Home to Whiskey Creek. Brenda Novak

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      Shit. Maybe he’d imagined it. That was another thing Noah hated—how he’d begun to second-guess his best friend’s thoughts and reactions. It seemed as if he was always reading more into what Baxter said and did. Suspicion affected people that way; it messed with their minds. “Forget it.”

      Baxter seemed more than willing to let the subject go. “Do you know it’s almost noon?”

      With a yawn, he scratched his head. “Haven’t looked at a clock. Just rolled out of bed.”

      “So Amy opened the shop for you?”

      “She was supposed to. She’s there now, isn’t she?” For a moment, he was afraid that his employee hadn’t shown up.

      “She’s there. But...I thought she had school.”

      When Baxter’s gaze once again strayed to Noah’s bare chest, Noah grabbed the football jersey he’d left on the couch sometime in the past few days and put it on. It wasn’t as if he’d answered the door nude. He’d donned a pair of basketball shorts, but his state of undress seemed to be a distraction, which added to the creeping sensation that all was not as he’d believed with the kid who’d grown up next door. “She graduated in June, remember?”

      “I forgot. Does that mean you’re off today?”

      “No, but this time of year weekday mornings can be slow. There’s no rush. I’ll walk over in a bit, spell her for lunch.”

      “I can spell her if you’re sick.”

      “I’m not sick. Just tired.” He yawned again. “I got in late.”

      Baxter glanced beyond him, into his small bungalow. “Do you have company?”

      “You mean a woman? No.”

      “Then where were you last night? I came by a couple of times.”

      Noah ignored the apparent subtext of that sentence—the possessive “where were you?”— because he wasn’t even sure it existed. “Believe it or not, I was rescuing someone.”

      “You always wanted to be a superhero,” Baxter joked.

      “Now I just need the cape.” Relaxing slightly, Noah held the door. What was wrong with him? This was Bax! They’d been on lots of double dates together. Noah knew for a fact that Baxter had slept with a number of women—at least when they were younger.

      His friend grinned as he came in. “Who’d you rescue this time? Yet another chick from the confinement of her clothes?”

      See? When Baxter said stuff like that, as if he was just another one of the guys, Noah wondered if he was simply being conceited or...or paranoid to think Baxter was attracted to him.

      But there was always that indefinable something, like the feeling that had triggered his desire to pull on a shirt.

      Whatever was going on was so damn contradictory and confusing....

      “Is that the kind of rescue mission you’d like?” he said with a laugh.

      Baxter didn’t rush to convince him. “Now and then. There are too many risks and complications that go with sleeping around to do it very often.”

      “Yeah, well, I didn’t get naked with anyone last night.” He had seen—and touched—Adelaide’s bare ass. That was memorable. But, in deference to what she’d been through, he wasn’t going to mention it. Maybe the rest of the circumstances surrounding her ordeal would go public. The incident was too sensational for word not to spread. But nobody had to know about the private hour he’d spent in Milly’s home, removing slivers. “Do you remember Adelaide Davies?”

      Baxter’s gaze lighted on everything that was out of place. He’d been a neat freak since he was a little kid. “Adelaide who?”

      “Went to high school with us. Would’ve been a sophomore when we were seniors.”

      “I don’t recall anyone by that name.”

      “Doesn’t surprise me. We were at San Diego State by the time she graduated, and she left town right after.” Noah dropped onto the couch and dangled one leg over the arm.

      Baxter sat in the opposite chair, but he did so with his usual decorum. He wasn’t wearing one of his hand-tailored suits. He worked at a brokerage house in San Francisco Monday through Thursday, but his hours were flexible. Maybe he was taking two days off this week instead of one. Anyway, even his casual jeans and shirts came with expensive labels. He was stylish, well groomed, always had a perfect haircut and smelled like the men’s department at Macy’s.

      But Noah tried not to file any of that under the “gay or not gay” headings going on in the back of his mind. He refused to define Bax—someone he was supposed to know better than anyone else—according to stereotypes. He was still hoping his so-called gaydar was wrong....

      Actually, he didn’t care if his best friend preferred men. He’d deck anyone who had anything to say about it. He just didn’t want Baxter’s preferences to include him. Any admission along those lines would be far too weird.

      “She’s back?”

      “Just returned.”

      “And you didn’t sleep with her? You’re falling off your game, bro.”

      Noah scowled. He wasn’t that big a player. Living in a small town made it impossible to screw around very much—and maintain any respectability. It wasn’t as if he went out looking to get laid. Not very often, anyway. Women had always sort of...come to him. “Why do you keep bringing everything back to sex?”

      “Isn’t that what you usually want to talk about? How hot your latest conquest was?”

      Maybe he did talk too much about the women in his life. But he was trying to convince himself that the loneliness that had begun to plague him in recent years wasn’t going to taint his whole existence, that the life he led was fulfilling and would continue to be fulfilling even if nothing changed.

      Besides, he couldn’t think of a better way to put Baxter on notice that he wasn’t about to get intimate with another man.

      “She was beaten up! Of course I didn’t sleep with her. If you’ll listen, I’ll tell you what happened.”

      “Fine.” Baxter spread out his hands. “Let’s hear it, then.”

      “Forget it.” Flipping him off for being so damn facetious, Noah got up and headed to the kitchen.

      Baxter chuckled as he followed. “Now you’re clamming up?”

      “You don’t really want to hear.”

      “That’s not true. I’m dying to learn every sordid—or not so sordid—detail. Did you punish the guy who was giving her trouble, or what?”

      Noah turned to face him. “She was in the mine.”

      At this, Baxter sobered. “What do you mean ‘in the mine’? What mine?”

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