Jasper leaned back in his chair. Vincent couldn’t blame him; he wasn’t sure if he’d want to know the truth in this kind of situation either.
“I tested all of us.”
“You what?” Jasper snapped, surging to his feet, his blunt nails biting into Vincent’s hand. “I told you I didn’t want to be involved.”
She tossed the papers to the middle of the table. “I needed yours for confirmation,” she replied, unapologetic. “We’re all half siblings.”
Vincent squeezed Jasper’s hand when he felt the tremble that ran through him. Jasper didn’t say anything, his other hand braced on the table while anger warred with half a dozen other emotions on his face. “Just so I understand,” Vincent said quietly. “You did a DNA test on Jasper without his consent?”
Amber straightened with a wary glance his way.
“I told her not to,” Noah said. “I’d offer my statement as a witness if you want to sue her, or whatever, but I doubt my word would be worth anything. Congrats, bro,” he added, pushing to his feet. “You two share your father, and I share her inheritance. If you wanna get drunk about it, hit me up. Let’s go before they call the cops on you.” He turned and headed for the door.
Amber was slow to follow, but she finally got to her feet, lingering beside the table like she wanted to say something. Aquick glance at each of them and she decided against it. She left the papers and followed Noah out.
Vincent kept silent for several moments after the door closed, waiting for Jasper to do or say anything, but he was still standing there, eyes fixed on the papers. Finally, he slumped forward with a shaky breath.
“I can’t go back home,” he murmured, an empty quality to his voice that Vincent didn’t like in the least.
“No,” he agreed. “You shouldn’t have to.” Amber of all people was one of the last he’d expect to violate someone’s trust like that. He had to wonder if she broke trust so easily within scenes, but unless she started playing with club members rather than her fiancé, it wasn’t his business. “You can stay here as long as you need.”
This certainly wasn’t how he imagined offering to let Jasper move in would go, but it couldn’t be helped. He squeezed Jasper’s fingers and stood, then guided him upstairs, unsurprised when he readily crawled into bed and burrowed under the covers.
Vincent waited until he’d fallen asleep before getting up and adjusting the thermostat back to his preferred 71 degrees. He grabbed his suitcase and took it to the washing machine to get started on laundry, then sorted the mail. Mostly spam, a few bills, Jasper’s collar. The pictures likely weren’t even ready to mail yet, since he’d ordered specific sizes, but he was still disappointed not to see them.
He took the collar up to tuck into a drawer of his dresser, then joined Jasper on the bed with his phone. He’d need to get a key made, but they could do that tomorrow. For now he put an order in for sushi to be delivered for dinner and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on work.
Chapter 26
JASPER’S RESOLVEnot to go to the funeral held out clear until the morning of, when the guilt finally won. It’d been as horrible as he’d imagined it would be, and he left before the service concluded, grateful beyond belief that Vincent was there since he wouldn’t have been able to get away fast enough if he’d had to rely on Amber.
She hadn’t mentioned anything about the fact he hadn’t been home the past week, and the guilt about imposing on Vincent was getting worse every day. It didn’t come close to overriding the anger and loathing he now felt for Amber, though. He wasn’t sure he could ever trust her enough to live there again, but he couldn’t barge into Vincent’s life.
Their vacation had been amazing, but even he knew that wasn’t a reasonable excuse to move in together. Not like he had many options. He certainly couldn’t afford an apartment, even if he wanted one, not with his last year about to start. If he was lucky he could save up enough to get his license and pay for his exams by next year, have a steady job by the one after that, but getting a car and his own place to live were completely beyond him at the moment.
Maybe Vincent would cosign a lease for him? That sounded like the best plan, if he could only afford the rent. No point in Vincent helping if he’d end up paying for two homes.
He was saved from his existential crisis by Vincent calling for him from downstairs. He rolled off the bed where he was most definitely wallowing and found Vincent at the dining table with some packages. “Yeah?”
Vincent stood behind a chair and motioned for Jasper to sit in it. “I have some things for you.”
“Oh?” He sat and stared at the large thick envelope and smaller rectangular box.
“The pictures Ash took came in.”
And just like that, Jasper knew his face was crimson. “I don’t need to see them.”
Vincent snorted and mussed Jasper’s hair with one hand as he picked up the envelope with the other. “I’d like to put at least one of these in the main room of the club. You can pick which one. Or I’ll keep them to my office if you prefer.”
“You can’t be serious,” he whispered. Even if Vincent had said before that’s what he wanted, Jasper hadn’t quite believed he’d go through with it. He watched as Vincent opened the envelope and pulled out a stack of professionally developed pictures. “Oh,” he breathed, startled by the one on top. It was him and Vincent, staring at each other, obviously about to or just finished kissing. The soft light made Vincent’s eyes even more golden.
The colors had obviously been edited. He didn’t remember the trees being so green, or the streaks of early morning sunlight being so clearly defined through the leaves, but it was beautiful.
“That one’s going in my office,” Vincent said.
Jasper tilted his head to eye Vincent. He had a feeling if he didn’t mark any of them as an Absolutely Do Not Put This Up, they’d all end up on the wall somewhere. Vincent left him to decide as he started on lunch. Jasper watched long enough to know he was making sandwiches before turning back to the pictures.
The black-and-white ones were stunning, cropped in a way that cut off their faces to provide anonymity. If he hadn’t known he was looking at himself, he wouldn’t have thought twice aboutseeing them hanging in the club. The more he thought about it the more he warmed to the idea.
