“I have no idea how to help him,” Riley confessed. “Other than taking care of things like this.”
“Chocolate,” Marcus suggested. “Chocolate fixes everything.”
“That’s not the worst idea I’ve heard,” Riley said. “I guess the real answer is that he needs time, but it hurts to see him hurting.”
“I know. I know how it is.” Marcus nodded. “If there’s anything I can do…”
“You’ve done more than enough. I’ll tell Brent you dropped by and how kind you’ve been.”
A blush crept up Marcus’ neck. “I’m not here to make a show of being the good guy. I just wanted to make sure Brent was okay. I wasn’t sure you were still here.”
Riley’s stomach clenched at that. He knew Marcus didn’t mean it as an insult, but he also knew that he had a habit of not being around. Of swooping in for ten minutes to celebrate something, and then disappearing again.
It hurt that his reputation meant people would actually think he’d abandon his best friend at a time like this, but he only had himself to blame for that.
“I won’t leave him,” Riley said softly. “Not until I’m sure he’s okay.”
“Good. That’s what I wanted to hear.” Marcus smiled at him. “You take care, okay? And if you need to offload… the bakery’s always there. Charlie knows where I live.”
Riley chuckled at that. Charlie knew whereeveryonelived. That was just who Charlie was.
“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”
Riley watched Marcus step back from the door, waving as he left and waiting until he was a respectable distance away before closing it.
He was glad Brent had other people who cared about him. Of course, he shouldn’t have been surprised. Brent was a good man, and people rightly looked up to and trusted him.
He probably did Marcus’ taxes. Riley had never exactly asked Brent what his client list looked like.
“Who was that?” Brent asked from behind him.
Riley turned to see him hanging back, his head poking out of the kitchen doorway. “Just Marcus, coming to let you know you don’t have to worry about the cake. I figured you wouldn’t really want to talk to him.”
Brent glanced down at the floor, his long, bright blond eyelashes making the gesture look even more dramatic. “Yeah. Thanks. Nice of him to come, though.”
“Yeah,” Riley agreed. “He’s a good kid.”
“Hey, uh… thanks for doing all this. Taking the wedding apart, I mean. I couldn’t have done it without you,” Brent said.
“It’s no big deal for me.” Riley shrugged. “It would have been a lot harder if you’d decided to cancel beforehand. This way I didn’t have to call every guest.”
“Even so… thank you. It means a lot to me to have you around.”
“Hey,youmean a lot to me,” Riley said. It hurt how true that was. He’d almost gotten to the point where he’d forgotten all about how he felt about Brent, where he could be happy for him to start living his life, but…
Seeing him like this had brought it all back. There was nothing Riley wanted more right now than to hold Brent until he forgot any of this had happened.
Short of being able to do that, Riley intended to do whatever Brent would let him to make this better.
“Thanks,” Brent said again.
He had a habit of thanking people a hundred times for even the smallest thing.
“No problem. This is what friends are for,” Riley said.
“Well… not everyone’s running to my rescue, here. You’re always the one doing things for me.”
“I’ve been keeping you all to myself for years,” Riley joked.
