Oh God yes.And yet—“I should go.”
Nick grasped his hand. “Don’t worry about Hayden. He usually shuts himself in for the night around nine, so that was probably his last round for the evening. And he’s fifteen, so the only way he gets out of bed before noon tomorrow is if I make him.” He squeezed him. “And I don’t have to make him if we don’t want to.”
Oliver pressed their foreheads together, fighting back a shiver. “Nick.”
“Please.”
Such a bad idea.
“Okay.”
Nick smiled against his lips. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
They made their way out of the workshop, but their progress was slow and messy as they laughed and fumbled. Oliver kept having to push back the thought that swirled in his head.
He was falling for Nick.
Falling so hard.
So fast.
Oliver caught his toe on the top step, crashing into Nick, who caught him with a grin.
“All right?” he asked, kissing Oliver’s cheek.
“Wanna kiss it better?”
“You’ll have to show me where it hurts.”
Oliver wrapped his arms around Nick’s waist, holding him close.
“Why don’t you find out?” he said.
Nick ran his tongue over Oliver’s throat. “Here?”
“Not quite?”
A nip at his earlobe. “Here?”
Oliver hummed. “Closer.”
“What the hell are you doing?”
The world went dark for a second, fear flooding Oliver’s system at the new voice. Nick was already pulling away, pushing Oliver behind him like he needed protection, and Oliver stumbled into place because he didn’t know what else to do.
Hayden stood at the end of the hall. His eyes—his father’s eyes in his face—were narrowed and his expression was furious. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Hayden,” Nick said. He still had one hand behind him, holding Oliver close. “I thought you were in your room.”
“Well, you were wrong.” The last word sounded like a curse. “Now tell me what the fuck is going on!”
17
When Anya called that awful day last fall, her words nearly drowning in her own tears, Nick had been scared. She could barely speak, and Nick was so sure Hayden had been injured, maybe even killed, and any hopes he had ever had for rebuilding a relationship with his son were gone. He’d been terrified that he’d missed his chance in his years of hurt feelings and distance. And then Anya managed to get out that Hayden had been arrested, that the police had come to the house and taken him away, and the fear was overtaken by a new mix of confusion and anger. His son? How could they arrest his son? The police had made a mistake.
But the mix of emotions he’d felt that day were nothing to the battle banging inside him now. Oliver stood behind him, and Hayden loomed in the dark hall ahead of them, and Nick didn’t know where to start.
