Sultry Sunset by Mary Calmes

Author:Mary Calmes [Calmes, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: contemporary gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-63476-151-2
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2015-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

“SO WHY aren’t you asking?”

I turned slowly to look at Kelly Seaton, who had joined me in my lean against the railing at the community center. He was doing the landscaping, and when he saw me, he had just put in the flagstone walkway that would hopefully keep people off the grass and out of the water of the small mangrove forest he had installed.

By all accounts, we should not have been friendly. But as he and Coz Renaldi sank deeper and deeper into couplehood, I found him far more grounded and approachable. So when he’d sauntered over and asked what was going on, I had unloaded about Mike and how he was sleeping with every available woman in town and how Essien had brought up the fact that maybe he was compensating for something and how half of me was debating about getting into it with him and the other half was not and how I wanted to know but how I also didn’t want to pry.

“What can I actually ask as a friend?”

“But you’re not just friends, right?”

“How do you mean?”

“I mean, clearly you’re more than that.”

My heart stopped. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, he’s your best friend, and you want him to be more, and that’s why you’re jealous.”

It took me several seconds to process. “I’m sorry, what?”

“You’re jealous.”

“Well, yes,” I agreed, “just not how you think.”

“Oh? How do I think?”

“I’m not jealous because I want Mike; I’m jealous because of the time he’s spending with this multitude of women, nothing else.”

“And how are those two things different?”

“I’m just used to having Mike around, is all. It has nothing to do with me wanting him,” I explained, clearing things up for him.

“Uh-huh.”

“No, really, it’s perfectly—”

“Stupid. You have no idea what you’re even saying.”

“No, I—”

Kelly snickered. “You’re so clueless that you don’t even realize that you’re snapping and snarling at everyone.”

“I am not,” I groused.

He batted his eyelashes at me, and I remembered how much of a wiseass he was.

“It’s just that… see, Mike and I… we’re like—”

“God,” he sighed, “I shouldn’t have ever been jealous of you.”

“I’m trying to explain something to you,” I complained.

“Yeah, I know.”

I pushed off the railing and pivoted to face him instead of staring at his profile. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Would you rather tell me or just stand there and piss me off?”

Kelly had the nerve to smile. “I thought you were interested in Coz, but it’s actually Mike.”

“What? No,” I protested.

“Yes,” he volleyed.

“No, it’s—”

“How long has it been Mike?”

“We’re friends,” I retorted, “and that’s all. Just because you and Coz were buddies and then lovers doesn’t mean that all relationships follow that same course of—”

“I think it does.”

But that couldn’t be right. Mike and I were never going to be romantic, because he was straight and maybe even still grieving. “You really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Kelly was going to argue; he opened his mouth to say something but stopped suddenly when someone yelled his name.

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