Food for Thought Read Online Free Page B

died, and Emmett wasn’t going to go visit his dad anymore.
    It had been like a freight train, a wrecking ball, an earthquake, or a tsunami. He hadn’t realized how staunchly he’d been keeping that pain at bay until it just snuck under the space-time continuum and chomped him on the ass. And he’d been standing, looking out over the kitchen sink through the window to the front porch, sobbing like Ira Gant had just died, when Keegan had shown up, a plate of cookies in his hand, welcoming Emmett to the neighborhood.
    You’d think he would have run like the wind, right? New guy, having a nervous breakdown in his kitchen? Not a great introduction. But not Kee. Keegan Malloy had breezed right in, sat Emmett down with some peanut butter/chocolate cookies and a big glass of milk, and made Emmett tell him all about it.
    Emmett hadn’t snot-cried that hard since Jordyn—hell, since before that. Since he’d been five and his mother had taken off. So when Keegan just sat and listened, and literally held his hand in the totally non-threatening, “I’m here for you” kind of way that Vinnie would have done, Emmett had been instantly smitten.
    With friendship of course. Of course it was friendship.
    It had been friendship that day, when Keegan had hung out with him for the rest of the day, introducing himself to Emmett’s adorable kitten (Who knew what would happen to George over the next year? Really? Who could predict that?) and searching through Emmett’s Netflix until they found old movies to watch. They bonded over peanut butter/chocolate cookies and Silver Linings Playbook. Keegan had cried unashamedly during that movie, and Emmett hadn’t held it against him.
    He’d used the movie to finish his crying too.
    So Keegan knew about Vinnie’s happy family, and about Emmett’s father. He even knew the same version of the Jordyn story that everyone else did. And Emmett couldn’t imagine not having Keegan, his neighbor, coming over to his house to talk or eat dinner or drag him to the movies a couple of times a week. It was… natural, having him there. (For one thing, Keegan roomed with three other guys—two of them straight—and Keegan refused to let Emmett come over. He claimed that his roommates were assholes and his house smelled like pit stink and feta cheese feet, and Emmett took him at his word.)
    He’d rather spend time with Keegan than anybody else in the world, Vinnie and Christine included.
    Which was good, because Keegan hated Christine with the same sociopathic irritation that George showed on her worst days.
    And Emmett, who wanted family with pretty much everything in his soul, didn’t want to examine that, didn’t want to stop all of the flirting and the innuendos, didn’t want to tell Keegan that he was either nice to Emmett’s girlfriend or he couldn’t hang out.
    Keegan was the only person on earth he could watch romance movies with. How could Emmett tell him to go away?
    So Emmett trusted that Keegan wouldn’t look and got dressed. He turned around to see what Keegan was doing and found Keegan’s wide eyes focused on him. Keegan’s pink tongue protruded and he licked his lips like they’d suddenly gone dry.
    “You said you wouldn’t look,” Emmett rasped, his own throat dry.
    “I didn’t mean to,” Keegan said, but he didn’t sound particularly apologetic. “You’re still working out during lunch.”
    “Uhm, yeah.” Emmett had been taking advantage of the company gym and workout instructors.
    “You can tell.”
    Heat swept Emmett’s cheeks. “Glad you approve,” he said quietly, and pulled the tank over his head. “Anything good in the cookbook?”
    “Just the stuff written in the margins. Look at this one.” Keegan’s movements grew brisk, and he motioned Emmett over excitedly. “See? It’s for mushroom soup in the section called ‘Food for a Rainy Day.’ Now look, the recipe itself is sort of average: ‘Mushroom Soup,’ right? Except somebody added ‘for