13. Skye

Skye gave his brother the biggest hug ever when Jaden and Chloe showed up at Grace Mckenzie's place in Kansas the following week for Christmas. He gave almost as big of a hug to Chloe.

"It's good to see you, too, Skye," Chloe said, trying to catch her breath. Her dark hair was up in a ponytail and it swished as Skye put her back on her feet again, her brown eyes full of warmth.

"Man, I missed you guys," Skye said, beaming at them.

"Where's Mom?" Jaden asked.

"Be there in a minute!" Grace called from the kitchen. "Busy burning a pie!"

They all laughed and Chloe hurried off to help Grace in the kitchen.

"How's work?" Jaden asked as he and Skye settled in the living room.

"Good," Skye said. "How's school?"

"Good. Busy, and insane, but good. I actually had to bring some stuff with me but I'm hoping it won"t take up too much of my time." Jaden was getting his Masters degree in anthropology.

"So, when are you two gonna tie the knot?" Skye asked, lifting a bottle of beer to his lips and grinning at his brother.

"As soon as I'm out of school, hopefully," Jaden said. "We've talked about it. Trust me, it's happening."

"It better. If you don't marry her, I will." Skye winked at his brother and Jaden chuckled.

"Since we're on the topic," Jaden said, giving Skye that look. "You seeing anyone?"

Shaking his head, Skye swallowed another sip of beer.

"Well, is there anyone you are interested in?"

Skye glanced away as a flush crept up his cheeks.

"Ahh, I knew it." Jaden scooted closer to the edge of the couch in anticipation. "Come on, spill. Who is it?"

Skye didn't say anything, just took another sip of beer.

"Skye?" his brother prodded. "Who is he? Where does he work? How do you know him? And if you are interested in him, why the hell haven't you done anything about it?"

Setting his drink on the coffee table, Skye grimaced as he turned to his brother. "‘Cause it's River," he admitted, his face heating even more as he bit his lip.

Jaden's eyes were wide. "River?" he said. "River, River? Like, college roommate, guy you've lived with for ten years, best friend, River. That River?"

Skye nodded. "Yeah, look, I know it's ridiculous, Jay. There's no way things could ever work out between us. And I've been doing my damnedest to keep it from happening, but…" He buried his face in his hands and groaned.

"You're in love with him."

The groan was louder as Skye nodded. "That damn ice wall is a fucking puddle now," he mumbled, then took another sip of beer, leaning back in his seat on the sofa.

"What?" Jaden raised an eyebrow.

"It's nothing," Skye sighed, running his fingers through his blond waves. "It's an image I had in my head of a giant ice wall that I kept up, kind of like a barricade of all of the reasons that kept me from falling in love with River over the last ten years, and in my mind I had all this stuff in front of it, but they're gone now, and so is the wall, and?—"

"Wait a second." Jaden held up a hand. "What do you need some metaphorical wall for, anyway? Why can't you be in love with River?"

"Well, for starters, he doesn't exactly bat for my team. And for another thing, he's religious. I just, I don't know. I'm sure he wants to be with someone who will go to church with him and read the Bible, and pray, and all that stuff, right? But that's just not for me. I can't make myself believe what he does, no matter how much I love him. And I would never ask him to stop believing in what he does for my sake."

"Why would either of you have to do that?" Jaden asked. "Skye, even if your relationship changed, why would either of you have to change what you believe or who you are to make that happen? You've made it work so far. You think River would expect you to become a Christian if you guys started having sex?"

"River won't have sex before marriage," Skye said. "Religious thing."

"Right, okay, so if you guys started dating, do you think he'd expect you to suddenly change who you are, or what you believe? ‘Cause that doesn't sound like River to me. He's never forced anything about his faith on you. He's always loved you and accepted you for who you are. And you've done the same for him. That's part of what makes your friendship so special. You guys see that you don't have to agree on everything to get along and care for each other. You don't have to believe the same things to build a life together. And I think you both could respect those differences just like you do now, if anything were to happen between you."

Skye bit his lip, mulling over his brother's words before he said, "Well, there's still the whole River not being gay thing."

Jaden shrugged. "Yeah, maybe."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm just saying, I've seen the way you guys interact with each other, and I'm not entirely sure that's true."

"Are you kidding? Jaden, I'm the gay one. Don't you think I would notice if River was flirting with me?"

"Not if River doesn't even know it himself. I think River might not be aware of that part of himself yet. Sometimes it takes people longer than others, for whatever reason. Maybe it's something he still needs to figure out. I'm just saying, don't give up on him yet. Give him time. You might be surprised."

Skye took another long swig of beer. I think I need to get drunk.