“It’s in the pot,” Chris said. “You can make it yourself, girl. I ain’t no maid.”
“Nah, you’re the chef,” she said with a grin and helped herself to fresh coffee from the pot that was brewing. “Jared? Want one?”
“Sure,” he said. Not wanting to take advantage of Clare’s sudden good mood, he hopped down from his seat and crossed the kitchen to take the mug from her. There was milk in the fridge, which confused him, as he was pretty sure there hadn’t been any there the night before.
The rest of the girls and a couple of people Jared vaguely recognized from school filed into the kitchen, probably lured there by the smell of frying bacon.
“Interesting,” Clare said softly, leaning against the counter next to the stove with her mug cradled to her chest. Jared would have ignored her, but the word was definitely directed at him. He raised an eyebrow in response. “Oh, it’s nothing,” she said. “You just appear to be wearing someone else’s pajamas.”
Jared felt the blush rise to his cheeks even as he tried to fight it back. “I didn’t fuck him,” he said, not checking to see if anyone else was watching the exchange. At Clare’s pointed look, he rolled his eyes and added, “He didn’t fuck me, either.”
“Give it time,” Clare murmured.
Thunderous footsteps on the secret staircase tore Jared’s attention away from Clare’s evil smirking, and he purposefully didn’t look over as Adam skidded into the kitchen.
“Morning, losers,” Adam said, then spanked Jared’s ass. Hard. Then kissed his neck, sucking hard enough to threaten a bruise, and stole the mug of coffee.
Clare snorted with amusement, and people were definitely looking.
“Right. Grub’s up. Help yourselves,” Chris said and stepped away from the stove. There was enough food to satisfy half the school but only a handful of people had stayed over. Chris let the girls go first and waited with Jared while Adam curiously fixed another mug of coffee, identical to the first, then silently handed it to Jared.
“Didn’t know you could cook,” Jared said, to fill the silence.
“Not all of us grew up with silver spoons stuck up our asses,” Chris said.
“I think the expression is ‘silver spoon in your mouth’.”
“Not once it’s been up your ass,” Chris said with a wink. Jared laughed.
Once the girls had filled their plates with far more than Jared expected, considering how little they ate during the week, Chris moved in. It was a small feast of bacon and eggs, pancakes and toast.
“Thanks,” Adam said, clapping his friend on the arm when he was done. “This is awesome.”
“Any time, homie.”
It was raining a little, but Adam went out onto the back porch anyway, sitting down in one of the wide lounge chairs that were scattered along the length of the house. Jared was about to take the seat next to him when he noticed the drop.
“Holy shit.”
Adam laughed. “Sorry, dude. You scared of heights?”
“No,” Adam said. “No. I just wasn’t expecting it.”
From the front, it looked like the house was built into the rock behind it. It was only from the back that it became clear there was a valley in between the rock and the building, and the house was perched precariously on the edge of that. The cliff face was a few hundred yards away on the other side of the ravine.
Not wanting his eggs to get cold, Jared sat in one of the chairs and tucked his feet up underneath himself. Chris was a good cook. There was cheese and butter in the eggs, and the bacon was perfectly crisp, the pancakes deliciously light and sweet.
“So, what’s going on between you two?” Chris asked, setting his empty plate down.
“Nothing,” Jared said, realizing it had probably come out a little too quickly.
“Nothing,” Adam echoed with a shrug. “It got late. We went to bed. Same as you guys.”
Chris nodded but didn’t press. They sat in companionable silence for a while, then the girls filed outside, complaining about the rain but squeezing onto the loungers anyway. Adam ducked back into the kitchen to refresh the coffee, giving Mia the perfect opportunity to steal his seat. Jared tried not to be noticed.
People moved about, from the kitchen out onto the balcony and back again, sometimes disappearing into the bedrooms to change into day clothes, then coming back for more coffee.
Wearing nothing but the pajamas Adam had lent him, Jared moved his truck so Chris could get his ridiculously awesome car out. Chris had forced them all to rinse their own plates and stack them in the dishwasher, then the early morning crowd started to leave in twos and threes. Jared made no move to get out of the comfortable lounger, get dressed, and go home.
Adam stayed on the back balcony, seemingly absorbed in his thoughts.
“Yo,” Chris said, leaning out of the kitchen door. “I’m taking the chicks home.”
“Okay. Thanks for breakfast,” Adam said.
“No problem.” Chris disappeared with a grin.
Jared was still wearing Adam’s clothes. They were too small for him really. He’d rolled the pant legs up a couple of times to disguise how short they were, but the T-shirt stretched over his broad chest.
With a slow smile, Adam beckoned him over. Jared was smiling too as he sauntered to the deck chair, then straddled Adam’s waist, gripping the back of the chair.
“Alone at last,” Adam said in a soft voice.
“It seems that way. Tell me about Chris,” Jared said, sitting back on his heels so all his weight wasn’t resting on Adam’s thighs. Adam ran his hands up and down Jared’s legs and gave him an amused look.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I don’t get you two.”
Adam laughed. “We’ve been friends for a long time. I think our moms were friends before we were even born, actually. I’ll ask her when I see her next.”
Jared nodded for him to go on.
“I guess I can remember us being friends when we were real little,” Adam said. “I can’t remember ever meeting Chris; he was just always around. He’s
