Page 7 of Destined Prey
Worry had Jack rushing to Rhett. “Let me see your head.”
“Why?” Rhett blinked, then laughed again. “Oh. You think I rattled something loose?”
Instead of checking on that knot, Jack took the platters Rhett handed him, one of bacon, the other with the pancakes. “Well, you’ve got to admit, this isn’t like you.”
Rhett shrugged. “Not sure you really know what I’m like. Not sure I know, either. I’ve been defining myself as brother, son, rancher, for so long, and that just isn’t all there is to me.” He scratched at his neck, where stubble darkened it. “I feel…restless. Huh.”
The word sent a small shiver through Jack he couldn’t explain. Restless. Like the way the air feels before a storm, heavy and charged, promising something big but not telling you what. He pushed the feeling aside.
Jack was close to twitchy himself. He put the platters on the table. “You want to leave the ranch? Sell it?”
“No way in hell,” Rhett quickly replied. “Say something like that again and I’m taking all the bacon.”
“As long as I get coffee…”
The scent of bacon and strong black coffee wrapped around him like a blanket, grounding him in the kitchen even as the previous night still crawled under his skin. For a moment, it almost felt like being a kid again, sitting at Mom’s table, before everything splintered.
“Heathen.” Rhett placed two cups of coffee out for them. “I’ll get the butter and syrup, you get the taters out of the oven. Been baking ’em instead of frying ’em.”
“Little changes,” Jack murmured, finding a pot holder and fetching the potatoes. “One less fried thing.”
“Exactly,” Rhett agreed.
Jack waited until they were both seated to ask, “So are you going to explain that comment about being restless?”
Rhett shrugged. “Dunno how to. Just feel like something’s coming. Like my life is gonna change.” He bit into a slice of bacon and moaned, rolling his eyes back with dramatic flair. “Oh, God, there’s nothing that tastes better than bacon.”
Jack snorted. “I beg to differ. I can think of a few things.”
Rhett gave him a narrow look, eyes crinkling at the outer corners. “Are you making a dirty joke at the breakfast table?”
Rather than be quelled, Jack let his impish side have its way. “At the breakfast, lunchanddinner table, because some of what I’m thinking about is justthatmuch yummier.”
To his surprise, Rhett’s entire face darkened with a blush that soon raced down his neck as well. “I wouldn’t know,” he mumbled before stuffing the rest of the slice in his mouth.
Jack shook his head, certain he’d heard that wrong, or was interpreting it wrong, or something, because his brother couldn’t mean…
“Don’t look so shocked,” Rhett snapped. “Isn’t like I’ve had much opportunity out here.”
Jack ducked his head, his heart aching for Rhett.
“And don’t you dare feel sorry for me,” Rhett continued. “I made my choices, and it’s not like I’ve never had sex. I’ve just never, you know…with a guy.”
Jack had more questions than sense at times, or so he thought. He just couldn’t keep quiet. “You’ve had sex with women?”
“Yes. It was fine.”
“Fine?” Jack didn’t mean for that to come out so…well, shrill. “I mean—you know, I don’t have a clue what to say or think. But Rhett, you’rethirty—”
“God, don’t remind me.”
Jack wanted to tell his brother that he had to at least mess around with another man, soon, but his common sense finally kicked in and he kept that thought to himself. It wasn’t his place to decide when Rhett was ready to act on his desires. For all he knew, Rhett was asexual. Jack poured entirely too much syrup on his pancakes, then waited until Rhett slurped at his coffee. “So which women? I want names and details.”
Rhett spluttered, and Jack laughed in delight. It was fun to get a rise out of Rhett.
“Come on,” Jack urged. “It’s not like I’m ever going to do that, but Iamcurious. What’s it like?”
Surprisingly, Jack didn’t mind listening, although Rhett refused to tell him who he’d had sex with. Breakfast talk between brothers was proving much more interesting than it used to be, Jack mused.
