“Uh, thanks for dinner. Do you want—”
“Come back with me?” Rico crowded close, his breath smelling sharp from the beer, and Adam wanted to taste his tongue. “Spend the night?”
While in Leary’s, Adam hadn’t been certain he’d be invited back to Rico’s, but he wasn’t about to question his luck right now.
“Yeah, if you want.”
Rico ran his nose down Adam’s cheek, and goosebumps prickled up his arms.
“I want,” Rico whispered. “I want you.”
Chapter Eleven
When it tookfour tries to get his computer to turn on the next morning, Rico knew he was in trouble. He stared at the blank monitor, but all he saw was Adam’s face in front of him.
“Fuck,” he muttered to himself. “You are too fucking stupid for words.” He spun the chair around and faced the wall, but nothing changed. Every place he went, in every face he passed on the street, all he saw was Adam. For the first time since he and Gideon started the store, he’d come in late to work, but Adam had stayed over, making it almost impossible for Rico to leave him lying warm and sleepy, tangled in his sheets. He’d broken his first rule by seeing Adam after the first night, but like a fever, Adam had gotten into his blood, and with every kiss and touch, Rico burned hotter.
At the knock on his door, he took in a deep breath, then exhaled before answering. “Yeah?”
The door opened, and Gideon peered from around the corner, a cautious smile on his face. It hurt Rico to know he’d kept his best friend at arm’s distance. The two of them now lived their dreams, not only because of the shared hard work they’d put into this business but because they were so close, as close as brothers. If they’d drifted apart, it was Rico’s fault, not Gideon’s. Time to set things right.
“Hey, come in and sit.” He gestured with his hand. “What’s going on? How’s Jonah?”
Balancing two cups of coffee in one hand, Gideon walked into his office and set one on the desk. “Here. I brought you a peace offering.”
The rich aroma teased him, but he held off on taking a sip. “What do you mean, peace offering? Are we at war?” He laughed, but when Gideon failed to join him, Rico knew the time had come to get real.
“Look, I’m sorry, man. I know I’ve been a shit friend lately, but I promise to get my act together. Tell me what’s happening; you and Jonah making any wedding plans?”
But Gideon was an even cannier bastard than Rico and couldn’t be played that easily, not even by a master player like Rico.
“I didn’t come here to talk about myself. It’s you who’s slipped away. I’ve been here all along, watching you, hoping you’d wake up and see what was happening.”
Now Rico was in the dark. “What do you mean?” He cocked his head, furrowing his brow in confusion.
After a moment’s hesitation, Gideon hitched his chair closer to the desk and leaned forward. “You’ve been my best friend for years, yet I feel like I don’t know you.”
“You’re right; you don’t.” Gazing at Gideon’s confused face, Rico kept his hands around the cup of coffee, letting its warmth soak through him before he spoke again.
“I’ve never told my family I’m gay. I brought it up once to my cousin, but he wouldn’t listen to me. Told me to stop acting stupid and that it would hurt my father politically. So I shut up and pretended, hiding who I was until I came to live up here.”
Shaking and cold, Rico barely felt the touch of Gideon’s hand on his own.
“I can respect your privacy; I know your situation. But you’ve changed, and I think it’s ’cause you’ve met someone who matters to you and you don’t know how to deal with it. But it’s like you don’t want me to know, and I can’t figure out why.” Gideon shook his head. “It sucks. I thought we could tell each other everything. We always used to.”
“I—”
“Deny it.” Gideon rolled back the chair from the desk and met his gaze with unflinching honesty. “Look at me and tell me I’m wrong, that you haven’t been seeing someone.”
Rico wanted to so badly, but he couldn’t lie. “I don’t know what to do.” Admitting that was the hardest thing he’d ever done.
True happiness shone from Gideon’s eyes. “Tell me.”
“I think I made a mistake.”
Now it was Gideon’s turn to look confused. “A mistake how? Did you break up?”
“No. By letting it get this far. Too far.”
