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“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?” Snow inquired, his voice carrying into the master bathroom where Ian was working. Ian knelt on the floor, grateful that he’d remembered to bring the kneepads along and loaded up the small roller with white paint. After yesterday’s painting session in the bedrooms, he was really getting sick of white paint. So damn boring. The little master bath would have looked great with a nice, pale blue. Not the pastel blue of the former tile trim, but something with a hint of gray.
“No, but that’s why I’m reading this magical booklet called…the instructions,” Lucas countered and Ian snorted. Well, at least he had some entertainment in Snow and Lucas.
“I never thought you’d let some lowly little instruction manual tell you what to do.”
“I’ll let the instruction manual tell me whatever it wants so long as I don’t get electrocuted or my head chopped off by these blades.”
“Idiot,” Snow muttered, but Ian could hear the surgeon’s amusement in that single word.
“I’m great at following instructions,” Lucas boasted. The sounds of cardboard and paper filled the air as they likely got the fan settled. “Andrei is a bossy motherfucker when I’m down on my knees, suck—”
“What the fuck, Lucas!” Andrei shrieked from the other bathroom across the hall. Ian fell back laughing. He jerked upright, catching the paint pan before it could tip over.
Snow cackled and Lucas called back over the sound, “Snow seems to think I can’t follow directions. He needs to understand that I’m very good at following instructions.”
“He doesn’t need details on your blowjob skills,” Andrei snarled.
“How about how I bend—”
“Shut! Up!”
Snow snickered. “You’re so not getting laid for a while.”
“That might be a good thing,” Lucas muttered, dropping his voice a bit so that it didn’t carry quite as far as before. “Sex on the stairs sounds like a great idea at the time, but the body doesn’t bounce back like it used to afterward.” Snow laughed and Lucas gave a little groan. “Fucking sucks getting old.”
“Yes, my friend, it does. But it’s a hell of a lot better than the alternative.”
Ian basked in the sound of their easy conversation as it drifted from sex and boyfriends to work and possible vacation ideas for later that summer. Lucas bragged about the latest training program that Andrei developed while Snow complained that Jude would have to go out of town soon for training on new tech being introduced to the ambulances.
And for the first time in a very long time, Ian didn’t feel envious or sad about listening to the mundane little bits of their lives because he finally had what he wasn’t sure he’d ever get. He had Hollis—someone that loved him and all his eccentricities, someone to build a life and a routine with, someone to celebrate all the triumphs and support through the rough times.
“You don’t need to shove your fingers in my ass to hold me steady on the ladder,” Lucas snapped suddenly.
“My fingers aren’t in your ass,” Snow griped back.
“Hold the damn ladder!”
“I’m not worried about the ladder falling. I’m worried about you falling.”
“Go turn on the electricity so we can check if this thing is wired correctly.”
“Now who’s being bossy?”
“Ash!”
Snow chortled and called for Ian, who smirked as he put aside the paint brush. He’d just finished his section and was about to check on Andrei. They’d need to let the bathroom dry for about an hour and then Andrei and Royce could work on the installation side of things.
He stepped into the room to find that Snow’s hands were on Lucas’s hips, not in his ass as Lucas had claimed.
“What’s up?” he asked, trying to hold back his own laugh.
“Keep an eye on the idiot on the ladder. I need to go flip the breaker for the room in the basement.”
Ian nodded and took his place by the ladder, holding it steady rather than Lucas, who took the time to glare at Snow as he exited the room. He then resumed tightening some screws and checking over his work. Sweat made his T-shirt cling to his chest and more ran down the side of his face. The air was already warm in the bedroom. Despite having the windows open, there didn’t seem to be the same breeze drifting through the house as the day before, and the temperature was quickly rising. The paint was going to dry fast, but it was going to be an uncomfortable day.
“There,” Lucas whispered, talking to himself. “That should do it.” He climbed down the ladder and leaned against it, smiling at Ian.
Ian had known Lucas for nearly a decade, and he’d never seen the man smile as much as he did now. But then, he worried less about Snow because of Jude and he worried about Rowe less since Mel’s death because of Noah. And he knew that Lucas worried less about him because he had Hollis.
