The Best Man's Problem by Sera Taíno

Author:Sera Taíno
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-12-01T22:16:55+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Étienne

Étienne took extra care while trimming his beard after a sleepless night. The day he’d spent with Rafi ran on loop in his head and kept him from finding much-needed rest. Étienne had been too close to kissing that gremlin and needed to stop setting himself up to be constantly rebuffed by Rafi and accept that nothing was going to happen between them.

There was also Philip. He was like a brother to Étienne, and Val was coming to mean the same to him. This thing with Rafi was too close to risk those relationships. It was bad enough his parents did not accept his choices; he could not risk the rejection of his friends, too.

He looked at the contact on his phone. Caio was a good-looking man who had shown an uncomplicated interest in Étienne. He did not possess Rafi’s penchant for overthinking, and he would not upset the connections Étienne so cherished. Étienne gripped his phone, his thumb hovering over the buttons, poised to strike.

He shoved the phone in his pocket instead. It never turned out well, going out with one person to get over another. Feelings didn’t work that way.

He thought of his recent exes, the beautiful, ambitious Malena, or gentle, kind-hearted Jean, partners he should have felt more for, but could not. People who, in theory, Étienne should have fallen in love with.

Instead, he was agonizing over a man he should not feel anything for, a person for which anything more than friendship had the potential to strain important connections. A person who would not follow through on their indisputable connection, and refused to even acknowledge it.

He pushed Rafi roughly out of his mind, determined not to waste any more time on him. He was due at his family’s house for dinner, which he attended as often as his schedule allowed. His mother had tasked him with buying a few things at Nanette’s Grocery, which he now juggled in a paper bag.

Étienne knocked on the door of his sister’s apartment, adjusting his plain black sweater—not one of his bespoke creations made for his long body and wide shoulders. He’d once worn a striped baby blue and navy-colored dress shirt crafted from a bolt of batik he’d bought from a wonderful artisan during a photoshoot in Jakarta. It had barely survived the meal, falling victim to his niece’s and nephew’s grease-covered fingers. At five and seven years old, they were endowed with the supernatural ability to target and smear only the finest of his clothing. He had learned his lesson.

Deidre answered the door, a little girl in pink tights and an oversize green sweater appearing from behind her legs.

“Tonton!” Jonielle squealed.

“My little Jo-Jo. Look what I have for you.” Étienne pulled out a LEGO pirate ship. “You see, when you build it, the plank will extend and inside—”

“Gra-a-a-a-an-n!” Jonielle erupted, taking the box, and racing inside to show her grandmother. Deidre tried to stop her but Jonielle whipped past her mother and tore around the corner, her shouts trailing behind her like streamers of pure joy.

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