Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 435(@200wpm)___ 348(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 435(@200wpm)___ 348(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
More than good looks were needed to pull JB in. Teresa had those in spades with her silky blonde hair and big blue eyes, but he liked kindness as well and sometimes, she lacked that.
Teresa was more subdued then, her comments quieter as she ate her dinner. She surprised the hell out of him when she thanked his mother for the food. She didn’t stay for the pie. Part of him felt bad that she was hurt, but mostly he was just glad she’d clued in that he had a life completely separate from her plans for him.
“I feel bad for that woman,” Katie said when she was gone. “She sure has it bad for you, JB.”
“I know. I can’t figure out how to get her to back off. There’s nothing there for me and I’ve told her that in the past, yet she doesn’t give up. I don’t want to be rude to her, don’t want to hurt her, but I don’t see her the way she obviously does me.”
“Well, now she thinks you’re with Cole.” Katie’s gaze slid to Cole. “Did you know my brother is bi?”
“Katie!” JB closed his eyes briefly, then opened them to shoot her a pointed look. “I’m sure he doesn’t care about that.”
“No, I didn’t know,” Cole said quietly, his blue eyes on JB. But he didn’t say anything else.
And really, what could he say? Good for JB?
JB had to suddenly laugh. His sister had no filter, but he loved her. Though it was probably good Cole knew that about him. He had caught JB smelling him earlier after all, so he’d probably already guessed.
Plus, he’d admitted his first kiss had been with a guy. Probably thought he was gay. He worked around a lot of gay men, so JB couldn’t imagine he’d take issue with anything.
Still, he felt a bit embarrassed to have his sexual orientation discussed at the dinner table. He looked at Cole to find the man still quietly staring at him.
And it wasn’t his imagination this time. Cole did seem to be at least curious.
Chapter Nine
After they helped clean up, Cole wandered with JB to the guesthouse. Moonlight shone on the path and crickets chirped out of the darkness along with the soft lowing of the cows. The temperature had cooled down from the oppressive heat of the day, and the light breeze felt good on his face.
Tension twisted and thrummed between them like a rubber band stretched too far. One wrong word and it would snap. What in the world was he supposed to say? While JB’s family all seemed kind and funny, there was an entire subtext to most of their conversations that he wasn’t sure he was reading correctly.
But it had become startlingly clear when Katie had blurted out that JB was bi. That in itself hadn’t come as a huge shock. The guy had admitted that his first kiss was with a man. Cole had assumed—wrongly—that JB was gay. Not a problem. He worked with a lot of men who were gay, and they were all fantastic.
Then Katie and JB’s mother had simply stared at him as if they were waiting for him to share his own sexuality. This wasn’t about checking to see if Cole was homophobic. They were trying to set him up with JB, and they wanted him to happily admit that he was gay or at least bi.
He’d been fine to let Teresa think that he and JB were sort of more than friends. She was disturbingly hung up on him, and if this was a way of gently giving her a clue that she didn’t have a chance with JB, that was fine. He’d played wingman for a number of his gay friends when they were trying to give a guy a subtle brush-off.
But he wasn’t going to lie to JB’s family to make them happy. He also wasn’t going to say anything about his sexuality to them. It wasn’t any of their damn business.
That being said, he did feel like he needed to talk to JB. More than once it felt like JB had caught his lingering gaze. Was he sending signals to the man that he was open to something more than friendship? He did not want to lead JB on. That was a dick move, and he was not a dick.
He glanced over at JB as they reached the veranda and JB gave him a quick smile. He barely suppressed a shiver at the memory of JB smelling him earlier. Though he’d grinned at him, something inside him had gone warm and squeezed his heart.
Which was weird and unexpected.
He definitely needed to talk to JB before there was a painful misunderstanding between them that destroyed this easy friendship that was building. But how in the world was he supposed to bring that up?