Seth considered for a while, chewing a piece of the fragrant bread, then hummed thoughtfully. “I guess I can see that. I mean, there’s a lot of art in games. I’ve seen some stunning games in the last few years.”
“Oh yeah, especially the indie game scene—some of those are amazingly creative and just so beautiful.”
“Any suggestions that might run on my laptop?” Seth asked, smiling at him.
“Are you just humoring me?” Dev really, really hoped he wasn’t.
“No, not at all. I mean, I would think there’d be games simple enough for me to play, even though I’m not what you’d call a gamer?” The hesitant way Seth looked at Dev made him realize the man was self-conscious.
“Honestly, I can think of, like, five games I think you might find interesting, based on the art alone.”
“Great! Could you maybe come to my place one evening and show them to me?” Seth asked, not quite looking at Dev for some reason. Was he shy? Insecure? Was this an actual date they were setting?
“Absolutely. I’ll set you up with a Steam account so I can—you know, I can tell I’m losing you, so I’ll just set stuff up and make an appearance, okay?” Dev grinned.
“Sounds good to me.” Seth saluted with his fork, and his eyes were twinkling again.
“Your laptop, it’s not a Mac, right?”
“No. I can’t remember the brand now, but not a Mac. Why?” Seth looked curious.
“It’s just that a lot of games are never made for Mac. I need to know what you’re packing to be prepared,” Dev explained, grinning, and winked a little. Seth blushed again. “So, how was your morning at work? Anything interesting happen?”
Dev settled in to listen, because he enjoyed the fuck out of the way Seth lit up whenever he talked about his day.
THEY MADEplans for Dev to go to Seth’s house two days later, on Thursday evening. Seth said he’d be home by four thirty, so Dev told Angel he was going out and taking the car, picked up his laptop bag, and drove the twenty minutes to Seth’s neighborhood.
The house was exactly as Seth had described it. Dev parked by the curb and walked up the paved path to the front door. There was a large garage next to the house, and Dev thought Seth must’ve parked inside. The home looked gorgeous in the old Victorian kind of way. Even the color—a muted pink of sorts—looked charming. Shouldering his bag, Dev wondered how much of that feeling had to do with how appealing the owner of the house was to him.
Grinning, he walked up the stairs and pressed the doorbell. It was around quarter to five, so Seth should’ve been home already.
A massive barking sound, more than one dog’s worth, started as soon as his finger left the button, and he took a step back. He remembered Seth mentioning dogs, but they hadn’t discussed them in detail. Dev straightened his shoulders, ran his fingers through his overgrown hair, and smiled as a muted voice told the dogs to be quiet.
The door opened, and Dev froze.
The man peering at him wasn’t the one he’d expected. Not at all. This guy was older, probably around his dad’s age. He had salt-and-pepper hair, expressive eyes, and holy fuck, that was where the cataloging ended because all Dev’s brain could do was drool a little.
“Uh…,” he managed to say.
“Oh, you must be Dev, right?” the guy said, smiling at him in a charming way, then looking him from head to toe. “Come on in. Seth’s not home yet—probably got stuck somewhere.”
Because he had been raised to be polite, Dev did indeed walk in, still trying to make his brain understand the situation.
Three dogs sat at attention in a large doorway to a neat and homey-looking family room. There was a husky that looked cautious, a pit bull that seemed calm but curious, and a bull terrier that seemed like it was going to burst through the seams.
“You aren’t afraid of dogs, are you?” the man asked him, and Dev managed to shake himself out of the stupor he was in.
“No, I’m not.”
“Okay, then why don’t I let them greet you one by one so it won’t be too overwhelming?”
“You can actually do that?” It didn’t sound like any sort of control over dogs he’d ever heard of. One by one? Really?
The man laughed, the sound a bit husky and melodic, and then grinned at Dev. “Grace, you first,” he said, and the pit bull waddled up to Dev and sniffed at his offered hand politely. She didn’t seem too interested, at least not right then. Dev assumed it was because she’d figured out Dev wasn’t there to hurt anyone. “Okay, to your bed. Husky, you next?”
“Your husky is called Husky?” Dev blurted, and stood absolutely still when the dog with ice-blue eyes came to him and rounded him with some suspicion despite the fact that the first one had deemed him safe.
“Long story. He’s a good boy, just a bit cautious.”
