Coda Books 01 - Promises (MM) by Marie Sexton

Author:Marie Sexton [Sexton, Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

THE next evening, he was back. I heard him knock, and when I opened door, he was there. He was leaning against the doorframe with a six pack in one hand. He looked haggard, and embarrassed, and scared to death.

“You look like hell.”

A hint of smile flickered on his face and was gone.

“Are you alone?” I was glad to hear that there was no judgment in his voice. He was simply trying to let me establish a boundary if I wanted to.

“I am.”

He sighed and then said softly, “Can we try this again, please? Last time didn’t really go the way I planned.”

And any anger or resentment I still had over those last unfortunate visits vanished. I was just glad he had come back. “Of course.”

“I heard about the baby,” he told me as he came in. “I guess you’re Uncle Jarhead now?”

I laughed, probably louder than I should have.

He went in the kitchen to put the beer away, came back out with two open ones and handed one to me. And then there was a moment when we both just stood there.

For my part, I couldn’t get enough of looking at him, and it was all I could do not to throw my arms around him and hug him. It wasn’t a romantic urge. Sure, I was crazy about him, but we hadn’t been lovers. We had been friends. And it was losing that which had hurt the most.

Just having him walk back through my door—without the thunder clouds raging in his eyes, like last time—made me feel like I could breathe for the first time in weeks.

For his part, he still looked scared out of his wits, and he was looking everywhere but at me. I think he was waiting for me to say something or to yell at him, but he finally glanced at me, and I was still just standing there grinning at him like a damn fool. His eyebrows went up a little in surprise, and I managed to say, “It’s really good to see you.”

He looked relieved and clapped me on the back so hard that I staggered a little bit. “Let’s go sit down.”

So we sat down in our usual spots, side by side on the couch like we had a million times before. It felt so familiar. He leaned back with a sigh and sat there with his head back and his eyes closed. I could tell he was still wound up tight, but I could also see that he was glad to be here.

“So how did you hear about the baby?”

He sat up and started fidgeting with the label on his beer bottle—another gesture that was achingly familiar. “Cherie told me.”

I felt jealousy, hot and angry in my chest, and tried to force it down. But my voice was sharper than I intended when I asked, “How is Cherie?”

“How is she?” He made an angry laugh. “Christ, Jared, she’s awful. She’s boring. She wears too much perfume. She hates being outside and hates the mountains.

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