Mission: Without a Trace - Nicole Edwards Page 0,36
with you all doom and gloom over here. It’s like a toxic cloud emanating around you, man.”
Reese smiled because that was what Zane expected him to do. Laugh at his attempt at a joke.
Too bad Reese didn’t find it all that funny.
He and Zane had been friends since middle school. They’d never been as good of friends as Zane and Beau were, but Reese had felt included from time to time. The same went for when he’d returned to Coyote Ridge a few years ago. Zane had welcomed him back as though years hadn’t slipped by in between Reese’s appearances.
When Rafe passed over Zane’s beer, the man thanked him, then turned and faced away from the bar, leaning his back against it. Casual as you may, Zane stretched out his long body, crossed his ankles, and drank his beer while observing everyone around them.
Or so he pretended.
“What’s really up with you? How’s that new detective thing you’ve got goin’?”
Because he didn’t feel like getting into the details, Reese offered an unenthusiastic “Fine.”
“Yeah? Didn’t look all that fine. You and your boss on the outs?”
Reese caught himself before he blurted out that they weren’t a thing. “It’s complicated.”
“Aren’t all good things?” Zane smirked.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
Reese was tempted. Damn it, he was truly tempted to tell someone what was going on, to find a sounding board, because keeping this shit inside was killing him. He could usually hash these things out with his brother, but right now Z was off doing God knew what, God knew where, and Reese wasn’t about to lay his problems at his brother’s feet. Not to mention, the complication of the whole thing. He wasn’t sure he was ready for his family to find out he wasn’t who he’d thought he was all this time.
“I know all about complicated,” Zane said sincerely, turning to face him as he propped himself on a stool.
“Not like this, you don’t.”
“No?” Zane huffed a laugh, set his beer on the bar. “You probably don’t know this because you hightailed it right after high school and didn’t bother to check in all that often, but things aren’t always what they seem.”
Not the first time Zane had told him that.
“You know how close Beau and I were growin’ up?”
Reese nodded, took a drink.
“Well, turned out, Beau had a thing for me.” Zane chuckled. “Me. Of all fuckin’ people. Guy was clearly delusional. Wasted a whole helluva lot of time on the likes of me when he coulda had so much better.”
That got Reese’s attention.
“Anyway,” Zane continued. “We were close. Close enough we shared some of the chicks I dated.”
Reese was aware of that. He’d heard the stories.
“Wasn’t until I started chasin’ V that things changed between us. He came out and told me he was in love with me.”
Although the details were curiously entertaining, it was the ease with which Zane relayed them that held Reese’s attention.
“At V’s urging, and thanks to the heat of some rather intense moments, I let the man explore, if you know what I mean. We ended up gettin’ intimate.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep.” Zane’s eyes were serious, something that wasn’t common for the man. “An experience, I tell ya. Didn’t do much for me, but I don’t regret what happened. Not even a little.”
Reese wasn’t sure where he was going with this.
“Granted, I don’t tell that story to just anyone. Nobody’s business and all.”
“So why me?”
“Because it doesn’t take a fuckin’ genius to see somethin’s goin’ on with you and my cousin.”
Reese looked back at his beer, dug at the label with his fingernail.
“Nothin’ to be ashamed of, Reese. The heart wants what it wants.”
“Evidently, so does the body,” he mumbled.
Zane laughed. “Yes, it most certainly does. And you could do a helluva lot worse than Brantley. I mean, come on, the guy’s a fuckin’ SEAL.”
Reese had nothing to say to that.
“What I’m tryin’ to tell you is you don’t have to be ashamed of who you are. You spend all your time pretendin’ to be someone you’re not, life’s gonna pass you right on by. Look what happened to Beau once he finally stopped hidin’ who he was. He hooked up with my brother. Now they’re livin’ their very own happily ever after.”
He wanted to tell Zane he had no clue what Reese was going through, but it sounded as though the man might have some idea. He had had sex with a man, after all. Or at least that was what Reese was getting from all this.