Heaven Can't Wait by Eli Easton Read Free Book Online Page B

in a blind, freezing their asses off waiting for some deer to come by. Brian recognized it as a hunting trip that’d happened their junior year of high school. Their fathers had become friends, after a fashion. Both their families were big on hunting and fishing, so fathers and sons took a hunting trip together annually. Brian’s dad was an insurance salesman, a big, no-bullshit guy. Chuck’s father owned an automotive parts store. They were good guys, but Chuck’s dad had a hot temper. He was quick to bark orders if Chuck wasn’t moving fast enough or if the boys were dumb enough to let a profanity slip. He wasn’t abusive but he ran a tight ship , as he liked to tell Brian’s dad.
    But that day in the blind…. On-screen Chuck and Brian looked so young. It made Brian’s heart ache for what had been. He’d had no clue it would all be over in just a few years. He should have treasured it more—his friends, the woods, the snow, everything.
    “Hey, Aramis. Can I ask you something?” Chuck said.
    Their middle school nicknames. Chuck hadn’t called him Aramis in quite a while. Brian smiled. “Sure, Athos. But only if it makes me forget how fucking cold it is.”
    Chuck was silent.
    “What, Dude?” Brian urged, blowing on his gloved hands.
    “If… if a friend of ours told you he was gay, what would you think?”
    Brian exhaled a shocked laugh. “Who are you talkin’ about?”
    “No one. I’ve just been thinking about it. I mean, does it really matter who someone likes to… do that with, if they’re your friend?”
    “Of course it matters!” Brian looked at Chuck like he was crazy. “I’m not gonna be friends with some guy who wants to bone me. That’s disgusting!”
    Chuck flushed. “Just because someone is gay doesn’t mean he wants to bone you .”
    “Fuck that. I’m not taking any chances. Besides, any guy I would be friends with isn’t gonna be gay. I mean look at Mark Hiller. Think he’s someone I’d want to hang out with? No.”
    Mark Hiller was one of the few out guys in school—a strange chess-club kid with orange hair. Chuck didn’t reply.
    “Why, is someone we know gay? Is that what you’re sayin’?” Brian pressed, getting worried.
    “No, Dude. Never mind. Random thought. Chill.”
    “Well don’t be so fucking weird,” Brian said with a huff. He let it go because he wanted to let it go. He didn’t like thinking about it.
    Now Brian stood in the white waiting room reliving those minutes. The screen froze on a shot of Chuck looking away, his face laced with disappointment. And maybe it was being in heaven, being free from the constraints of his lifetime, that made Brian suddenly see Chuck clearly. The guy was stuck—in a macho family with a macho dad and friends. His body looked like it belonged in that picture, but inside he was someone else. How hard that must have been for him. And there was Brian and all their friends, constantly making gay jokes, and Chuck not saying a word, probably afraid of giving himself away.
    Shit. No wonder Chuck had been more down the past few years, more withdrawn. Brian had been worried about him, had tried to cheer him up, but he hadn’t gone below the surface, hadn’t seen .
    “Dude,” Brian said, reaching up to touch the screen. “I was the worst friend in the entire world. I’m sorry, man.”
    And it suddenly occurred to Brian—maybe it was Chuck whose life he had to save, not Kevin. Holy shit .
    Peter appeared and Brian let out a little yelp of surprise. “Gah! Stop doing that. You need a bell around your neck.”
    “Excuse me?” Peter said, his eyes getting wide with warning.
    “Forget it. I—look, my friend, Chuck. He’s gay, right?” Brian waved his hand at the screen.
    Peter didn’t blink, but the screen changed to a full body shot of Chuck. It looked like a schematic with Chuck on a black screen with a grid, hands out as though he were a 3-D model. His eyes were open and blank; his face, sad.
    “See this?” Peter