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“Well, I’ll have to anchor you down in the bed so we can change that.”
He barely hid his startled response behind his fall of bangs. Hollis frowned. Did Ian think his sleepwalking changed anything?
“I hate the way this is messing with you,” Rowe finally said.
“So do I. But we can’t stop. We shouldn’t have walked away. I shouldn’t have just walked away, Rowe. It was wrong. I didn’t think I knew anything that could help—he keeps his boys pretty isolated. But I think maybe I do know more. I don’t know why I blocked whatever it is, but something about all this is bothering me. The colors, that name…those things are familiar. It’s driving me nuts trying to remember.”
“Rowe never walked away, Ian,” Noah said.
Rowe sent his boyfriend a quick frown.
Noah rolled his eyes. “He’s been screwing with Jagger’s life for years and he has been looking for the kids.”
“I have,” Rowe admitted on a sigh. “But the information Hollis gave us is more than we’ve had to go on before. Jagger has had other, er, difficult computer issues, bank issues.”
Ian’s laugh rang out. “I should have known.” He bent and closed the cabinet door. “I don’t even want to know why that was open. Hopefully, I don’t start cooking in my sleep.” He wasn’t looking at Hollis again. “Let’s all go back to bed. I can hear your dogs whining.” He paused. “Want me to take them outside?”
Rowe scowled. “Of course not. Go back to bed.”
Hollis just wanted them back under the covers and plastered against each other, so he reached for Ian’s hand, his stomach turning over when Ian stepped back.
“I think I’m going to try and sleep in my room.” Ian bit his lip, dark eyes flicking up to Hollis’s briefly. “Sorry.”
Hollis stepped back until his ass hit the counter. “Yeah, okay. No problem,” he said roughly, hoping that no one noticed how much he was leaning back on the counter to hold himself up. He didn’t want anyone to know how much it hurt to see Ian pulling away, hiding off some part of him after he’d already shared so much. He watched Ian quickly cross the kitchen, one hand tightly fighting the waist of the shorts so they stayed up as he disappeared down the hall. A second later, a bedroom door softly closed, separating him from Ian.
For a moment, he wasn’t sure he could breathe and piece after piece of his heart broke off. He was sure that Ian had trusted him. That they’d reached a point where he was sure that Ian would lean on him, rely on him. But…
“You okay, babe?” Noah’s murmured words broke into Hollis’s thoughts, reminding him that he wasn’t alone.
Hollis looked up as Rowe grunted, still staring down the hall where Ian had disappeared. Lines of worry were carved into the other man’s face, his hands fisted at his side. “Go on to bed. I’ll be there in a minute.”
Noah leaned close, brushing a kiss across the corner of Rowe’s mouth before shuffling back to bed.
They stood there in the heavy silence until they heard the sound of another door opening and closing.
“You wanted to know why Lucas has an issue with you,” Rowe said in a low voice so it wouldn’t carry down the hall. “That’s why.”
Hollis’s eyes snapped to Rowe and he straightened, pushing off the counter. “What?”
“Ian’s great. It’s not hard to see and there are plenty of guys drawn to someone who shines so bright. But Ian comes with baggage and too many people aren’t willing to fight for him. To stick around when shit gets too real, too messy. Things get too real for you, Banner?”
“No,” he snarled. “He’s the one who shut me out.”
For the first time since they’d followed Ian into the kitchen, a ghost of a smile played across Rowe’s mouth. “Nah, he just needs a little space to deal with you knowing so much about him. He’ll come back when he’s ready.”
“You sure?”
“Yep.” Rowe yawned and scratched his chest, some of the tension flowing back out of his frame. “Show him you’re there for him when he’s ready.”
Hollis nodded, some of the pain easing from his chest. “You guys ever try to find Ian’s parents? He told me what they did.”
“Both rotting in jail. Some kind of fraud thing.”
The twist of his lips let Hollis know he’d had something to do with that. Something illegal, no doubt.
Rowe started to cross the kitchen but he stopped in the middle and turned back to Hollis. “You need to figure out now whether you can handle all he’s got to deal with. He doesn’t need you stringing him along.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Rowe stared at him for another couple of seconds before he grunted and headed back to bed. Hollis slumped against the counter and roughly rubbed his face. No, life with Ian wasn’t going to be easy, but if tonight had proved anything to Hollis it was that he was even more determined to find a way for them to work. He wanted to be there to help Ian through these memories, to get him back to being the strong, confident man that he’d first met. He wanted to be the one Ian leaned on when he was hurting. It was just going to take time.
