Smoky Mountain Dreams by Leta Blake Read Free Book Online

gorgeous, and
the column of his neck begged to be kissed. Not to mention, he’d been
distracted during the meeting by the faint softness of Christopher’s slim body
under his clothes. That was a body type Jesse had always been drawn to in a
guy. Thin but not too bony, not too large, and definitely not too muscled.
Everything was just right, and offered up the possibility for hours of
comfortable cuddling.
    So yes, Christopher was cute. More than cute.
    Amanda didn’t stop there though. “You don’t have anything
else lined up today.”
    Jesse shrugged. “Someone’s got to get Brigid and Will from
school. Nova’s got a doctor’s appointment.”
    Marcy’s doctor’s appointment actually. Yet another that
would result in Nova and Tim wanting to talk with him about “the situation” and
“releasing the burden.” As if the pressure from the ongoing mediation meetings
with Ronnie wasn’t bad enough.
    “I could pick up the kids.”
    “Yep, you could,” Jesse said, busying himself with tidying
his desk, though there really wasn’t much to put away. “But I’m going to.”
    Amanda’s brown eyes followed him relentlessly. Jesse could
almost feel her brain cataloguing his every muscle twitch looking for meaning. “C’mon.
Didn’t you think he was cute?”
    “Of course.”
    Amanda perched on the side of his desk. She was blessedly
silent for a precious few seconds, but by the time Jesse had pulled out the
velvet roll with the bracelet he was repairing she was talking again.
    “I mean, he was gay, right? Because he seemed kind of gay.”
    Jesse held the loupe to his eye and inspected the diamond
that was loose along the edge of the clasp. He could see now that he should’ve
placed it a bit higher to avoid this issue. Nothing to do but repair it now.
    “He ‘seemed gay’? What does that even mean, Amanda?”
    “It means he seemed…I don’t know. He didn’t look at me the
way men who are into women look at me.”
    “So, you’re assuming that because he wasn’t interested in
looking at your lovely bosom that he’s into men.”
    “Yes. Well, that and the way he looked at you instead.”
    Jesse grabbed the pliers and pulled gently at the edges of
the rim of gold holding the diamond in place. He’d have been better off making
the bracelet in platinum, but the client had requested twenty-four karat. That
was part of the problem too. The gold was too soft, and was getting dented with
accidental bangs against tables and doors. It wasn’t his best work.
    “He was gay,” Jesse conceded.
    “And it was a date he was asking you for at the door, not
just some bro-dude friendly coffee outing. When was the last time you went on a
date?”
    “Bro-dudes don’t ask their friends for coffee outings,
Amanda. They ask them to ballgames, or to come over for pizza and football. And
not all straight guys are bro-dudes. And, believe it or not, some gay guys are bro-dudes. You’re stereotyping again.”
    “What do you know about straight guys?”
    “I plead the fifth.”
    “Come on. Now you’re just messing with me to be a jerk. If
you slept with them, then they aren’t straight.”
    “You can’t put people in boxes like that.” Jesse put down
his work, and leaned back in his seat. “Not everyone gets their rocks off for
just one type of body or just one type of person. A guy can be mostly straight,
dig women, and still occasionally close his eyes while getting sucked off by
another guy. Or a guy can mostly like other guys, fall in love with a woman,
and enjoy sex with her too. Life is messy, okay? Stop trying to make it so
clean all the time.”
    Amanda was quiet for a few minutes, and Jesse started to
work again. He picked at the edge of the gold, pulling it away from the
diamond. There were better ways to do this. He was doing more damage than good,
but part of him wanted to chuck the bracelet and start over from scratch, and
he was taking his frustration out on the setting.
    “Were you straight? When you