Before It's Too Late (Troubled Hearts Book 3) Page 2

  Resting his forearm on top of the steering wheel, Cael half turned his body to face Zach and stretched his arm across, grabbing the back of Zach’s seat. He leveled Zach a serious, contemplating look.

  “Starting now, all this mopey shit is over. You probably haven’t noticed, but I’ve been keeping everyone off your ass lately.”

  Zach knit his brow. “You have?”

  “Yeah. Mostly your parents and sister. They’ve been itching to come help you. I told ‘em to just leave you be for a while and let you deal. Figured you wouldn’t want them hovering and constantly asking if you wanted to talk about it. Geez, what is it with women and always wanting to talk about shit? Your dad was cool. He gets it. But your mom and sis? They were on me every day for updates. Fair warning, though. I gave them the all clear today. I think Abbey might pounce. Knowing her, she’s already been by your house looking for you.”

  “In that case, I think I owe you one, or ten.”

  Zach thought back to the few brief phone calls he’d received and the one visit a couple weeks after everything had fallen apart. Cael had been there when they stopped by. He’d been the one to play host that day too, keeping the conversation light and off Megan as much as possible. Zach remembered his dad asking if he was going to try to fix things between Megan and him, but before he could answer, Abbey had stepped in and said something about how it wouldn’t have worked, that Zach had done nothing wrong, and that it wasn’t something anyone could fix.

  Fuck, was Abbey in on it too?

  Zach’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and the screen flashed with a text notification from his sister. “Speak of the devil.” He huffed a quiet laugh.

  “Let me guess,” Cael said. “Abbey.” It’s not even remotely a question.

  “Yep. She wants to know where I’m at.”

  Zach typed back a quick response.

  Zach: With Cael. Going to breakfast, then Gramms. Text you when I’m back.

  Mere nanoseconds passed before her reply came back.

  Abbey: You better.

  Zach shook his head, smiling.

  “What’d you tell her?”

  “That I was going to breakfast with you, then off to Gramms, and that I would text her when I got home.”

  “Bet she wasn’t too happy about that.”

  “Probably not. I’ll be paying for that one later.”

  Cael snorted, shifting back into his seat and pulling the keys from the ignition. “Something tells me I will too.”

  “Oh, man. Yeah, you will.”

  Zach couldn’t help but laugh. His little sister could be relentless. He could imagine exactly what Cael had been putting up with lately, but there’d be even more hell to pay today when he got home, especially after two months of avoiding her.

  “Alright, so, I’m starving,” Cael said. He hopped out of the truck. Zach followed a few steps behind him.

  After opening the door to the restaurant, Cael held it for Zach, then followed him inside. The usual simultaneous and perky “good morning” from the four-person wait staff hit them as they walked in, as did the delectable smell of sizzling bacon and fresh coffee. Fucking heaven.

  As Zach made a beeline for the corner table by the window with Cael trailing right behind him, one of the waitresses looked up and made eye contact with him. In an instant, her auburn eyebrows shot up and a huge grin sprawled across her round, subtly-freckled face.

  “Hey, stranger,” she beamed, winking at Zach, then glanced behind him at her brother. Zach guessed he should have expected Chloe would have been working today, but his brain had been a little out of it all morning. “I’ll be right with you guys,” she added.

  Zach slid into the molded-Formica bench seat facing the window, letting Cael have his usual spot opposite him with a direct view of the kitchen and the door in order to appease his OCD, as Zach liked to joke. Zach had never minded though. Cael had always been the protective sort, particularly with family, which had included Zach and his for more than a decade now.

  They’d already been best friends for about nine years when two seniors decided to corner Zach in the high school locker room one day, warning him not to spend so much time with Cael because he was gay and that others were starting to suspect he was too, since no one had ever seen him with a girlfriend.

  Zach couldn’t help that he was geeky, scrawny, and short. Most girls avoided him like the plague back in those days, but even when they threatened to spread rumors that he was gay around the school, Zach’s gut reaction hadn’t been to defend himself or lies about his own sexuality. Instead, he’d defended Cael. To this day, he remembered what he’d told them.

