When the Dead Speak, Bailey Bradford [new ebook reader .TXT] 📗

over his shoulder at the two men watching him steadily. “That just means I hadn’t found anyone worth giving my…my heart to before. I’m not a fool. I know what I’ve got. I may not have the words to explain it to you two, but I don’t need to. The only one who needs to know, to understand, is Laine.” Sev left them there and went into the house, letting the screen door bounce shut behind him.

The truth of his words spun in his head as he stumbled to the guest room, and that buzzing sound in his brain wasn’t helping him at all. Knowing he wouldn’t have any peace until he listened, Sev flopped onto his back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling fan, watching it spin lazily in its attempt to disperse the heat. That’s what I feel like inside, all blown apart and scattered. Scared I’ll fuck this up, which is why I lost my temper when Laine’s friends were just trying to look out for him. Sev groaned and closed his eyes, adding a forearm across them in an attempt to hide from his own fears swirling around in his head. The buzzing grew louder and Sev cursed. Conner wasn’t going to leave him alone.

“Fine! Say whatever you want to say!” Sev opened his mind and gasped when he heard the voice that wasn’t Conner’s after all, the message both reassuring and scaring him. He listened though, and the words seemed to firm up all the bits of him that felt fragile and broken. When the voice stopped, Sev smiled and quit trying to hide behind his arm. He pushed up on the bed, scooting until his back was against the headboard and grinned as Zeke came thundering down the hall and through the door, not bothering to knock.

Sev waved a hand at him before he could get a word out. “I’m sorry for overreacting. You have every right to be concerned about your friend. Just… I guess I’m a little touchy about the way people see me.”

Zeke sat on the edge of the bed and studied Sev for several seconds before speaking. “I don’t think Brendon or I saw you as some kind of slut, Sev. Sure, we were wanting to know that Laine wasn’t gonna get his heart broken or anything, and maybe the way we went about it was kind of… Well, it’s not something we’ve had to worry about before, ya know? But I think—” Zeke tipped Sev’s chin up, encouraging Sev to meet his gaze, frowning at whatever it was he saw in Sev’s eyes. “I think you’re the one who doesn’t believe you aren’t anything more than a quick fuck. Or didn’t, before Laine, huh?” Zeke removed his hand and looked almost as uncomfortable as Sev felt.

The words were disconcertingly close to the truth, but Sev wouldn’t deny or confirm them. He had, in the past few days, become very aware of the fact that he had some issues he’d previously ignored. That didn’t mean he wanted to discuss them. “All I can tell you is, I have no intention of hurting Laine, okay? Anything else, that’s really between me and him, not me, him, and you two.”

Zeke nodded, his cheeks darkening the slightest bit. Sev grinned and decided to pass along the message he’d just gotten. “So, your mama says you two can be asses sometimes, but you mean well and she loves you both—and that you both better appreciate her giving Brendon more than just that one nudge in the hall the night you had your little tantrum, Zeke.”

Movement from the doorway caught Sev’s eye. Brendon stood behind Zeke, a silly grin on his face. Zeke had paled slightly and looked torn between suspicion and hope. Brendon came into the room and looped an arm around Zeke’s waist and planted a noisy kiss on his cheek.

“You’re mama loves me, you gotta keep me,” Brendon teased, and Zeke finally broke into a smile himself as he looked at his lover.

“Yeah, I guess I do, don’t I?” Zeke pulled Brendon into his arms. “Was planning on it anyway.” Zeke kissed Brendon so tenderly that Sev felt a pang of jealousy. He wanted that with Laine, and being jealous was stupid, because he knew they could have it. Zeke looked at him and nodded. “Thank you, Severo.”

Sev felt his skin heat with a flush, but his smile didn’t dim in the least. “You’re welcome.”

Brendon pulled out of Zeke’s embrace enough to offer his hand to Sev. “Come on. Let’s go talk about this whole ghost thing. You can explain to us how you do it.”

Sev took Brendon’s hand and accepted the gesture and words as the peace offering they were. “Okay, but I really don’t know the answer to that. Maybe we can figure it out, huh?” And maybe Sev could figure out how to tell Laine the things he needed to while he was at it.

Chapter Ten

Rich pushed aside the empty container that had held his breakfast and patted his stomach. “Despite that sour-faced bitch who delivered our food, that was pretty good.”

Matt and Laine nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, that was Virginia’s niece Irma. She has a bit of a problem, not a very tolerant person, and I suspect she’s a vindictive woman who would love to see me out of office,” Laine explained.

“That’s not gonna happen. I heard about her snit over you helping Zeke the other day, and while there may be other people who are as hateful as she is, most of the folks in this town learned their lesson when Zeke’s sister tried to kill him—and Irma is not well liked by anyone. That nasty temperament is applied liberally in many, many places on many, many topics.” Matt leaned back and stretched his legs, crossing them at the ankle. “I bet even the bigots wouldn’t side with her. She’s alienated just about everyone.”

“Great. Maybe we should have checked our food before we ate