Logan.
The man was just as handsome as he had always been. If anything, the few years that had passed had only improved him. Or was it just that Derrick had tried so hard to forget about Derrick that he had sabotaged his own memories?
It didn’t matter. He repeated those three words over and over to himself as he watched Logan’s eyes—still, the same rare, brilliant shade of sky-blue that they had always been—turn toward him, saw them widen with the shock of seeing Derrick sitting right there in the living room.
Their gazes locked, and Derrick, just for a second, couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t seem to force his lungs to draw in air, like they had frozen. Or maybe like time itself had frozen. His muscles clenched, his heart gave a painful thump, and his stomach knotted up a million times.
In that second, he knew. He had never gotten over Logan. Even Logan’s cruel way of saying goodbye hadn’t really driven the wedge between them that they should have. Yes, Derrick had left, and Derrick had focused on other things, but the moment he was back with Logan, he saw how flimsy all of that was.
It was Logan who moved first. He had been standing completely still on the bottom stair, but he took the last step and walked into the living room. His face was impossible to read. He wasn’t smiling, but he didn’t seem to be actively hostile, either.
Of course, neither of them said anything to the other. That was how they had always operated, and that was how things had worked out between them the best. Logan just walked into the room and sat down, his gaze drifting slowly from Derrick to Kyle’s sleeping form. The slow rise and fall of Kyle’s chest was the only movement that he was making. Otherwise, he had been completely still all night.
Derrick watched Logan, with all of the attention of someone watching a rattlesnake coiling up, ready to strike. Maybe that was understandable, given the history between them, though. What he didn’t understand was when Logan made his way into the living room, rather than just going off into the kitchen to start coffee like he would expect.
“Derrick. It’s been a while,” Logan said, his voice quiet, his face somewhat inscrutable to Derrick. Why was Logan even speaking to him at all? Logan had been the one to break his heart, after all, not the other way around. It seemed odd, to say the least, that Logan was also now the one initiating conversation.
Or was it just that Logan was playing some sort of game? If so, he would find that Derrick was not nearly as willing to be played with as he had been before. He was older and wiser, and he utterly refused to be taken in by a tall, strong body, a wicked smile, and a big dick.
Though that last point, in particular, he really needed not to think too much about. If he let himself, he could remember every inch of that gorgeous body in great detail, but picturing Logan naked and hard was just too much.
“Yeah.” Derrick kept his voice pitched just as low, and he was pleased when it came out calm and rational. Like it hadn’t taken him months to get over this asshole. But he was doing good, not falling into the guy’s arms or anything. “I wish I could say that it’s good to see you, but I’d be lying.”
It was supposed to be a cutting comment, but all Logan did was laugh, which annoyed Derrick to no end. Annoyance was good, though. Better than desire. Or longing. Or frustrated emotion.
“Whatever you say, kiddo,” Logan said, and Derrick gritted his teeth at the casual tone of the other man’s voice. It just wasn’t fair. Logan didn’t have to shove it in Derrick’s face just how little what they had done meant to him. Although so much time had passed, and it had clearly never meant much to Logan to start with.
It was probably good that Kyle chose that exact moment to stir, maybe roused by their voices, maybe by the wicked hangover that he was inevitably going to have. He rolled from his back onto his side, and when Derrick caught the motion out of his peripheral vision, he saw that his eyelashes were fluttering open.
“He’s waking up,” Logan commented.“Do you know who he is?”
Derrick frowned, a little wary suddenly. He had no idea who Kyle was, other than his first name. But Kyle had gotten out of the cab and headed right for the house, and he had just made some natural assumptions. Had he messed up?
“No,” he admitted. “I sort of just guessed he had the right to be here, the way he stumbled in. I figured Mal hired someone else because you weren’t pulling your weight.” There was an extra edge to the comment since Logan hadn’t even apparently noticed the first dig, but to his annoyance, even to his own ears, the comment came off as almost affectionate.
How long that would have continued on, Derrick making snarky comments at Logan that Logan seemed to pretty much just ignore, to shrug right off, Derrick had no idea. But the house was coming awake around them. Anna, the longtime housekeeper and accountant, was up and making breakfast now, but she left them alone, so that was all right.
What wasn’t all right was the way that Logan was looking at Kyle as those long eyelashes swept up, the dark eyes beneath dazed.
“Wyatt sent him. He’s here to get Malcolm to sell the ranch,” Logan explained, and Derrick frowned. To him, that very much seemed like his brother Wyatt was getting in over his head. No one was more stubborn than Malcolm, and no one loved this ranch more than he did, either. Not even Logan and that was saying something.
“Oh look,” Logan commented, and Derrick could hear the smile loud and clear in his words without needing to look at him. “Sleeping Beauty is awake.”
That was where it officially got to be too much for Derrick. Sharp prickles of jealousy lodged in his stomach like he had swallowed a ball of blackberry vines, and they wrapped around his internal organs so that he felt like he could barely breathe. Every time he tried, that jealousy worked its way further into his body, and he didn’t need to tell himself that it wasn’t logical. It obviously wasn’t. He had no claim on Logan at all.
It was just that, how dare Logan look at this beautiful young man, this Kyle?
Speaking of which, Kyle was talking to him now, saying words that Derrick couldn’t quite focus on, and he should really work on that. He was being horribly rude, and he even knew it. He was so stupid, letting himself get all worked up over something that was ancient history.
Just when Derrick was realizing that he was incredibly tired from a night spent awake and watching over Kyle, and that the absolute best thing he could do would be to excuse himself and go have a well-deserved nap, that was the same moment that Malcolm came down the stairs, then froze in place as he looked at the scene in the living room.
It had to be an odd one, Derrick and Logan both carefully not looking at each other and standing over Kyle, who was reclining on the couch. Not to mention that he wouldn’t even be expecting Derrick to be there at all since he had very clearly told Derrick that he didn’t need to come.
“Derrick,” Malcolm said, just the one word, but Derrick knew his brother well enough to hear the criticism in his voice. It was cold and distancing, and somehow in just saying his name, Malcolm managed to make it clear that Derrick wasn’t welcome.
“Yeah. I told you I’m done with classes for the semester or isn’t this my home, too?” Derrick asked, and his attention was all on his older brother. He had, for the moment, almost forgotten that Logan was there at all until the other man spoke up. It wasn’t really surprising, since Derrick knew that Malcolm and Logan had always had each other’s backs, but somehow, it got to Derrick anyway when Logan piped up with his two cents.
“I mean, it was, before you ran off.”
Before Derrick ran off, beforeDerrickran off, he fummed. Logan had been the one to practically kick him out the door, so that was just plain too much for him to take. He had two choices. He was generally more level-headed than Malcolm was, but right at the moment, either he was going to leave, or he was going to lash out at everyone in sight.
And who knew what would come out if he did that. Secrets simmered just below the surface, and Derrick gave a disgusted snort and stormed past Malcolm and up the stairs. Oddly, even in his misery, he couldn’t help but notice that Malcolm was looking beyond him.
He was staring at the man on the couch.
So, what, did everyone have a thing for this Kyle guy? Even as irritated as Derrick was, the thought made him laugh a little as he went up to find the room that had been his since he’d been a child. Yeah, right. Like Malcolm could have a thing for any guy, much less the one who was trying to get him to sell the ranch. It was more likely that a spaceship would land and little green men from Mars would start demanding to be taken to leaders.
“Well, that went well,” Derrick told no one in particular, as he fell down onto his bed, the familiar smell of it, the way that his weight settled down on it, soothing him almost despite himself. It had been a long night, and honestly, it was a relief to let himself just sink down into sleep.
