Lincoln pounced the moment Dom walked in the apartment door, his expression as serious as Dom had ever seen it. “What happened? Is Roxy okay?”
Dom’s trip home yesterday wasn’t supposed to be an overnight, and it was exactly like Lincoln to worry when Dom didn’t show up the night before. “A lot happened last night, but Roxy’s fine. Chambers is getting out.”
“What?” Lincoln’s shock shifted right into anger. “Why the hell did they let him out?”
“I don’t know, but they did. Needless to say, Mom had a minor meltdown.”
“How about you?”
Dom flopped down on their thrift-store sofa and threw his feet up onto the coffee table. “Fuck if I know right now. Trey was there when I found out.”
Lincoln plunked down next to him, frowning. “I thought you and him weren’t talking.”
“We weren’t.” He told the car accident/anxiety story again so that Lincoln would understand the magnitude of Trey’s gesture; it also managed to make Dom feel like a bigger asshole for sending him away. He spilled everything, from explaining Chambers to Trey and pushing Trey away, to his talks with both his parents.
Linc listened like he always did: laser-focused and totally present. When Dom had nothing left to say, Lincoln reached over and smacked him on the back of the head.
“Dude, really?” Dom said.
“Yeah, really. I told you the next time you held in what you were feeling instead of talking it out with someone, I’d smack you upside the head.”
“I talked it out with my parents.”
“You should have talked it out with Trey, you idiot. You two just made up and you shoved him away so you could try and handle it on your own, and you made things worse.”
Dom blew hard through his nose. “Again.”
“And now he’s ignoring you?”
“Yeah. I probably deserve it, though. Hell, he groveled for my forgiveness over the video nonsense. I owe him some first-class groveling of my own.”
“Yes you do.”
“If he’ll ever talk to me again.”
Lincoln shrugged. “That’s up to him. He’s probably pissed, though, considering he faced his worst fear to kiss your feet.”
“Please, make me feel worse about this.”
“Nah, you’re too easy of a target right now.” Lincoln’s face softened, his mouth going looser the way it did when he was in deep thought.
“What?” Dom said after an awkward amount of time had passed.
“Don’t flip out on me, dude, but I kind of agree with Trey. About Unbound.”
“What about Unbound?”
“About you adding your strings into one of our songs. Playing violin.”
Dom’s insides twisted up tight. He didn’t immediately shut Lincoln down, though. Lincoln had seen Dom at his worst. He would never say something like that without being behind it one hundred percent. “Tell me why.”
“Because you’re a fucking genius on that thing. Because it’s time, especially now that the fucker is getting out. Because it’s the very best ‘fuck you’ possible, considering it’ll be the same stage.”
Trey had made similar points, but Dom hadn’t wanted to hear them. He’d been too busy quietly freaking out over Chambers’s release. Nothing else could get through that haze of negative emotion. Not even how much Trey cared and wanted to help.
“Why does it sound so reasonable coming from you?” Dom asked.
Lincoln preened. “Because I’m the shit and I give the best advice.”
