“Because I want him to know that I care about him for more than sex.”
“Oh.” Caleb snorted. “Well, yeah, duh, me too.”
“I know you do.” Everett kissed the side of his head. “Why don’t we continue this conversation in bed? It’s been a long day for both of us.”
“’Kay.”
In the darkness of their bedroom, Caleb and Everett fumbled with each other’s buttons until, undressed, they fell into bed together. Everett pulled Caleb close and held him while Caleb fell back to sleep, but found himself unable to settle down. How safe were they, really? What secrets was Jayne keeping, and how safe were they now that he’d come into their lives?
There was nothing to be done about it now—with Jayne and Caleb blacked out, those would be questions for another day.
Everett closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep.
* * *
At eleven that same morning,bleary-eyed and exhausted, Everett slid out from beneath his blankets and braved the cold that awaited him beyond the bed. The floorboards, a shock against his soles, groaned in protest of his feet. Everett paid them no heed. He crossed the room, entered the en suite bathroom, tended to his business, then looked himself in the mirror while waiting for the sink’s water to heat. Last night had taken its toll on him. The suggestion of dark circles hung beneath his eyes, like bruises hours away from fading out of existence. Even now, worry creased his brow. He tilted his head this way and that, one time lifting his chin, the other stretching his neck, but saw no angle from which he could say he didn’t look worried.
Finding Caleb and Jayne drunk had been a small reprieve from the uneasiness in Everett’s mind, but it was not enough to make him forget it in its entirety. The fact of the matter was, Jayne’s ex had come to call last night, and while Everett got the impression that he hadn’t expressly targeted The Shepherd, now that he knew it was one of Everett’s haunts, Everett doubted it would be the last time the bastard tried to force his way through its doors.
For the safety of The Shepherd’s patrons, Everett needed to know what his deal was. If the scene he’d walked in on last night was any indication, it wouldn’t be a pleasant conversation, but it was a necessary one. As much as Everett wanted to bury his head in the sand and forget, he couldn’t.
He needed to know what had gone on between Jayne and his ex.
Once the water was adequately heated, Everett lathered his hands, then took the time to rinse the crust from his eyes and cleanse his skin. He pushed his hair from his face to let his hairline dry, then rolled his shoulders back and braced himself for the day he was about to have. After everything Jayne had been through, the last thing he needed was to be dragged back into old drama, but there was to be no avoiding it.
Breakfast would soften the blow.
On his way out of the bathroom, Everett glanced at the Caleb-shaped lump on the bed and grinned. With Caleb still sound asleep, there’d be no one around to burn the bacon. The competitive streak inside him lit up like a switchboard and helped do away with some of his heavier thoughts. Everett turned the doorknob and snickered. Poor Caleb, always so easily upstaged. Their rivalry had gone on for years, but in the end, no matter how much Caleb argued to the contrary, Everett always came out on top. This morning would be no exception. Cured meat supremacy would be his.
27
Everett
The television was on when Everett left the bedroom. Shep, whose nose was buried in his phone, was sprawled across the couch, one leg dangling off so his foot brushed the floor. The play gym that Everett had assembled for Parker had found its way across the floor so it was within his reach. Parker, who seemed cheerful this morning, tugged and pulled at its bright spinning accessories and handholds.
“Hey, good morning,” Everett said as he entered the room. “Did you eat already?”
Shep didn’t look up from his phone.
“I’m going to make everyone breakfast. Would you like some?”
Shep put his phone down. He glared at Everett as if Everett’s question were overtly offensive and said nothing.
Everett hesitated. While he got along fine with his niece and nephew, teenagers weren’t his area of expertise. “I’ll, uh, I’ll just make some extra, and if you decide you’re hungry, you can go ahead and help yourself.”
On his way into the kitchen, Everett made a mental note to check the cutting boards.
* * *
The smellof bacon wafted through the condo, its siren call more effective than any alarm clock Everett had ever owned. Most days, even after late nights on the town and a couple too many drinks, it was enough to lure Caleb out of bed, but today, Caleb wasn’t its victim. The guest bedroom door opened, and Jayne stumbled out from inside, wrapped up in a blanket like it was a cape. He shambled down the hall like the living dead, cut through the kitchen without a word, and headed straight for the living room.
When he returned, the blanket was gone—Parker was in Jayne’s arms instead, his chubby hands clenching fistfuls of the old graphic t-shirt Caleb had lent Jayne the night before. The sight of Jayne in Caleb’s clothing, his hair messy from sleep and his style frumpy and ruffled, jogged Everett’s imagination. After what had happened earlier this morning, it was all too easy to picture Jayne in bed with himself and Caleb, sharing their blankets and demanding their attention. Everett could already hear the conversations they’d have—snarky, flirtatious, heated exchanges that built into red-hot passion and hours of sex…
Everett swallowed hard and tried to shake the thought, but it burned into his mind like superheated iron on hide.Fuck.How could something so simple have such an impact?
In an attempt to distract himself, Everett returned to poking at the nearly finished pan of scrambled eggs on the stove.
“You are a gift from the heavens,” Jayne declared as he made his way into the kitchen. “Please tell me that in addition to cooking up a week’s worth of saturated fat and delicious, delicious grease that you’ve got some Gatorade or something in here. Anything with electrolytes. Please?”
