Page 39 of Rules to Love By

“I think closure is important.” Which was true. And easier to say than admitting he cared about Marcus’s happiness. “If she did leave the whole lot to your uncle, then so be it. You can move on with a clear conscience. But if she left it to you, your life can look very different than that of an inexperienced handyman living off the kindness of near strangers.”

“And if I don’t want to run a diner?”

“No one is saying you have to. You can find someone to run it for you. Or sell it. You can do whatever you want with it, but at least you don’t have to live in limbo, or always wonder.”

“I think I liked it better when you were an annoyed son of the boss trapped in a weird apprenticeship role with the freckled brown-skinned interloper from out of town.”

“First, I don’t recall ever saying I had stopped being annoyed by my father’s insistence on the weird apprenticeship thing. And second”—he ran a finger over the back of Marcus’s knuckles—“I can’t help it if I happened to find the freckles sexy.”

After a moment, Marcus pulled his hand away to pick up his glass and sip.

Eli watched him, watched sunbeams dance through his curls and highlight more freckles, a constellation of dusky stars across the bridge of his nose, and wondered what had ever possessed him to say that out loud.

“You’re very confusing,” Marcus said finally.

“Confusing how?” Eli picked up his fork.

“Yesterday morning, there was a glacial freeze in the hallway after breakfast, and you left me standing in the dark. At lunch, you just about pushed your cousin down the stairs for flirting with me. Last night, you kissed me, and today, you say I’m sexy.”

Eli opened his mouth to respond, but Marcus held up a hand.

“It’s fine that you think that. I am known to move pretty quick myself and be less… discriminating than I should be. At least according to Tris. But usually, my move doesn’t start from a place of freezing the other guy out first.”

“I wasn’t freezing you out.”

Marcus poked his salad around. “The chill was real, though.” He looked up, eyebrows raised, as he popped a bit of broccoli into his mouth.

“It wasn’t you.”

His eyebrows rose higher.

“Well. I mean…” Scratching at the back of his neck, Eli sighed. “I don’t hook up with guys from Griffon’s Elbow.”

“Too close to home?”

“Too close to my father and his endless interest.”

“Why shouldn’t he be interested in your life?”

“He doesn’t have to know every detail.”

“Fair enough.” Marcus set his fork down. “Lucky for you, I’m not from Griffon’s Elbow. I’m only in Griffon’s Elbow right now.”

“So you are going back?”

“I don’t know. Haven’t decided yet, and obviously not until I’m done with this job.”

“Obviously.”

Marcus shook his head and looked down, a smile deepening his elusive dimple. “And I have never talked this much about a hook-up before I even knew if there was going to be one.” He glanced back up, black eyes sharp.

It hadn’t struck Eli as an odd thing to talk about, but he’d learned a long time ago that his approach wasn’t typical. “Tell you what, then,” he said.

“What?”

“I have to go back to the city to work later today.” He shrugged. “Bartender, weekend. You know how it goes.”

“Sure.”

---