Page 1 of Rules to Love By

CHAPTERONE

Above and behind where Marcus sat on the front steps of the B and B, carefully sanding a carving of oak leaves, the screen door hinges creaked a warning. Nice of the old house to let him know someone was coming. He shifted his weight from one numb butt cheek to the other and shoved his ass across the steps to clear enough room for someone to pass.

Who would be leaving the B and B at this hour? Most of the guests hadn’t struck him as the up-before-coffee types, and the kitchen hadn’t opened for business yet. He’d been working by the porch light and the glow of a trouble lamp hung on the rail above him, since the sun had only just cleared the low-slung hills at the east edge of the valley.

Footsteps crossed the wooden planks of the porch, stopping at the top of the steps.

Marcus kept his gaze fixed on his newly finished carvings. He didn’t like to engage with the guests too much. The B and B owners, Kreed and Lucky, had been nice enough to let him crash in their spare back room, and he didn’t like to intrude on their business any more than he had to.

“Hi.” His best friend, Tris, plopped down on a step behind him. The sunny greeting snatched him out of his contemplation of his work, and he glanced over to see the cuffs of Tris’s cherry-coloured skinny jeans rolled up to reveal rose-covered socks and baby blue sneakers.

“Hi.” He tapped Tris’s foot with the corner of his sandpaper. “Spring has sprung I see.”

Tris sighed, sounding content. “It was time to brighten up the wardrobe.”

Behind them, the door swung closed, the hinges squeaking and the spring-loaded latch wheezing under the effort of pivoting shut.

“Mildred sounds tired today,” Tris mused, patting the new wood of the porch.

“The house?” Marcus twisted around farther to see his face and immediately noticed the two huge mugs he held. “Oh, hey. Is one of those for me?”

“Of course.” Tris handed him a mug of steaming coffee. “You’re out here early.” He clucked his tongue and frowned. “How did you get sawdust in your curls?”

“I wanted to get this done. Maybe Mildred will be a less cranky house with her new front porch all done and pretty.” He smoothed a finger over a carving. “About time customers can use the front steps again, too.”

“You’re so nice to customers who aren’t even your customers.” Tris raked through the thick tangle of Marcus’s hair. A shower of dust floated down, golden in the stretching fingers of pale sunlight.

“It’s the small things that make a place special. Kreed gets that.” He moved his head. “Stop that.”

“The sawdust shows up against the black,” Tris said, continuing to worry at his hair. “Maybe you should try lightening—”

“Nope.” He shook his head vigorously, closing his eyes against the wood dust and the curls bouncing against his face. “I like it just the way it is.”

“It makes you look so pale, though, and your skin is darker than mine.”

“Dude…” Marcus snorted. “To be fair, everyone’s skin is darker than yours.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Can’t change the colour of my skin, and I’m not going to change the colour of my hair either.” Marcus examined the not-quite-white, fully freckled back of his hand. He liked to think he looked like his mother, that she had been beautiful, though he had no clear memory of her.

Tris tucked a curl behind Marcus’s ear. “It does get you noticed.”

Marcus grunted and sipped the coffee Tris had brought him, then looked up at his best friend. “At least you see past it.”

“Oh, the trials and tribulations of being gorgeous and getting any and every guy you want.”

“Says the guy who landed the man of his dreams.”

Tris rolled his eyes but grinned. “Ozzy is pretty great, isn’t he?”

“He adores you.”

Which, as always, made Tris dreamy-eyed and smiley. He sipped more coffee and fell silent.

Together, they watched the sun finally climb its way up and over the rooftops.

Neither of them mentioned how few of the guys Marcus did get stayed got. He was a flash in their pan, not the guy they brought home to meet the family.

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