Food for Thought Read Online Free

the merciless heat of the garage could turn the car into a convection oven.
    “Don’t shut the garage door yet. I’m almost there.”
    Emmett hit End Call and looked up, waiting for his next glimpse of Keegan.
    He wasn’t disappointed.
    Keegan managed one of the outlet stores on Iron Point Rd., and he dressed accordingly. Today, he wore a floral print tank top and shorts with mesh bottoms. Keegan went running in the mornings, even on the really hot days, and his thighs and calves were stringy and knotted, and his waist was probably twenty-eight inches even. He had long limbs, a slender jaw, and a knife-edged nose, with full lips and dark eyelashes that made his brown eyes especially flirty. He wore his dark hair cut close, parted on the side, and almost conservative—with only slightly long bangs to show that he had a closet full of bright and shiny brushed cotton suits all prebought for the fall season.
    Emmett could watch Keegan prance across his driveway all day.
    “So…” Keegan trilled, leaving room to fill in the blank. “How was it?”
    Emmett smiled shyly at him. “It was great. It always is. Cooking, card games, revelry—you know. Family reunion stuff.” Emmett sidled past the front of the car in the tiny garage so he could claim his stuff from the passenger side. “Vinnie’s mom pried into my love life, and Vinnie took his cues. It was like I was twelve again.”
    Keegan’s bright smile faded for a minute. “What did they say about your private life? C’mon, give—you promised details!”
    Oh hell. “They weren’t really convinced about Christine,” Emmett mumbled, not wanting to hear it.
    Keegan apparently didn’t give a damn—he wanted to say it. “Well duh. It’s good to know your people got your back!”
    “What do you have against Chris—hello, what’s this?” He hadn’t eaten his sandwiches, and when he picked up the package, there was something underneath it.
    “She’s a nice girl, but she’s not for you,” Keegan was saying, like he was bored of saying it. Good. Emmett was tired of hearing it. “What’s what?”
    “This book. Vinnie’s mom tried to give it to me this afternoon. It’s, like, a family heirloom or something and I told her it should stay with her but….”
    “It looks like she decided you were family,” Keegan said, his voice warm.
    Emmett smiled at him distractedly. “But… but nobody opened my car. That’s weird. It’s like it followed me home.”
    “Awesome. I know how it feels. Give me!” Keegan held out his hand imperiously, and Emmett handed it over, because he found it hard to deny Keegan anything. All of that attitude, and a heart of gold. Irresistible.
    “Man, let’s get into the house and turn on the AC,” Emmett suggested. “Please tell me my cat is still in there.”
    “George? Yeah, she’s there. But I think she’s been finding secret places to shit in your room, so, you know, there’s that.”
    “If you’d stop chasing her, she’d stop retaliating,” Emmett said mildly, but the truth was, Keegan’s madcap chasing was the only exercise the big fat baby got.
    “Just out of curiosity, why don’t you have the Chris-thing feed your precious cat?”
    Emmett grimaced. “Cause, uhm, she and George don’t get along.”
    George shredded every pair of hose Christine wore over. And puked on her shoes. And the one time Christine had managed to get Emmett to relax enough to neck on the couch, George had jumped from the back of the couch onto Christine’s head.
    Yup. George the cockblocking tuxedo cat. Bless her black-and-white little heart.
    “I love that fucking cat,” Keegan said with satisfaction, and then he shooed Emmett down the hallway with one hand while holding the book with the other. “Now go. Shower, change, embrace your furry fuckface, and then let’s move.”
    “I thought we were going tonight?”
    “It’s late afternoon—you don’t work until tomorrow. Let’s movie now, dinner later, and we’ve got