Page 33 of Forever Finn
“Oh, trust me, that’s all lean muscle.” Beck smirks. “Besides, Nat’s scrappy. Tenner says he could take Deak.”
“Uh, guys,” I interject. “They’re now armed with fire extinguishers, which they’re pointing at each other. You might want to stop them.”
“Fuck!” Beck and Jesse answer in tandem, setting their beers on the table as they leg it across the lawn.
“I see I arrived just in time for the bloodshed.” Reed appears beside me. “Does someone need a doctor?”
“Not yet,” I snort. “Unless you count the prime rib, but I think it might be too late.”
“Deak been cooking again?” He raises his brows slowly. “Good thing I had a sandwich on the way over.” I can feel his gaze on me, and when I turn my head, it’s to find Reed scrutinising me with an unreadable expression. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around much. Things have been pretty crazy at the hospital.”
“It’s okay, I managed to amuse myself.” I shrug, lifting my beer to my lips and making a conscious effort not to look in Wyatt’s direction.
“You’ve been spending a lot of time with Wyatt.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask sharply, inwardly cursing myself for sounding so defensive.
“I’m just glad you found someone to hang with,” Reed says, his expression sincere. “I don’t pretend to know why you left the bay after Cody…” He draws in a sad breath. “I lost him and then I lost you too. I guess what I’m saying is it’s nice to have my friend back, even though we haven’t been able to spend as much time together as I’d like.”
“Reed.” I turn to face him, and for the first time I realise what it must have been like for him after Cody’s death. I was so caught up in my own pain I abandoned him too. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay.” He shakes his head. “I’m not trying to make you feel bad. You needed to leave, and I get that. It was the same with Deacon. He couldn’t stay after his brother died either. I’m just saying I hope that when you do go back to your glitzy Hollywood life you won’t leave it another fifteen years before we see each other again.”
“I promise.” I smile slowly even though the thought of leaving is a double-edged sword. I know I can’t stay but at the same time, I don’t think I want to leave yet.
Suddenly Reed’s phone pings with a message alert, and as he reads the message, his face breaks into a quite smile, but there’s something in his expression, something in his eyes I’ve never seen before.
“Who is she?” I ask.
“What?” He blinks, tucking his phone back in his pocket.
“The one who made you look like that.”
“Like what?” he answers innocently.
“Reed, you lit up.” I smile.
“It’s nothing…” He clears his throat. “It’s not… she’s a friend that’s all.”
“Uh-huh.” I chuckle. “Keep your secrets then.”
Not that I can talk, after all, I’m the one who’s secretly fucking his brother’s work colleague and none of them even know I’m gay. Turning my attention away from Reed I scan the garden.
“What’s up with Ryan?” I ask lifting my chin in his direction. “I always remember him being the mouthy one of that unholy quartet.”
Beck, Jesse, Deacon, and Ryan had been inseparable as kids. They were the younger version of Reed, Cody, and me.
“I’m not sure,” Reed muses. “He’s been like that ever since he came back from Chicago after New Year’s.”
“What was he in Chicago for?”
“Some craft beer thing for independent micro brewery’s,” Reed replies.
“I thought he’d just matured and calmed down from his wild teen years.” I set my empty beer bottle on the table.
“Ryan? Mature?” Reed barks out a laugh. “No way, he’s still as wild as ever or he was. I don’t know. The last few months he’s been quieter, more subdued, less Ryan I suppose. Who knows, maybe he is realising he can’t be a perpetual man child.”
My gaze leaves the pensive version of Ryan who’s nursing a beer as he sits next to Wyatt and Garrett… Garrett James. Cody and Deacon’s uncle. I was surprised to find out when I arrived back in the bay that Garrett was gay. I’d had no idea back growing up with Cody. I guess Garrett must’ve just been really uber discreet, or he never had the time to hook up with anyone, too busy raising two boys whose father didn’t give a shit about them.