No Good Deed - Marie Sexton Page 0,32

was easy to figure out which was which. He’d heard enough about them from Charlie. Taylor was exactly Warren’s type—young and twinkish. River was a surprise, though—far bigger and more stereotypically masculine than Rory had been, wearing a flannel shirt and several days’ worth of scruff. Jonas knew River was a doctor, but he looked more like a guy who should have been hiking through the woods with an ax slung over his shoulder.

“Hey, Charlie,” River said as he and Taylor scooted down to make room for them at the picnic table. “You’re just in time to help us celebrate.”

“What are we celebrating?” Charlie asked as he settled next to Taylor.

River nodded Taylor’s direction. Taylor was practically bouncing in his seat. “I got a job!” He threw his arms around Charlie’s neck. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

Charlie patted him on the back. “That’s fantastic. Where at?”

Taylor sat back, grinning. “At a drug rehab center in Lakewood. I start next week.”

“That’s great, kid. Congratulations.”

“Phil’s working,” River said. “But I offered to come help him celebrate.”

They all grinned, sipping their beers, but then the focus shifted, as expected, to the new guy at the table.

“Hi. I’m River.”

Jonas took the proffered hand. He wasn’t ready to find out if his name meant anything to them or not. He certainly wasn’t ready for it to get back to Avery or Gray. “I’m Jay.” Charlie didn’t blink at the lie. “I’m staying with Charlie for a little while.” Taylor and River both turned to Charlie, then back to Jonas, their eyebrows up, clearly wanting to know exactly what kind of relationship they had. “I’m donating a kidney,” Jonas said. Totally out of the fucking blue, but it was on his mind, and it was a sure bet for directing their attention away from whether or not he and Charlie were doing the naughty.

Sure enough, his kidney donation gave them something to talk about for a few minutes. River gave him the same assurances he’d already heard a hundred times—it was safe, he’d be fine. As usual, they did nothing to quell the sheer panic in Jonas’s heart.

After that, conversation drifted to River’s job at the hospital, and Taylor’s new job at a drug rehab center.

“Which side of Lakewood?” Charlie asked.

“West side,” Taylor said.

“Wow. That’s going to be one bitch of a commute.”

Taylor’s cheeks turned a bit red. “Maybe not.” He eyed them all. “We’re trying to sell the house. The business Warren took over from his uncle is based in Lakewood. Most of his clients are on that side of town. Now my work is too. It’d suck, because we’d be a lot farther away from you,” he said to Charlie. “And farther from Gravy, but—”

“Gravy?” River interrupted. “What’s that?”

“Gray and Avery. It’s their ship name. Gray, Avery. Gravy! Get it?” Taylor beamed. “Anyway. We’ll be farther from you guys, but we’ll be a lot closer to Phil and River.”

“That’d be great,” River said. “I know Phil misses Warren. And you.” He glanced around the table. “Nobody’s leaving, right? I’ll go buy us another round.”

Once he was gone, Charlie turned to Taylor. “Warren’s willing to sell his house?”

Taylor shrugged. “He says he is.”

“What about you? Are you sure you want to leave your garden behind?”

“I wasn’t at first, but I am now.” Taylor stared into his empty beer glass, chewing his lip. “I met Warren a year ago, almost exactly. Did you know that? I was basically a homeless whore before Warren. And now, I have a husband. I have job. One that really matters, even. I have friends. I have my dad. He’s even talking about moving down from Ft. Collins to be closer to me.” He wiped tears from his eyes, although he didn’t seem embarrassed by them. “Sometimes I can’t believe this is my life. I have nightmares that I’m back there, doing what I used to do, and it’s such a relief to wake up and realize I’ll never have to be what I thought I was.” He blinked big, golden brown eyes at Charlie. “It’s hard to remember how I got from there to here. But that garden was part of it. It was my therapy, you know?”

Charlie nodded. “I do.”

“Part of me will be sad to leave it. But I didn’t know what I was doing. I just planted things wherever they fit.” He pursed his lips, his gaze focused inward. “Warren promised we’ll find a place with a great big yard. I’ll get to start brand new, from scratch. Like