A white man in a camouflage coat and balaclava was across the street, leaning on the dark windows of the closed coffee shop. Despite his outwardly relaxed position, his shoulders were tensed.
He lookedexactlylike the man Reece had seen yesterday, the one who had been lingering and smoking outside the same coffee shop, watching Reece’s building inexactlythe same manner.
Reece walked straight up to the edge of the garage. “Sir!” he shouted down, and the man startled. “Sir, are you all right? Are you here again because you have nowhere else to go?”
The man’s eyes widened and he hastily shoved off the building.
“Is your face all covered up because of the weather?” Reece asked loudly, as the man scrambled to pull his hat down to his brows. “Do you need to get off the street? Need somewhere to stay or a ride to a shelter?”
The man was already hustling down the street. “It’s very cold outside tonight,” Reece called after him. “I can help you find a place to get warm!”
The man increased his pace, disappearing around the corner without ever saying a word. Maybe he did have a place to go after all.
Reece shut the car door. He paused for a moment, staring at his rear taillight suspiciously. He took the covers off to replace the bulbs on a regular schedule, but now it was missing one of the screws. Had someone else taken it off—to put something inside, perhaps? His toolbox was still at Jamey’s; he’d have to make time to drive out to her place to check his car.
Up in the studio, he tossed his gloves on the kitchen counter and got a bowl of cereal with several extra teaspoons of sugar before curling up on the couch with his phone. He hadn’t texted Grayson since the beach and his last text was still on-screen.
Grayson: Failure? Care Bear,a pair of gloves isn’t what makes you an empath. Your compassion never got left in the glove box of your Micro Machine and towedto Tacoma.
Reece’s gaze lingered on the message. These days, the empath hunter had more faith in the empath than he did in himself.
He shook himself before he could have any feelings about that and sent a much grumpier text instead.
Reece: Do you and the Empath Initiative really think I won’t find a tracker in my rear taillight?
He had just finished his cereal and was contemplating his anti-anxiety arts and crafts stash when he got a response.
Grayson: If EI put a tracker on you, then I wasn’t made aware. I told them to leave you alone.
Reece blinked. He hadn’t beenmade awarethat Grayson had told EI to leave him alone. But no, there would be no thinking about that, just like he wasn’t thinking about Grayson having faith in him. He settled a little deeper into the couch cushions, pushing the too-long sleeves of Grayson’s hoodie up his arms to keep his hands free so he could text back.
Reece: So did you visit the clubs you were asking about?
Oh, that had been a bad question to ask. What Grayson did with his nights wasn’t any of his business. Even if apparently some of those nights he was telling EI to fuck off and standing between Reece and his demons, promising Reece that he wasn’t a complete failure of an empath. None of his business. Absolutely none.
Reece’s phone beeped.
Grayson: In a sense.
So Graysonwasout tonight. Maybe he was having drinks. Dancing. Deep in a throng of people who could all touch him without blacking out.
Reece: Bet your hair was excited to show off how pretty and perfect it always is.
Grayson: Oh look, you don’tguess everything right. It’s a mess right now.
Reece frowned.
Reece: Who messed up your hair?
Whoops. He hadn’t thought that text through. Did that sound territorial? Just because Reece couldn’t touch him didn’t mean other people had the same problem, and just because Grayson didn’t have emotions didn’t mean he was celibate. He could totally be having sex with those other people. The ones he could touch. Who weren’t Reece.
Grayson: Hotel gym.
Grayson at the gym.
Shit.
Muscles weren’t something Reece thought much about, but a post-workout high—he could drown in those endorphins until the world disappeared. He tried to push aside the fresh rush of interest that had suddenly unbalanced him. Even after a workout, Grayson probably didn’t get any kind of emotion Reece could pick up—and Reece couldn’t touch him in the first place. He needed to remember those things, just like he needed to respond like a normal person who had normal reactions to the thought of their platonic not-quite-friend at the gym.
