Page 34 of Where the River Meets the Skye

Skye didn’t say anything, just took another sip of beer.

“Skye?” his brother prodded. “Who is he? Where does he work? How do you know him? And if you are interested in him, why the hell haven’t you done anything about it?”

Setting his drink on the coffee table, Skye grimaced as he turned to his brother. “‘Cause it’s River,” he admitted, his face heating even more as he bit his lip.

Jaden’s eyes were wide. “River?” he said. “River, River? Like, college roommate, guy you’ve lived with for ten years, best friend, River. That River?”

Skye nodded. “Yeah, look, I know it’s ridiculous, Jay. There’s no way things could ever work out between us. And I’ve been doing my damnedest to keep it from happening, but…” He buried his face in his hands and groaned.

“You’re in love with him.”

The groan was louder as Skye nodded. “That damn ice wall is a fucking puddle now,” he mumbled, then took another sip of beer, leaning back in his seat on the sofa.

“What?” Jaden raised an eyebrow.

“It’s nothing,” Skye sighed, running his fingers through his blond waves. “It’s an image I had in my head of a giant ice wall that I kept up, kind of like a barricade of all of the reasons that kept me from falling in love with River over the last ten years, and in my mind I had all this stuff in front of it, but they’re gone now, and so is the wall, and?—”

“Wait a second.” Jaden held up a hand. “What do you need some metaphorical wall for, anyway? Why can’t you be in love with River?”

“Well, for starters, he doesn’t exactly bat for my team. And for another thing, he’s religious. I just, I don’t know. I’m sure he wants to be with someone who will go to church with him and read the Bible, and pray, and all that stuff, right? But that’s just not for me. I can’t make myself believe what he does, no matter how much I love him. And I would never ask him to stop believing in what he does for my sake.”

“Why would either of you have to do that?” Jaden asked. “Skye, even if your relationship changed, why would either of you have to change what you believe or who you are to make that happen? You’ve made it work so far. You think River would expect you to become a Christian if you guys started having sex?”

“River won’t have sex before marriage,” Skye said. “Religious thing.”

“Right, okay, so if you guys started dating, do you think he’d expect you to suddenly change who you are, or what you believe? ‘Cause that doesn’t sound like River to me. He’s never forced anything about his faith on you. He’s always loved you and accepted you for who you are. And you’ve done the same for him. That’s part of what makes your friendship so special. You guys see that you don’t have to agree on everything to get along and care for each other. You don’t have to believe the same things to build a life together. And I think you both could respect those differences just like you do now, if anything were to happen between you.”

Skye bit his lip, mulling over his brother’s words before he said, “Well, there’s still the whole River not being gay thing.”

Jaden shrugged. “Yeah, maybe.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m just saying, I’ve seen the way you guys interact with each other, and I’m not entirely sure that’s true.”

“Are you kidding? Jaden, I’m the gay one. Don’t you think I would notice if River was flirting with me?”

“Not if River doesn’t even know it himself. I think River might not be aware of that part of himself yet. Sometimes it takes people longer than others, for whatever reason. Maybe it’s something he still needs to figure out. I’m just saying, don’t give up on him yet. Give him time. You might be surprised.”

Skye took another long swig of beer. I think I need to get drunk.

CHAPTER 14

Skye

“Hey, Riv, how was your Christmas?” Skye asked a week later when River stumbled out of his room around nine-thirty in the morning. His dark hair was tousled and he wore a gray T-shirt and plaid flannel pajama pants. Skye couldn’t help smiling at how adorably rumpled River looked as he blinked behind his black frames. He took his glasses off and wiped them on the hem of his shirt, lifting it just enough to give Skye a peek of his flat, toned stomach and the trail of dark hair leading down to the waistband of his pants and disappearing underneath. His mouth watered and his dick twitched but he managed to hold in his groan.

River slid his glasses back on and yawned, with no fucking clue how completely captivated Skye was by him. How much he turned Skye on. How fucking beautiful he was. How much Skye ached to touch him, kiss him, make love to him. How desperately he wanted River to be his. How Skye would feel complete if he could just spend the rest of his life taking care of River, and loving him to the best of his ability, knowing that River loved him back.

“It was fine,” River said, then ran his fingers through his mussed hair. “Sometimes I wish I had more family to celebrate with, but at least I have my aunt. I told her about Anna and I breaking up. She said she was sorry, but she didn’t seem surprised.” He shrugged. “She slept in your bed. I hope that’s okay. I changed the sheets and stuff.”

“Of course,” Skye told him. “Not a problem.”

“How’s your tailbone?” he asked as he handed River his coffee and watched him smile. “Doing any better?”

“It’s a little better. Still having trouble sitting for long periods of time, though, or without my seat cushion at all. I don’t think I’m ever getting rid of that thing. I’m still doing therapy for it. Getting rid of the scar tissue seems to be helping but it’s not a cure all, unfortunately, and I’ve had to have my tailbone re-positioned multiple times because it doesn’t want to stay in place.”

Skye smiled softly at him. “You know that ring on your finger, Riv?”

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