Page 6 of Breakfast Included

“Would you like a beer?” he asked with his back to Reno and his head in the fridge. He needed to focus on something else, anything else. Even if it was only the minute it took to grab a couple bottles of beer and crack them open.

“Sure.” Reno sat down on the couch across from a wood-burning stove, currently dark and silent, that sat on a raised stone platform. Behind the stove, the stones continued seamlessly up the wall to the ceiling. “Do you think we should light a fire? In case the generators give out?”

“Good call.”

Tate inhaled deeply, held his breath for a few seconds, and then let it out slowly. He crossed the room, stopped to place the bottles on the coffee table in front of the couch, and then crouched in front of the stove to get the fire going. Who knew how long the generators would keep things working out here, and the last thing he wanted was to wake up in the middle of the night with frost on his nose and numb feet because there was no heat.

Satisfied with the fire, he stood and rubbed his hands on his thighs. This was silly. He felt like a teenager again, nervous about sitting too close to a hot guy. Or even looking at him too long. At least he no longer had to worry about making sure no one caught on to his attraction to the same sex. His parents had been hard-core conservatives, and while they’d eventually accepted that Tate’s best friend had agaybrother, accepting their son as anything other than straight was a different story. It had taken a long time, but he was now out and proud. The first time he’d said the words out loud to someone other than himself had been the most liberating moment of his life. And he still had his parents. They’d realized love for their children was stronger than their outdated views.

“That should keep things warm in here all night,” he said.

He sat on the opposite end of the couch from Reno, lifted his beer bottle toward him in salute, and took a long draft.

“So . . .” he said but didn’t continue, suddenly unsure of what to say.

“So . . .” Reno repeated. He drew the word out and chuckled softly.

They both took another drink. The silence between them stretched, broken only by the snap and pop of the fire, and just when Tate couldn’t take it anymore, Reno started speaking at the same time. He laughed along with Reno, and silence fell between them again, but this time, it didn’t feel quite so heavy.

“You go,” Tate said softly.

“When did you come out to my brother?” Reno asked after a few seconds. He angled himself on the couch to face Tate and folded one leg so his knee rested on the cushion between them. Close enough for Tate to touch.

“I didn’t really,” Tate said and looked toward the fire. “Not in so many words, anyway.”

He flashed back to the night that changed his life for the better. “He caught me making out in the bathroom with one of the guys from his hockey team at a university party.”

“Wow, you really have a thing for bathrooms,” Reno said. His voice was deadpan, but mirth sparkled in his gray-blue eyes.

Heat fanned over Tate’s cheeks and across the bridge of his nose. What did he say to that? He’d been questioning his sexuality for a long time, and whenever he saw Reno, his heart kicked up a beat. Which excited him and at the same time scared him. Then he’d gone and kissed Reno in the bathroom at a party. Not his finest moment but also one of his best. There had been no more questioning his sexuality after that kiss.

“What did Ricky say?” Reno asked, and Tate took the out about bathrooms.

“He didn’t say anything at first. Just walked away with this disappointed look on his face.” Tate remembered that night and the fear that he’d lost his best friend clearly. “I was terrified he was going to kick my ass, or worse, that we’d never be friends again. Your brother was always such abro, you know.”

Tate hadn’t felt he could confide in Ricky back then, even though Ricky was like a mama bear when it came to protecting his little brother, who was gay. That alone should have told him Ricky wouldn’t have had a problem, but still. Even if that wouldn’t have been an issue, falling for your best friend’s sibling was a no-no. He hadn’t wanted to end up losing them both, and fear was a powerful thing. It messed with reason.

“Yeah, he’s all alpha dude on the outside.” Reno’s voice cut into Tate’s thoughts. “But he looks out for the people he cares about. No matter what. There was nothing he wouldn’t have done to protect me. Or you. Even to this day.”

Tate remembered. Reno had been relentless with always wanting to follow them around, to be where they were, always just inside Tate’s orbit. Super-protective tough guy Ricky always let Reno tag along. Even when most guys his age would have been embarrassed about their little brother tagging along. Ricky just leveled a “try me” look on anyone who dared to make fun of them.

“So, what happened after he caught you?” Reno asked.

“He was pissed off at me, but not because he’d caught me with a guy. He was mad that I’d never told him and hurt that I thought he’d think any less of me. And he was right. I was just so scared. I knew how he looked out for you, but if he’d known then how I felt, he would have never let you hang out with us. No one is good enough for you in his eyes, you know. Not even me.”

Tate grinned over at Reno, who just rolled his eyes.

“Whatever. He wouldn’t have done anything.”

“Are you kidding me? He’d have kicked my ass.”

“Maybe.” Reno’s grin faded as he looked down at his bottle. “So that’s why you ditched me after you kissed me?”

His voice was so small that Tate’s heart split a little for having caused it. He should never have done that to Reno. The last thing he’d ever wanted to do was hurt Reno. Still didn’t.

“Reno,” he said softly as he leaned over and placed a hand on Reno’s knee. Even through the thick layer of denim, Tate’s hand tingled where it rested on Reno. “That kiss was my wildest dream come true. And it scared me. I didn’t know what to do, so I did what any teenager facing emotions bigger than they could handle did. I ran away.”

He wasn’t supposed to leave for university until a couple of weeks after that party, but he’d taken off the next morning and never looked back. Ricky had told him one night that Reno kept asking about him, sad and moping because of his unrequited crush on him. Ricky had finally sat Reno down and made sure he understood nothing would ever come of it because Tate was straight. His words had hung between them, charged and crackling. Like a challenge somehow. Tate had been too caught up in his head then to realize that had been the perfect opening to tell Ricky he’d been questioning his sexuality. That maybe he was bi.

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