Reaching forward, I tugged him close. “That’s not new information.” I tipped his chin up again and stroked a touch over his jaw. It was in that moment I realized this was why he was upset. He thought I was going to be angry at him because people might know we were…whatever we were.
“I’m not ashamed of you,” I told him. “And I don’t dislike you.”
“High praise,” he snarked, then collapsed against my chest, breathing out heavily. “I didn’t mean for him to find out like this. I didn’t know the coin was yours. I didn’t even know what it was.”
I pulled it back out of my pocket and lifted Jonah’s hand, pressing it into his fingers. I watched him trace the faded, sea-beaten images on both sides.
“It’s a drachma,” I told him.
He hummed as he turned it in his fingers the same way I did in mine. “Vanya said you found it with your mom?”
“My dad,” I corrected. “We didn’t spend a lot of time together when I was younger. He was always busy, I was…a lot to handle. Nikos was the better son.”
“I believe that.”
I squeezed him so hard he burst into laughter, and fuck, the sound made me smile. And I rarely smiled these days. With a sigh, I dropped my cheek against the top of his head and leaned my weight against the door as I held him. “We were beachcombing. We didn’t find much that day, but before we left, I spotted this as the tide was going out. It seemed special. He told me to keep it in my pocket. That it would bring me luck.”
I held my fingers over Jonah’s as they continued to explore the shape of the coin. “Did it?”
“I think so.” I had it with me for every championship in the Q, for the draft, for every decent contract I signed, and for every cup I’d won.
And I’d had it in my pocket the night I met him.
Lifting my hands, I cupped his cheeks, stroking my thumbs over his jaw before dropping my hands to his shoulders. His own hand reached out, feeling along my pants, and then heslipped the coin into my pocket before grasping my shoulders and coasting his fingers upward.
“Beard.”
I blinked. It was strange, suddenly, to know he didn’t know what I looked like at all. Not really. Not with how other people saw me, and not how he saw things. “You didn’t feel it when I had my face buried in your ass?”
He burst into laughter, shoving the sound into my chest. “Yeah, I…I kind of did, but I was too far gone to really think about it.” He didn’t lift his head as his hand explored my cheek, then down my neck, where I was trimmed neatly. “Not a neck beard, eh?”
“What the fuck is a neck beard?”
He lifted his face and grinned at me. God, he had dimples. I hadn’t seen those before. “The fact that you don’t know is a good thing.” His smile faltered, and he let out a small sigh. “I’m sorry I freaked out.”
“Don’t be. It’s been a really long few weeks, and I know you’re going through it.” I fell quiet for a second, but the words buried in my chest didn’t want to stay there. “Nikos told me what happened with your dad. What…what he said.”
Jonah’s face tipped down. “Yeah. I mean, it’s not new. It’s nothing he hasn’t said to me when I was younger. I mean, it was a bit more brutal this time, but?—”
I lifted his chin and stroked my thumb over his lips. I hadn’t kissed him yet. Fuck, how hadn’t I kissed him? I wanted to, but I didn’t know if he did. I’d made such a shitty—asshole deal about it before, the first time I had my hands on him.
“You don’t deserve that.”
He shrugged. “I guess. I don’t know. Honestly, I’m just so tired.”
I knocked my forehead against his. “Do you want me to stay with you tonight?”
“So I can wake up to an empty bed?”
I grimaced with guilt. “I had an early morning training session. I’m sorry.”
He snorted a laugh. “I’m kidding. But maybe a text next time?”
Next time. He wanted there to be a next time. I kind of thought maybe that was the case, but hearing it aloud meant more than anything. “I can do that.”
He bit his lip, then said, “Aren’t you on a roadie?”
“Not tomorrow.” But soon.
