“It’s so not fair,” Josh grumbled.“Have youseenChuck, Hunter, and Carl?Their bodies aremadeto stack muscles.”
Liam kissed his temple.“Yeah, boy-o, but you’ve got areallywrinkly brain.Nature’s got to balance these things out, yes?”
“The thought of you stroking my brain is absolutely terrifying,” Josh said.“Let’s watch the stupid show.”
He was asleep before the end of the first episode, and Liam did what he hadn’t done since they’d gotten back from the Caribbean in January.
Carried his boy to bed and tucked him in.
He was almost as insubstantial now as he had been then, and Liam thought he should maybe have a private chat with the one parent guaranteed to not lose his shit.
Because if he didn’t, Liam might lose his own.
“TIRED WITHa nosebleed?”Danny asked as Liam crouched in the bathroom, feeling like he was texting his wife or something.
“Yes.He—I made him promise if he didn’t feel better after some rest, we’d call you, but….”
“Nosebleeds are scary,” Danny said soothingly.“I get it.But he’s also right.The doctor said there could be lingering anemia, and his recovery period isn’t anywhere near the three years they recommend.Of course, Josh was always an overachiever, but sometimes….”
“You can’t rush healing,” Liam murmured, and curiously enough he thought of his own father.
“I like your plan,” Danny said.“Hold him to it.And call us if anything else happens.I’ll put a line to his doctor now, and so if youdohave to go in to the medicos, he’ll be ready with Josh’s records.”
“Okay,” Liam said, feeling better.“Good.I just….”How to say this.
“Needed a grown-up in the room,” Danny supplied.
“Well, that’s embarrassing.”
“My boy, we are all high maintenance in this crowd.You may or may not have figured that out, but big personalities are often scar tissue over big damage.Second thoughts?”
“Absolutely not,” Liam said fiercely.
“And witness,” Danny said smugly.
Liam had to give him points for that, and then he rung off.Adrift a little, and not quite as tired as Josh but with the edge of his worry blunted, he finished off their dinner and then settled down to watch Josh’s show.
It was entertaining, he thought with a yawn, finally exhausted.But he really did prefer his wrinkly brains to his giant biceps.It was a personal sort of attraction, and he’d stand by that choice any day.
Schloss
JOSH SLEPTfor sixteen hours after they arrived in Stuttgart, waking up around noon the day after arriving because—what else?—he had to pee.When he got back from the bathroom, he glanced around the suite and realized that Liam had eaten breakfast with, probably, Carl and Michael, and then taken off with them.He’d left a plate on the table, under a cover, with breakfast potatoes, fruit, and some sausage on it, and a text on Josh’s phone.
Back by one.Carl and Michael are going to their room to rest.Love you.
Josh managed to devour everything on the plate, and was contemplating going back to bed when Liam arrived, breathless and buoyant, a small tourist bag in his hand.
“What?”Josh asked, smiling at him, thinking this would be what he looked like coming in from a morning run, or home from work after stopping for groceries.
Josh and his friends could be snarky and sarcastic, their brains constantly in motion, their edges honed by a vision of a world that was inherently unfair and needed constant tinkering.Liam, Josh thought, just liked helping people.He’d been proud of being able to help his mother with his younger siblings and proud of knowing his community when he’d been a flatfoot.And while Josh didn’t think Liam realized it, what he’d done for Danny in that alleyway in Morocco had been extraordinary.It hadn’t been the move of a law enforcement officer the way Josh’s country understood law enforcement—but ithadbeen the move of a compassionate person with the power to make things better.
It was that, perhaps, that had started the zing in Josh’s blood.Not the story of Morocco, of course—Josh hadn’t learned about that until long after their first meeting.
But Liam stepping up to help Josh and Stirling out of the van that night, and the way he’d simply caught Josh in his arms.All that compassion, all that surprising strength.
And whether Liam understood it or not, he was, by virtue of having a level head and a heart stouter than his brain was wrinkly, the grown-up in the room.There would always be tension, Josh thought, smiling besottedly and not caring.Josh knew how to be a crew leader—he’d watched Felix and Danny and Julia his entire life, and decidedthatwas what he wanted to be.It was why he had never settled down on a major at school.The learning—allthe learning—was the point.And then you used that knowledge tofixthe things, make the world fair, level the playing field for people who needed the help.
Liam had simply learned to help.He didn’t “lead a crew,” hecaredfor a crew.That first kiss on the balcony in the dark had been the thing Josh needed with all his soul when he’d needed it most.From his first moment of contact, back in the alleyway in Morocco, Liam had been there—right down to trying so hard not to tell them all to shut up in the Louvre.
