Liam brushed his lips, his stomach tightening with yearning.“God yes,” he breathed, and then he practically ran to the kitchen to get some water and some ibuprofen to get Josh to take his meds.
A HALF HOURlater, they were seated on the bed, a bag of crisps between them, watching, of all things, an animated feature calledBad Guys.
“I can’t even believe we’re watching this,” Liam muttered.
“For the twelfth time,” Josh said happily, munching.“Grace and I quote dialog.”
“Why?What evenisthat creature with all the teeth?”
“The shark or the piranha?”
“Thewolf!”Liam said, eating another crisp in exasperation.“Why—”
“Because,” Josh said with the patience of a third-grade teacher, “they’rebad guys, but they’re reallygood guys.The police want to catch them, but they’re trying to begood.Do I have to explain the parallels here?”
Liam gave him a sour look.“Can I say my profession is not well represented here?”
Josh chuckled.“You haven’t even seen the end of the movie, when you guys lookreallybad.”
Liam laughed, but in his head he was remembering what Felix had said outside the hospital.
“What?”Josh asked, wiping some orange crisp dust from his lips with his one good hand.
Liam leaned forward and licked it off, grinning when he was done because Josh’s eyes were crossed, much like a child’s would be with an unruly pet.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Josh mumbled, licking his own lips between words.“And that tickled.”
Liam chuckled and leaned back against the pillows, grateful for this quiet between them.Too often around Josh, life was crazy, people were cattywampus, the stakes were dire, and a moment’s delay could mean catastrophe.
Liam wanted to be there for the quiet moments—the ones where no catastrophe would materialize if they took a breath and laughed together.
But that meant honesty.He moved the crisps and turned to his side, resting his head on his fist while Josh paused the movie.
“Felix thought that maybe you liked us law-and-order people because it was something your parents—all three of them—could never give you.”
Josh grunted.“We never did have the body count conversation, did we,” he stated, and Liam shook his head.
“I don’t need a number—”
“Three,” Josh said, “if you include the first guy I dated in high school.”
Liam clutched his chest.“You’re going to kill this old man before he has a chance to count your body!”
Josh booped his nose.“Look at those freckles,” he said happily.“How could I resist?”
Liam grinned at him, loving his sense of play, but stuck to the subject.“Yeah, so three.One was a copper—”
And Josh grimaced.“Two.I counted Nick Denning there.”
Liam’s heart thudded in his stomach as the implications hit him.“But you and Nick were never a thing,” he said.Josh had told him this, and Josh hadn’t lied to him, not once.Sure, he could put on a show for a mark, but the people in his life were inviolate.No grifting his friends.
“Well, no,” Josh said softly.“But… but I thought I really loved the guy.It was very tragic and star-crossed, since, you know, he was married and I wouldn’t.But….”Josh booped his nose again, but this time it felt more like a caress.“And then I fell into your arms, and Nick started to fade.”He shrugged.“Like the red from Van Gogh’s poppies.”
“I had no idea they used to be red,” Liam said, still stunned.“But Josh—”
Josh swallowed but kept eye contact.
“That leaves Sean.”
