Adam's upper lip curled as a sour taste flooded his mouth. He couldn't think of anything worse than being alone in Luc's bedroom, but he had no reason to object or refuse; none that wouldn't destroy his parents or make them suspicious.
"Well, yeah, but..." Luc pinched his lips together.
Clearly, Luc couldn't think of a good reason to change his pattern of behaviour, either. Instead, he shifted his gaze to Adam, eyebrows raised. Great.
"Whatever," Adam mumbled with a shrug. He narrowed his eyes a fraction, in what he hoped was a silent warning to Luc to keep his distance. "Dad, did you get a chance to look over the lesson ideas I gave you last night?"
Their dad nodded. "They're good."
Adam's lips tugged up into a smile. "So... we're going to go ahead and start lessons for toddlers?"
"Maybe."
Adam's heart felt like it was shrinking in his chest. He'd put so much effort into those plans and he'd expected a hell of lot more than, 'maybe'.
"Ken," their mum said, "Can't you be a bit more positive?"
His dad grunted. "I said the lessons were good, but I'm still not convinced we should be giving lessons to children who are still developing."
"It's not proper ballet," Adam said. "It's movement and it’s no more than they'd do running around in a park or at nursery."
"I'll think about it," his dad said, chewing on a slice of toast in a manner that signalled he wasn't going to talk about it anymore.
Adam sighed. He'd done what he could. He understood his dad's reticence and the importance of protecting developing bones and joints, but he also knew he'd taken all that into account when he'd formulated his ideas. There was nothing he could do but sit back and wait for his dad to make a decision. Maybe Deborah would help nudge him along. She was just about the only person he'd listen to when he was digging his heels in.
After breakfast, he followed Luc upstairs. Luc's room had been left exactly as it was when he went away to university, complete with posters of footballers and now split up bands. The bed was still a single, not that that mattered to Adam at all.
"Do you want to go grab the chair from your room, so we can both sit at the desk?" Luc asked. "Or we could sit on the bed. I have a laptop, after all."
Adam scowled at him. "I'll get my chair."
"You don't need to worry, I'm not going to jump you."
Adam rolled his eyes, even though his back was already turned to Luc. The comment had been completely unwarranted. It felt like now that Luc had revealed his dark secret, he was going to rub his attraction in Adam's face at every opportunity. Adam just wasn't sure why he would want to do that. What did Luc have to gain by pissing him off?
By the time he'd grabbed his chair and returned to Luc's room, his brother had booted up his laptop and opened up browser tabs for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For the next hour, Luc discussed posts and tweets and what they could do to maximise their exposure. Not just the content, but the language and appropriate hashtags to help spread the word. He talked about the frequency of posts and the best times of day to make them. The photos Luc had taken were really good, taken from artsy angles to make them interesting. He'd also taken some video clips of a few of the lessons, primarily of the older and more able students.
Adam didn't like how close they were sitting together. Their knees and shoulders were almost touching as they both stared at the screen. Luc made no attempt to close the small gap between them. His hand didn't accidentally stray closer to Adam. Maybe it was ridiculous to think that Luc would cross that line, but after that kiss and the way Luc had stared at him after his shower the day before, Adam couldn't be sure of anything.
"There are free tools out there that you can use to schedule posts and tweets," Luc told him, once Adam's head was suitably swimming. "But they can't help you reply to people who are interested or have questions."
"And this stuff really works?" Adam asked.
"It can, if you're consistent and you post content that encourages people to engage with you." Luc caught his bottom lip between his teeth and chewed on it for a couple of seconds. "I'll be here for another week or so. I'll help you until I leave. I’ll make sure you're comfortable making posts and setting up a scheduler."
"Thanks."
"We're done for today then," Luc said, shutting the laptop lid. "You can escape." There was a bitterness to his voice that made Adam shiver.
Adam gritted his teeth. Escaping was exactly what he wanted to do, but at the same time he hated that his reaction to Luc's admission was causing his brother pain.
"I don't want things to be difficult between us," he said, after he had carefully formulated the sentence in his head.
"Nor do I," Luc admitted. "But I don't know how to make things right, Adam. I can't take back what I said or how I feel, and you can't change how disgusted you are by me."
"I'm not..." Adam bit his tongue.
The problem was that part of himwasdisgusted by Luc's attraction to him and hehadmade that really clear. And then then there was the other part of him—the one he wanted to bury deep down—that kept putting unwanted thoughts into his head. Like the way the sunlight pouring in through the window highlighted Luc's face, illuminating his long straight nose and his high cheekbones.
