Although he would prefer to talk about anything but Reese, it wasn’t like Brantley could refuse JJ. He did want to clear the air between them. He needed her right now. She was his best friend and he could sure as shit use one.
However, he wasn’t going to make it easy on her. “I didn’t ask you here so we could talk about Reese.”
“Then why did you ask me here?”
“Because I miss your company.”
“You’ve seen me nearly every day.”
“That’s work. This … is not.”
JJ thanked the waitress when she set down two mugs and poured coffee into them.
“Y’all ready to order?”
“Go ahead,” JJ urged.
Brantley rattled off his order—scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, hashed browns, and a side of pancakes. When he was done, JJ stared at him as though he’d lost his mind. He had. No way he could eat all that, but he was damn sure going to try. He’d been eating healthy since he started hanging out with Reese. No time like the present to make up for all that lost time.
“So what happened with you and Reese last weekend? Bottom obviously fell out. Why?” JJ asked after she’d ordered a fruit plate and a southern biscuit.
He considered brushing her off, telling her it didn’t matter because it was all in the past, but Brantley knew JJ was like a dog with a bone. She was not going to give up easily.
“We went out to dinner. Nice restaurant. Lasted about twenty minutes. He was havin’ a panic attack over bein’ out in public with me.”
He could see the sympathy in her eyes.
“I don’t need your pity, JJ. It’s done. He decided it was best to call things off.”
“He did?” She took a sip of her orange juice.
“I’ve been pretty damn patient with him,” he bit out. “Woulda continued on. It’s too much for him.”
JJ sighed. “That sucks, B.”
“Better now than later. Happens once, chalk it up to the situation. Twice?” Brantley shook his head. “He’s not gonna be able to handle it.”
“It happened more than once?”
He went on to tell her how he’d found Reese at Moonshiners, the guy ignoring his texts while he had drinks with a woman.
“He’s straight, JJ. Curious but straight. Now it’s outta his system. He can move on and not have any regrets. He knows it’s not like I’ll go off runnin’ my mouth. No one’ll be the wiser. As long as he can do his job, we’ll be fine.”
“You considered maybe seein’ it from his point of view?” JJ asked, her eyes boring into him. “Reese is thirty years old, Brantley. Thirty. All that time, he’s been passin’ time with women. Then you come along and shake the foundation of his life. All those years, he was playin’ tonsil hockey and doin’ the horizontal mambo with women and suddenly he’s got the hots for a man. Think about that. You’ve never been with a woman, right?”
She knew he hadn’t.
“Pretend you woke up this mornin’ and suddenly you’ve got this thing for a woman. How would you feel? Awkward? Scared? Confused.”
Brantley couldn’t imagine it, but he certainly understood where JJ was coming from.
“I’ve seen the way he looks at you,” she tacked on.
“You saw what you hoped to see,” he countered. He knew because he’d done the same.
“Maybe he needs some time.”
“Maybe,” he agreed. “But I’m not gonna sit around and wait.”
“Please tell me you’re not gonna hook up with Cyrus.”
“And what if I do?”
“Brantley…”
“Don’t, JJ. Just … don’t. I’m done with this shit. I’d rather be single for the rest of my fucking life than find myself caring about someone who can’t handle it. Now it’s your turn. What happened with Dante?”
Her gaze instantly dropped to her coffee cup. “I’m not ready to talk about it.”
He grunted.
JJ’s eyes shot up to his. “I will though. I promise. For now, all you need to know is that I’ve told him to stay far away from me.”
It was something, at least.
“Fine. Then let’s find a neutral topic.”
“Good idea.” She took a sip of her coffee, set it down. “I hear we’ve got storms rollin’ in tonight.”
“It’s what I hear,” he muttered. “Not lookin’ forward to it.”
“Don’t tell me you developed a fear of thunder and lightnin’,” she teased.
“No. But the sounds…” Brantley stared down at his hand on his coffee mug. “Seems to be a trigger for flashbacks. Nightmares.”
“That sucks.”
“It is what it is.”
“What do you say we hit the range after this?” She offered when he said nothing more on the subject. “Might be busy, but we can get in an hour or so.”
“Sounds like a perfect plan.”
And that was what they did.
After breakfast, Brantley followed JJ back to her house so she could get her range bag. They managed to get two lanes for an hour in the main gallery. When they were leaving, Brantley saw Reese’s truck in the parking lot, swallowed down the pain that came with it. Thankfully, JJ didn’t say anything.
