tell me where your oil is.”
“Cabinet right next to the fridge, bottom shelf.”
After a few minutes, Viv finished her coffee and carried the mug to the sink, where Thomas was scrubbing the plates. She gave him a one-armed hug and said something, but between the distance and the running water, Rhys couldn’t hear her, which was annoying. Hopefully she was just welcoming him to the family.
