Page 49 of Throw Down

“You’re awfully chipper lately.”

“I’m always chipper,” Briar said blithely.“I’m a fuckin’ delight.”

“You are.” Nate’s smile was crooked.“But I know how hard it was for you, giving up your whole life and moving here to help me.”

Briar shrugged. “Wasn’t much of a life.”

Nate hesitated, as if he was searching for the right words, then said, “I just haven’t seen you this lighthearted in a long time.”

“I guess I’ve finally assimilated,” Briar said flippantly, waving a hand at the cooler full of black bear.“I didn’t even run screaming when Mr. Foster left this present.”

Nate didn’t laugh. The stark silence meant he was waiting for Briar to look at him.

Briar resisted as long as he could, fiddling with a loose thread on the hem of his shirt.It was a professional button-up today, navy blue with a pattern of orange and red swirls Nate said reminded him of hotel curtains—the plebian.But nobody was as patient as Nate, and eventually the thread snapped and Briar was forced to meet his eyes.

“Talk to me,” Nate coaxed. There was a well of protectiveness in his eyes, a brotherly worry that pricked at Briar’s sentimental side.He couldn’t lie to his best friend, but he refused to be responsible for outing someone who wasn’t ready.

“I…met someone,” he admitted grudgingly.

Nate’s eyes narrowed. “Who?”

“Does it matter?”

“Hell yes, it matters!” Nate exploded.“There are no single gay men in this town, Briar.None.”

“That’s what you told me when we moved here,” Briar retorted, even though he knew he was purposely missing the point.“Right before Tucker started railing you every night.”

“Don’t play that game with me,” Nate warned.“It’s because of what I went through with Tucker that I’m saying this.Loving someone who doesn’t love you back is hell, but it’s nothing compared to loving someone who’s afraid to love you back.I don’t want to see you hurt like that.”

“Who said anything about love?” Briar retorted defensively.

Nate sighed and took a seat beside him on the sofa.He slung one arm around Briar’s shoulders and said roughly, “Like I don’t know you and that big fucking heart of yours?”

A flush crept up Briar’s neck.The truth in Nate’s words stung, but he couldn’t deny them.Not with the only person who’d ever really cared about him.

“I know what I’m doing,” he insisted, but there was a tremor of doubt in his voice.

“I’m not saying you don’t,” Nate said, giving him a squeeze.“I just want you to be careful.You deserve happiness, Briar.Real happiness. I don’t think a man like Derek Owens even knows what that word means.”

Briar’s head came up with a jerk.“I never said—”

“You didn’t need to.” Nate’s expression was wry.“You've been giving me the third degree about him for weeks.”

“I’m a curious guy.”

Nate shook his head. “Besides, he’s exactly your type.Big, mean, and totally wrong for you.”

“You’re fishing,” Briar said, wiping his damp palms on his pants.“There’s no reason to suspect anything between us.”

He trusted Nate, but Derek had entrusted him with his first time with another man, and it seemed very important to protect that.To protect him. Briar had a disconcerting suspicion that nobody ever had.It was always Derek doing the hard work for everyone else.

“You adopted his dog,” Nate pointed out, “and you haven’t lived in a small town nearly long enough if you expected that scene he made at Rawson’s to stay quiet.It’s the talk of the town. He’s not the kind of man who interferes with other people.Not unless it involves his family.”

“What about his friends?”

Nate’s expression screwed into a funny shape.“I don’t think he’s ever had any friends.”

Briar pulled away, appalled. “How is that possible?” he demanded.

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