"No, I got this. Thanks, though. Go get some coffee and warm up."
She rolled her eyes and grabbed the amp he had been carrying. "Have fun in Nashville?"
He held back a derisive snort. He didn't want to explain the reaction, nor did she deserve his shitty mood. "It was okay. Glad to be taking time off for a while, though."
District & Wild had been a full time commitment, physically and emotionally, for the last three years. The band wasn't big by any means, but mainstream wasn't exactly the goal. They were a bunch of misfits who'd met at a bar in Austin, where they all lived, and decided to throw together an indie folk rock band. Most of their recording was from crowd sourcing. They'd started very small, with only a few regular gigs in bars across Austin. But after a show at SXSW, one of their songs got picked up for a national commercial for a cell phone company. It hadn't exactly catapulted them to huge notoriety, but it had gotten them enough clicks to get dozens of bar and club gigs all over the country and set them up to record their next EP.
They'd been offered a label contract for a pittance, but declined because they really liked their autonomy. They didn't aspire to be the next big thing, but it was nice being able to stop their bartending, waiting, and retail jobs, and live just this side of comfortably off the music and ticket sales.
The traveling had been nice as well. His family had money, so he'd traveled plenty growing up, but there was something magical about going from city to city on your own terms, with the music and your band, seeing a side to those cities tourists wouldn't normally see.
He'd even seen Carter once when they'd played a show in Brooklyn. It'd made Jeremy happier than it should have when he spotted that bright red hair across the bar when he'd gone off stage to get a water. Knowing Carter had seen him at his best, early on in the band and after the drugs, had made Jeremy's heart flutter.
He sighed, annoyed his thoughts had wandered back to Carter. Again. This was getting out of fucking hand. He was home, supposedly freeing himself of drama for a while-specifically the hooking-up-with-a-straight-man kind of drama. Yet there he was.
"So, how's Carter settling in?" he asked, trying not to sound too interested.
Sarah had put away the amp and had returned to grab a suitcase from the bed of his truck. "He's good. Funny, he asked about you, too." The teasing in her eyes made him scowl, but he turned his back to her so she wouldn't see the response had gotten to him.
"I don't know why you don't just ask him yourself. I know you guys were never super tight, but I could have sworn y'all were friends once. And I'd think if I can get over him not calling for three years, you can too." She had a point.
"His girlfriend coming to visit?" Why the fuck did you just ask that?
"Er. Apropos of nothing?" He absolutely did not turn to see her expression, but her tone was amused. "I don't think he has a girlfriend." Her tone was dubious enough to almost make him question her, but he continued unloading boxes from the back of his truck.
"Damn, Jeremy. Planning to stay awhile?" she asked.
He turned to her finally and raised a teasing brow. "That a problem?"
"No. Not at all." She surprised him by moving in and hugging him. Jeremy was a fairly prickly person, but his sister didn't give a shit, so she forced love on him a lot. He laughed and rolled his eyes, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing her back. She pulled back and, damn her, she had that worried expression on her face. Where their parents wore a constant look of disapproval and disappointment around Jeremy-which he didn't think was all that unwarranted-he'd grown accustomed to it. Hell, he even played up to it a bit. Sarah, though, always had a furrowed brow, full of concern for him. She knew his deepest secrets, after all.
Most of them.
"Anyway, yeah. Rafe is visiting his family ‘til summer and we aren't set to record for a while, so we agreed on some actual time off. I'll probably be around at least until May or June."
Her look of surprise morphed into pleasure quickly. "That's great. It'll be like old times having you and Carter around all the time."
Fuck. Carter. Yeah, like old times. Only Jeremy was sober now, and wouldn't embarrass himself in front of the kid again, hopefully. Hell, he should keep his distance, but their ranch wasn't quite big enough to steer clear of anyone that easily. Plus, being a dick and hiding out every time Carter was around would just invite questions he didn't want to answer. And, in all honesty, he didn't loathe the idea of seeing Carter. Being able to touch the man, though, was something he was still trying to convince himself he didn't want.
"Sure. We'll have slumber parties and tell ghost stories and go swimming in the pond," Jeremy teased.
She pinned him with a look that said don't make me bring up the past. He huffed again and grabbed his luggage. "Come on, let's get this inside. It's too cold to fuck around out here anymore."
"No shit," she agreed, cupping her hands in front of her face and blowing into them. "Oh, and fair warning, mom and dad are home. They want us all to do a big barbecue tonight to welcome Carter home." The pained grimace on her pretty face made Jeremy wish she wasn't stuck in the middle of him and their parents. She obviously noted, like Jeremy, that they hadn't exactly rolled out the welcome mat when he came to ask if he could spend his time off at home. Even with the band being successful and him making his own money, they acted like he was coming home because he was broke and jobless.
He nudged her with an elbow. "Bet we can talk Daphne into cinnamon rolls."
"Oh! She can never resist the double team," Sarah said with a mischievous grin.
Jeremy smiled, thinking even if there were things about being home that had him on edge, and it definitely wasn't all bad. In fact, he was pretty happy to be right where he was.
4
Carter used his teeth to undo the strap on his boxing gloves. His breathing was heavy, so he had probably overdone it a bit. His knee was sore, but not so much that he would be in a bad way, if he quit while he was still ahead. He looked up at the clock on the wall and realized he'd been at it, between the bag and his weight training, for more than two hours. He definitely had overdone it.
But his parents had called first thing, wondering how long he would be away. Then Paul had called wanting to know if he planned on making any statements about his parents, warning him off. He hadn't even been gone a full week yet and everyone was barking at his heels for him to come back and fall in line for the damage control. He'd quickly told them where they could put their open ended ticket back to D.C.
He knew people said not to come out during a fight, but he'd been approached by a friend of his at NYU who wrote for an LGBT interest blog who he was considering taking the leap with. He wasn't well known and he hadn't done anything impressive in his few years in the military, but he had put serious thought into the good he might be able to accomplish by coming out. Plus, it'd be nice to have it over and done with, no more hype and with no maneuvering for or by his parents or his mother's team.
He grabbed his water bottle and drank deeply. He needed to watch himself. Between the frustration with his parents' BS and his efforts to beat his sexual tension away after only just seeing Jeremy at breakfast that morning, he'd worked his arms into a jelly-like state.
The barn where the Becks had allowed him to hang his punching bag was the smallest of the three barns. That particular barn also housed an office, a supply room, and their gym. It was no mere barn, either, but a million-dollar masterpiece. He laughed at the thought of even really considering the building a barn. Perhaps "Equestrian Home" sounded more adequate, though he doubted a horse had ever been walked through the doors. Mostly, they were all in the largest, main barn.
He gathered up his towel and shirt he'd discarded long ago and made his way into the gym area. He hadn't even realized he'd been cold until he walked into the heated room. The fluorescent lighting shone, making the white walls and laminate flooring gleam. You would think you had walked into an upscale chain gym rather than a family workout room. He was thankful for the Becks' ostentatious tastes, because he would have had to drive thirty minutes to get to the closest gym with boxing equipment.
He made his way to the showers, but found himself pausing to listen to the faint sound of music. He frowned as he sought out the source, only to stop short when he realized the sound was a radio in the room where the heated pool was housed. And there, in his perfect, naked glory, was Jeremy, floating on his back.