Ash was restless. I watched him pace around the apartment, fucking with things that didn’t need fucking with, and made a futile attempt to gauge the source of his agitation. But no cigar. Ash’s moods were often a mystery even to him, and I’d learned to keep my mouth shut until he brought his shit to me—something that he was much better atthesedays.
I was folding a fuck-ton of laundry when he came into the bedroom a little while later. He looked wired, which made my heavy eyes itch. His energy astounded me, when it was all I could do to get out of bed some days. “What’sup?”
“Nothing.”
“Liar. You’ve had a bug in your ass since you got up.” So much for keeping my mouth shut. “Wanna talkaboutit?”
Irritation flashed briefly in his blue eyes, then he sat on the bed with a heavy sigh and reached for a pile of Liam’s pants and T-shirts. “What’sgastroparesis?”
“Ah, Jed told you hehasit?”
“Yeah. Just before you came home lastnight.”
I balled up a pair of crazy-small football socks as I searched for a way to explain Jed’s condition, all the while trying not to ponder why he cared so much. Glenn’s buddy was hot, and beyond that, he had a charisma that was kind of arresting. He didn’t say much, but in the brief time I’d spent with him, I’d found myself fascinated by him. He was nothing like the dudes Glenn had brought aroundbefore.
“Pete?”
Damn my wandering mind. Before I’d taken an L train to the skull, I’d possessed the ability to just answer the damn question. Now the path to my answer took me to some really odd places. “Gastroparesis is a stomach condition. It fucks with digestion and metabolism, and it can make people really sick—like vomiting all day, every day, nutrition issues, and chronic pain. Jed’s had a pacemaker fitted to keep food down, but he still gets the rest, and he’s spent a lot of time in the hospital. It’s nearly killed him a couple of times, by allaccounts.”
“Is it, like,terminal?”
I shrugged. “Not directly, but it’s incurable right now. Why are you sointerested?”
It was Ash’s turn to shrug. “I like him, so I wanted tounderstand.”
Fair enough. “It’s a tough break, but he’s a tough guy. Glenn told me they ran the Portland marathon together last year, and Boston. Considering Jed took a bullet to the leg in Iraq, that’s prettyfuckingepic.”
“How do you know so muchabouthim?”
“Glenn told me some stuff on the way home. I think they drive each other crazy, but they’re likebrothers,man.”
“Like usandJoe?”
“Maybe.”
Like he’d heard his name from a couple of blocks away, Joe appeared in the bedroom doorway. I blinked in surprise. “How the fuck did you get in without either of ushearing?”
“Dunno.” Joe dangled his keys from his fingers. “Liam heard me, though, so I figured you two were either fucking or napping orsomeshit.”
Ash’s glare matched mine. We never fucked when Liam was in the apartment, and I was pretty sure Ash barely slept either. “Don’t be a dick. What do you want? If it’s breakfast, we ateitall.”
Joe grinned, unfazed as ever by any sharp words anyone threw his way. “I already ate, thanks. No need to get pissy. I just came up to pass on a message from Glenn. He said to tell Ash that Jed isn’t going to the VA till tomorrow now ’cause Glenn needs him forsomethingelse.”
I was mystified, but the message seemed to make sense to Ash. He nodded and his eyes grew distant again. Joe noticed too, but he left Ash’s brooding to me and disappeared from our apartment as silently as he had arrived.First time foreverything.
Side-eyeing Ash, I piled the folded laundry into the basket to put away later. “What’s Jed going to the VA got to dowithyou?”
“He asked me to gowithhim.”
“Why?”
“To show him themural.”
“He couldn’t find it onhisown?”
Ash’s lips turned up in the barest hint of a smile. “I thought that too, but I haven’t seen it since it wentup,so…”
“So you’d like to goseeit?”