  “Cael isn’t gay. But even if he is, I don’t care. Spread all the fucking lies you want, but it doesn’t make it true, and it doesn’t make me gay either.”

  One of them taunted him further. “Sounds like an admission to me.”

  “Yep, total denial,” another one joked.

  “Careful, or he’ll go running to his boyfriend.”

  Zach just rolled his eyes. He might have been shy, but when it came to his friends and family, he wasn’t afraid to stand up for them when the need arose.

  “You guys are assholes,” Zach said, trying to push past them, but they were bigger and stronger and stopped him.

  “Where you going, fag?”

  “Leave him alone.”

  Cael’s firm voice echoed from around the corner just before he stepped into view. Zach hadn’t even known Cael had come looking for him. He’d come up alongside a row of lockers behind him and apparently had heard every word Zach had said to those guys.

  The other two guys backed off a bit.

  “Hey, Manning. Here to save your boyfriend?”

  “Fuck off, dick-for-brains. I might be gay, but Zach isn’t, so lay off or I’ll tell Coach you were bullying him and you’ll get thrown off the team.”

  “You wouldn’t.”

  “Care to test that theory?”

  Zach had known they wouldn’t, and after a brief exchange of glares and silence, they’d waved them off and left.

  Zach remembered the sudden rush of air back to his lungs afterward along with the knots in his stomach. He’d been nervous as fuck, but he’d known he couldn’t let them see it. And he was immensely grateful Cael had shown up when he did.

  Things changed but didn’t change after that. Sure, Zach had learned Cael was gay, but it didn’t faze him, and he was still his best friend, but he’d also become a lot more that day. As far as Zach was concerned, that was the day they became family.

  Zach’s lips twisted into a small smile at the thought.

  “What?” Cael asked, arching one eyebrow, something Zach had never been able to do in his life.

  “Oh, nothing,” Zach said, but he couldn’t hide his spreading grin. “You’re just so fucking adorable when you’re in protector mode.” Zach knew how much Cael hated it when he called him adorable.

  “Shut up,” Cael retorted. His cheeks reddened a little, and Zach had to bite back his laugh. Cael might look like a big, tough guy, but anyone who knew him at all knew he was a softie.

  “Hey, Zach,” Chloe said as she set two thick, ivory ceramic coffee mugs on the table. She filled them each one at a time as she shifted her inquisitive gaze between them. “Welcome back to the world of the living.”

  “Thanks. I missed you too, Chloe.”

  “I’m sure I’m not the only one.” She winked at Zach, giving his shoulder a squeeze. “Food’ll be out in a few. The usual, right?” She didn’t even pause to confirm their breakfast order. “Seriously though, Zach, good to have you back. It’s been hell dealing with Cael, especially these last few weeks.”

  Chloe left them to check on another table and wipe down yet another. Zach tilted his head to gesture toward her.

  “What was all that about?” Zach asked, grabbing his mug and proceeding to dump sugar and creamer into the steaming liquid, anxious to load the caffeine into his system and kill off the
remnants of his hangover. Fortunately, the water and painkiller he’d taken earlier had kicked in on their way over here.

  Cael shrugged as he sipped his coffee, drinking it black and barely sweetened. “She’s been acting weird ever since you and Megan split, but every time I ask her, she rolls her eyes and gives me that look like I should already know or something.”

  “Hmm.”

  “I swear, she and Abbey have been up to something lately. Only I have no flippin’ clue what it is. All Chloe keeps telling me is that I need to take my blinders off, whatever the heck that means.”

  “Blinders?” That word reminded Zach of something Abbey said to him once, several months ago. Something about being blind to what was right in front of him, but right after she said it, she’d dropped it, as if it had been a slip of the tongue. “Abbey said something similar to me once.”

  “Christ, why can’t women just come out and say what they mean?”

  “Because there’s no fun in that,” Chloe interjected into their conversation, setting a plate of fried eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, and toast in front of Zach and a waffle with scrambled eggs and toast in front of her brother. “And I seriously doubt you want me to come right out and say it.”

