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“Yeah, sorry about that. I’m sure you could have just sent it over with Rowe,” he mumbled, shuffling back so Lucas could bring the bags in.
Lucas stepped inside, carefully moving around Andrei to place the garment bag next to couch while the plastic bag was placed on the scarred coffee table littered with magazines and water bottles. “No, I wanted to come.”
“Did you?” he asked, not bothering to hide the bitterness from his voice.
Lucas’s head snapped up and he held Andrei’s angry gaze. “Yes.” And then he looked away, his eyes sweeping over the small apartment. There wasn’t much to it. Just a narrow living room with a sofa, coffee table and flat screen TV hung on the wall. At the other end of the room were the even smaller kitchen and a hall that led to the bathroom and bedroom.
Lucas’s adamant tone helped Andrei push through some of the anger that was crowding close so that he could really see Lucas. He didn’t look good. Not like Andrei would have expected. He remembered that Lucas had been haggard and rough while he’d been in the hospital, but that came from sleeping at Andrei’s bedside and surviving on what little food his friends were likely able to force down him. But Lucas hadn’t been to the hospital in two weeks. His charcoal slacks and black button-down shirt accentuated his form, but the clothes seemed to hang on him a little more as if he’d lost weight. Lucas’s face was thinner and more heavily lined than he remembered with dark circles under his eyes.
“Are…are you moving?” Lucas said, waving toward a stack of boxes in one corner.
It wasn’t the only stack of boxes in the apartment. But Andrei didn’t think about it. It was the little pause in the question. It was the second time Lucas had done it, as if he was unsure of whether to ask. As if he was carefully weighing his words. Something was wrong. Snow and the others hadn’t mentioned anything to him and it had taken every bit of Andrei’s self-control not to ask about Lucas, but he was determined not to sound like some lovesick debutante left behind at the dance.
Standing there, watching the man who’d turned his life upside down in too many ways, he saw it finally. Lucas was nervous. He was twitchy and anxious, barely staying in his own skin. If he’d sneezed at that second, Lucas would have jumped fifty feet. Andrei would have bet money that he’d never see the man like that. Lucas was always the epitome of calm and collected. He was always in control, particularly of himself.
“No. I just never bothered to unpack all my shit,” he replied, looking around the cluttered room. It had to appear claustrophobic to Lucas considering the open space and light he enjoyed in his penthouse. His place was dimly lit and what little furniture he had was a dark navy, sucking in what paltry light the one floor lamp produced. “I tend to move around a lot.” He shrugged. “Never really settle.”
Lucas’s eyes jumped back to his face and for a flash there was an unreadable emotion flitting through their green-gray depths that made Andrei’s heart stutter before the man looked away again, frowning. Conversation faltered and Andrei stepped closer to Lucas, peering at the bag.
“What’s that?”
“Books.” Lucas’s voice was soft and rough, almost a caress. “The books you left at the office.”
“Thanks! I’ve been bored out of my mind.” When he looked up at Lucas, he flashed him a grin and Lucas seemed to relax a little. “Rowe says it’ll be at least another two weeks before he’ll consider letting me come back to work. I’ll pay you back for these.”
“No.” The single word came out hard and angry, causing Andrei to jerk away from Lucas. He heard the other man curse under his breath softly, clearly not meaning for Andrei to hear him. “No, I don’t want you to.”
Andrei stared at him for a second and then nodded, stepping back. “You want something to drink? I was about to take a painkiller.” He started to turn for the kitchen and grinned at Lucas. “You wanna split a Percocet?”
Lucas’s lips twitched as if he couldn’t decide whether to grin. “No, I’m trying to give them up. Water would be nice. Thank you.”
“Would you mind taking the garment bag in the bedroom and grabbing the pill bottle off the nightstand?” he asked as he walked into the kitchen. Lucas didn’t say anything, but when Andrei looked up from grabbing two bottles of water from the kitchen, the other man had disappeared. He made it back to the living room when Lucas reappeared, opening the brown bottle and pouring one pill into his palm. Andrei popped it into his mouth and then struggled to open the bottle. Between the bright orange cast on his left arm and the knuckles on his right hand still bandaged, he struggled getting a good grip on things.
