A Subtle Breeze, Bailey Bradford [year 2 reading books .txt] 📗

friendly right now and have so much work to get back to, would it be okay if I invite my friends over for supper? I’m making fried chicken and mashed potatoes, gravy and biscuits and—”

Zeke laughed, shaking his head. One way or another, Nessa was going to make him meet her friends, and there was no reason he could think of not to do so this evening. Not without hurting her feelings, anyway.

“Nessa, if you’re going to fix one of your homemade meals for supper, you can bring over the entire college campus for all I care.” He hugged his little sister, maybe not so little now at twenty-three, but she’d always be little to him, especially as she was a good eight inches shorter than his own six-foot, three-inches.

“I’ll see you—and your buddies—at the supper table, okay?” Zeke let her go and headed back over to his truck, pushing aside thoughts of supper and company, already focusing on the tasks waiting for him when he got home. Soon his mind was making lists and shifting around priorities, leaving no room for him to dwell on things like his mama’s death or how lonely he was.

* * * *

“Oh, come on, Brendon, you can fit in Nessa’s car! I’ll crawl in the back.” Gloria’s voice held the pleading note that Brendon almost always caved in to, but this time he wasn’t going down so easily. The little hybrid his cousin Gloria’s friend drove might be economical, but there was no way it would be comfortable for his six-foot frame. He’d much rather take his gas-guzzling SUV over to the cemetery where Enessa said her brother would be instead of trying to cram into a tuna can on wheels.

“What is the problem with taking my SUV?” Because he certainly didn’t have a problem with taking it, even if it did contribute to ozone decay. That would be a slower death than compression and suffocation in a dinky car.

Gloria and Enessa exchanged looks, leaving Brendon to wonder what they were hiding, and why he had let himself get talked into this whole thing to begin with. He’d visited Gloria over Christmas for a few days, having driven up from UT at Austin before his last semester there. He hadn’t seen his cousin in years, since before she had moved to McKinton, and Brendon had looked forward to renewing their friendship.

Now he had his master’s in geology, and when Gloria had suggested he come visit her in McKinton again before he decided whether or not to pursue his doctorate, he’d thought it sounded like a nice break. He’d been in college for six years and figured taking the summer off would help him map out his future. Added to that, she mentioned that Enessa, whom he had met over the Christmas break, had a really hot and available older brother…and the whole idea had suddenly become very appealing.

Not that Brendon needed to be hooked up. He was decent looking, though he didn’t dwell on it. Still, he knew his face was not a bad one. Attractive, even, with his light brown eyes framed in dark lashes, a straight, narrow nose, a full lower lip—and the dimple in his right cheek when he smiled drew its fair share of compliments. He kept his sandy brown hair short, minimizing the amount of time he had to deal with it. Working out and hiking on a regular basis kept his body in good shape, muscles toned and tight. Despite this, Brendon had to admit his sex life had been somewhat…lacking, but that was due more to the amount of time he had spent on his studies than anything else. With his summer free, he could have found someone on his own, but then Gloria had e-mailed him a picture of Enessa standing beside her brother, and Brendon had been sunk.

Ezekiel stared back at him from the photo with eyes such a deep green that Brendon had first assumed the picture had been fixed up, but Gloria assured him it hadn’t. She’d sent a few other pictures, and they all showed the same studious, sexy man staring back at the camera. Brendon’s cock had sprung to life as soon as he’d downloaded the first picture, and it seemed he had been walking around with an uncomfortable erection too much of the time ever since.

Zeke Matthers was tall, around six-three or four, broad shouldered and just sexy as fuck. His coffee-colored hair hung down past his shoulders, framing a face that belonged on a model. Dark eyebrows sat over those wide, slightly up-tilted green eyes surrounded with thick lashes. His nose was incredibly sexy, long and narrow, with a slight bump on the bridge where it had been broken at least once. And his lips… Ezekiel had full lips, the bottom one plumper than the top, and Brendon had spent plenty of time thinking about sucking on that lower lip—right after he ran his tongue through the dimple on the chin below it. All in all, he had it bad. Sunk, just like that.

“Brendon!” Gloria waved her hand in his face and he jerked back, wondering how long she had been flapping around him. “Have you heard anything we said?”

Embarrassed to be caught with his mind teetering very close to the gutter, Brendon shook his head. Gloria harrumphed, something she was quite good at, crossing her arms across her chest and giving him an irritated glare.

“Nessa said it’s better to take her car because Zeke will recognize it and probably not leave before we get out. If we go in your SUV, there’s a good chance he will just up and run before we can even park.” Gloria watched him, waiting to make sure he got it this time.

“Fine, fine. Let’s just go, then.” Brendon would have asked about the whole Zeke probably not leaving thing, except he knew, thanks to Nessa and Gloria, how hard it was for the man to come to town. The