  “Try us,” Cael said.

  Chloe glanced at Zach and shook her head, her brilliant, imperfect smile almost ear-to-ear. “Nope. Ain’t spillin’. You two gotta figure this one out on your own.”

  “Why?” Cael asked, pulling several tiny paper napkins carefully from the metal holder.

  “Because Abbey and I placed bets years ago on how long it would take and we both agreed not to meddle or give anything away. ‘Course, we didn’t think it would take you both this long. We’ve had to adjust our bets several times.”

  “Bets on what?” Zach asked, glancing between her and Cael.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Chloe asked, raising an eyebrow much like her brother always did, making Zach curse his own. Zach always looked like a fucking idiot whenever he tried to do it.

  After a moment of silence and what was pure bewilderment on both their faces—because Zach swore that Cael looked just as confused as he was—Chloe shook her head, giving them the customary, exasperated eye roll.

  “Okay, maybe it’s not, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out one of these days. Though I’d prefer it soon, but not too soon. Abbey’s date is before mine, and I’d rather not lose.” Chloe put a yellow slip of paper face down on their table then headed back to the kitchen.

  Well, if that didn’t fucking confuse the hell out of Zach.

  “Great,” Cael said, stretching one of his legs out under the table and leaning it against Zach’s, probably not even realizing it. “Both our sisters are conspiring against us.”

  Zach ignored the harmless physical connection, thinking nothing of it, and picked up his fork and butter knife. “Yeah. You’d think we’d be used to that by now, but what could they have possibly bet on that started years ago?”

  Chapter 2

  What could they have bet about? Well, Cael had a potential theory on that, but he couldn’t say anything. He was fairly certain it had something to do with the one secret he’d kept from Zach.

  Cael was in love with him. Had been for years.

  The whole thing just plain sucked because Cael couldn’t tell him. If he did, he knew Zach would feel guilty about the fact that he didn’t reciprocate Cael’s feelings and he would try to make him feel better somehow. Zach didn’t need that burden, and the truth was, Cael felt better anytime he was around him, even if he couldn’t touch him the way he so desperately wanted to.

  Cael had pressed his leg lightly to Zach’s in the tight space beneath the table, and either Zach hadn’t noticed or he didn’t care. Probably the latter, because Zach had never been one to shy away from his touches, even if he wasn’t interested in guys. Of course, that also meant Cael had to be extra vigilant in not going too far beyond the friend zone.

  “No freakin’ clue,” Cael said in answer to Zach’s question about the bet as he opened a package of butter and began spreading it over his waffle so it could melt.

  “Well, let’s see if we can piece together the clues we do have,” Zach said as he cut up the last bit of sausage before mixing the over-easy eggs, hashbrowns, and sausage together the way he always did. “Abbey and Chloe placed bets on when something involving the both of us would take place, and they did so years ago.”

  Zach paused, scrunching his face, twisting his lips sideways and pinching his brows together. God, he was so cute when he did that.

  Chloe had discovered Cael’s crush on Zach years ago, and Cael was sure she’d told Abbey. Those two were nearly as inseparable as him and Zach, only neither of them had fallen in love with the other the way Cael had gone and done.

  “Don’t forget the blinders comment,” Cael added. He had to keep up appearances and look as if he were actually helping Zach decipher the puzzle.

  “Oh yeah. So that’s gotta have to do with something you and I aren’t seeing.” Zach stared at Cael as he took a bite of the sausage, potato, and egg mixture, then a drink of coffee.

  Zach’s eyes locked on his. Cael could see the gears grinding. Zach was thinking hard, trying to come up with the answer and solve the puzzle Cael’s little sister had just fed him, and Zach was a sucker for puzzles, often to the point where they would consume him.

  The way Zach looked at him now, however, it was as though he was reading his soul. After a moment, Zach’s searching gaze morphed and his dark brown eyes narrowed in the slightest, barely discernible amount, as if he’d found something he hadn’t expected to find.

