Luke folded his arms across his chest. Good. I was getting on his nerves already, and likely vindicating whatever had driven him to shack me up with Gus rather than in his own spare room. “I offered you a job so you didn’t have to worry about it. It occurred to me after that roofing probably wasn’t the best thing for your shoulder, though, so I’m sorry about that.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my shoulder.”
“You had it rebuilt six months ago. Don’t tell me it’s not still giving you grief, because I know it is. You think I don’t know you didn’t bother with your physiotherapy appointments?”
Grey sauntered back into view, saving me from a subject change I was about as in the mood for as I was a hot poker to the gut. I bent to greet him and guided him towards the litter tray. Being the champ he was, he climbed right in and took a piss, then found a corner of the kitchen to give himself a full body wash.
A ghost of a grin warmed Luke’s face, reminding me what a handsome bastard he was when he wasn’t being a miserable twat. “Think he’s dropping you a hint.”
I straightened up. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. No offence, but you need a fucking shower.”
That, I couldn’t deny.
Luke brought my bag in from the bike, showed me to my room, and where the towels were.
Then he forced some twenty pound notes into my hand and bid me goodbye. “I’ll come by tomorrow,” he said after an awkward silence at the door. “But call me if you need anything before then. And don’t give Gus any grief, okay? He’s too nice for our family bullshit.”
“I know that.”
“Do you? Thought you didn’t know him at all.”
A challenge I couldn’t decipher laced Luke’s words, and I wondered if Gus had told him about our nearly hook-up. The thought rattled me more than I wanted it to. Not because I cared if my burly bro knew I swung both ways, but because for reasons I’d never quite understood, I’d carried that kiss all these years as my most precious thing. I’d never told a soul.
Perhaps because talking about it would mean admitting that despite not setting eyes on Gus Amour for half a decade, I still dreamt of kissing him again.
