Gage blinked when he realized Fallon was asking him a question. “Hmm?”
Fallon tapped the glass with a blunt fingernail. “These? Did you make them?”
“Oh. No. I don’t even paint them. I’ve done a few, but usually they come out worse than a kindergartner high on Pixy Stix would do. I buy sets from game shops.”
“I’m not creative like that either,” Fallon said softly, his fingers dancing at his sides. “I tried to learn to paint once, butmy brain doesn’t gel with the whole perspective thing. At least, not outside of my camera lens. I did some abstract paintings for a while, but I didn’t like it.”
“You’re the one who covered my dad in paint, right?”
Fallon blushed, his cheeks burning pink. “Uh. Yeah.”
“You thought he was hot, huh?”
Fallon tipped his face toward the ground. “I promise I was a total professional.” Shit. His voice was shaking. Gage felt like a complete asshole and rushed over, grabbing his arm.
“Oh my God. I didn’t mean it like that. Everyone thinks my dad’s hot. It’s actually super annoying to be compared to him all the time, especially because we’re not biologically related.”
Fallon’s gaze lifted. “You’re adopted?”
“It’s a whole, complicated thing, but yeah. My mom left when I was a baby, and then my uncle and my dad’s best friend moved in to help take care of me until he got his shit together. It, uh, it took a while.” Gage didn’t like thinking about those fractured memories of his childhood either. He had been mad at his dad for a long time. It had been a quiet anger he’d kept to himself because he knew it wasn’t his dad’s fault.
But that didn’t erase the pain he felt every time his dad shut down.
“Anyway,” Gage said. “Sorry to be a bummer.”
Fallon grinned, his ears faintly pink. “You’re not a bummer. Do people tell you that a lot?”
Gage laughed and shook his head. “No. Self-deprecation, I guess?”
Humming, Fallon glanced to his left. “Is it super rude if I ask to use your bathroom in the middle of this conversation?”
“Um. No.” Gage frowned. “Is that a serious question?”
Fallon’s cheeks bloomed bright red. “Yeah, sorry. Sometimes I think the things I do are normal, and then I offend the peopleI’m with, so then I ask, andthenthey think I’m weird. But I’d rather be weird than offensive, so…” he babbled.
Gage reached out and grabbed his hand. Fallon went stiff for a second, then leaned in, and his fingers went soft against Gage’s. “You’re not being weird or offensive. I don’t care if you ask. It won’t bother me even if I’m mid-sentence.”
Fallon took a breath, then said, “I’ll relax more when I know you better.”
Gage grinned and let him go. “I figured. Bathroom’s through my bedroom. You can look around. Snoop in my drawers. Use my lotion. I won’t care.”
Fallon opened his mouth, then seemed to realize Gage was joking, and his mouth settled into a small smile. “I’ll make sure to rearrange all of your socks.”
Gage felt a small surge of triumph that he’d loosened Fallon up enough to make a joke. They hadn’t spent a lot of time together, but Gage knew he must be going through it after everything his shit-for-brains ex did to him, and that was visible in the tension he was carrying.
He almost wanted to offer the poor man a massage, but he had no idea what his tolerance level was for being touched. Lucas liked it. He thrived on it. But he’d met quite a few people who couldn’t stand it at all.
Gage was taking risks already by holding his hand, but he was starting to know Fallon better. And what he saw, he liked. It was a terrifying place to be because he wasn’t ready for any kind of relationship. He wasn’t even sure he was ready to let a new friend in.
But with Fallon, it felt different.
It felt…
BZZT BZZT! BZZT BZZT!
Gage frowned. No one called him. Everyone texted. Unless it was Lucas with an emergency or…
His heart leapt into his throat as he grabbed his phone off the table and stared at the screen. He didn’t recognize the number, which made the whole thing worse. For a split second, he felt like a small child and wanted to be back at home with his dads and his uncles around him.