  Zach’s potential discovery jacked Cael’s pulse up a bit, but he’d been hiding the way he felt about Zach for so long now that he immediately and instinctively applied his defense mechanism.

  Cael raised one eyebrow and feigned a smirk as if he’d caught Zach nosing somewhere he didn’t belong. “Keep looking at me like you want to kiss me and you might regret it.”

  “Shut up.” Zach half grinned as he said it, then blushed and looked away, grabbing a package of strawberry jam. As he peeled back the foil cover, Zach gave his head a subtle shake.

  Cael wasn’t sure what that was all about, but he couldn’t resist giving him a hard time about it. “You want it, Pook, all you have to do is ask.”

  Zach rolled his eyes, smearing jam over a triangle of toast. “Two offers in one day? Shit, Manning, you that hard up?” He smirked, his eyes shining with laughter and mischief and… something more.

  “Hey, gimme a break. I’ve been looking after your sorry ass for the last couple months.”

  Zach’s voice softened, and the light in his eyes faded again. “Yeah, thanks.”

  “Sorry, Pook. Seriously, though, you need to let go and move on.”

  Zach looked up from his plate, searching Cael’s eyes, as if looking to him for answers. He sucked in a sharp breath, dropping his gaze a little, and drew his bottom lip into his mouth with his teeth. When he lifted his eyes again, Cael swore he could see the question hiding behind them. Christ, he’d give Zach whatever he needed or wanted, if he would just ask, because as much as he loved him, Cael wasn’t a freakin’ mind reader.

  “What?” Cael asked, hoping Zach would just tell him.

  Zach shook his head and stared past him out the window. “Nothing.”

  ***

  The fifteen-minute drive to Gramm’s remained quiet, which could be normal for Zach, but the silence drove Cael crazy because Zach had been tight-lipped and contemplating ever since that nervous look of realization passed over his face at breakfast. If Zach had figured out Cael was hiding something from him, Cael would be stuck lying to him or telling him the truth, and either way, things would get weird between them because, in reality, how could they not?

  It would be like the embarrassing moment in some movie where the gay guy is found to be in love with his straight best friend, only it wouldn’t end with the predictable, happy ending where the best friend r
ealizes he’s gay too, because real life simply didn’t work that way, no matter how much Cael wished it would.

  “Dude, you okay?”

  Zach’s concerned voice dragged Cael from the cruel torture his brain had inflicted upon him, and Cael looked at him for a brief second before turning into the cracked, asphalt driveway of his grandmother’s house.

  “Yeah. Why?” Cael put the truck in park and switched off the engine.

  “You just seem a lot quieter than usual.”

  “Oh. Nah, I’m good. I was just trying to give you some quiet to work through that puzzle in your head.” Cael faked a grin and a small laugh. “Speaking of head, how’s that hangover doin’? Those little leprechauns still at it?”

  Zach flopped his head back against the headrest, exposing his barely-there Adam’s apple—one of many spots on his body Cael had fantasized about licking. Heat shot to his groin. Christ, now was not the time.

  “Thank fuck, no. Don’t ever let me drink that much again.”

  “Hey. I warned you.”

  “Yeah, well next time, fucking remind me of the explosive mining operation that will take place in my skull at the ungodly hour of dawn if I don’t listen.”

  Cael grinned, genuinely this time. “Alright, well, come on. We’ve got work to do.”

  He hopped out of the truck, and Zach did the same, following him up the narrow sidewalk flanked by carefully tended rock gardens to the screened front door. Cael opened the screen and knocked as he inserted his key and unlocked the door, letting them both in. The moment Cael stepped in, the scent of freshly baked banana bread hit him.

  Gramms came around the corner as Zach closed the door behind him. “Oh, there’s my boys.” She beamed as they approached, her long, graying red hair pulled into a loose pony tied at her nape. Her hip-hugging, flared-leg jeans and flowy, ivory peasant top covered her thin, petite frame, completing the retro style of her younger days that she’d always loved.

  Cael shrugged out of his fleece jacket and hung it on the wooden coat tree still topped with some of his late grandfather’s baseball caps.