Grayson shrugged in a helpless kind of way. “There’s no way I’m gonna find words. Maybe we could speak your language instead?”
Reece melted. He took Grayson’s hand, eyes fluttering closed at the warmth of his skin, but even more at all the emotions flitting under the surface.
Reece’s own feelings were still a mess, too many at once and too extreme, too raw. But Grayson had always understood him better than anyone else. And now here were Grayson’s feelings, precious and nearly lost, and Reece let them rush intohim, filling him like crystal-clear melted snow clearing away the dust on a riverbed.
They weren’t going to recover in an evening. But maybe they could at least be together.
“The studio’s not much more than a mile away.” Reece intertwined their fingers, unwilling to let go. “We could go home. I could help you with these... feelings.”
Grayson squeezed his hand, and Reece felt the jolt of their combined desire rush through him.
“In fact,” he said, tightening his own hand in return, “we could gorightnow.”
With the truck sent to the shop and the Smart car in recovery from Port Angeles, they opted to walk, traversing the Seattle winter streets together back to the studio. Grayson found himself brushing his fingers against Reece’s every other block, the way someone tipsy might catch an arm to steady them. Reece understood what he was asking without Grayson having to put it into words, guiding him through both the streets and the return of his heart.
“That’s doubt—this intersection’s weird but it’s okay, I know downtown, we’re going the right way—”
“That’s overwhelm—and yeah, if I think the sirens are loud, your ears are probably miserable—”
“That’s skepticism—which,really?I told you this is the right way, I know where I’m going—”
They walked on. High above downtown, Grayson could make out faint stars that made warmth blossom in his chest like the return of old friends. The rain had stopped, but the street was still dotted with puddles that shimmered where they caught the streetlights, and every time they crossed an intersection, a glimpse of the moon was visible, bright and full out over the sound.
“Evan?”
Grayson startled. He looked over at Reece, who was watching him patiently. “You stopped walking,” Reece said.
“Oh.” Grayson looked back at the sky, the way the moon’s glow lit the wispy clouds stretched over the stars, the silvery sheen of its reflection on the water.
Reece’s smile was soft. “If I had to guess this one, I’d say you forgot what it feels like to look at the moon.”
Had Reece’s voice always been this warm, this full of gentle understanding? Grayson hadn’t even realized he’d missed the way a voice could resonate in your heart the same way the moon’s glow could fill the night sky.
“We can walk down to the water, stargaze, whatever you want,” Reece said. “There’s no rush.”
Grayson reached out and grabbed his hand. “Well,” he said wryly as Reece’s eyes widened, because there was no way an empath was going to miss the cocktail of emotions buzzing through Grayson. “There’ssomerush.”
Reece’s smile grew. “Come on,” he said, tugging on Grayson’s hand. “Let’s go.”
Finally, they made it to the building and up to the fourth floor of the high-rise. Grayson tried to weather the forgotten sensations of rising anticipation and urgency as he waited for Reece to fumble in his pocket for the key. “I got this, I swear,” Reece said, the key unsteady in his hand as he tried to open the door.
“I just watched you twitch because you heard yourself lie, sugar.” Grayson took the key right out of Reece’s hand, his body lighting up with the brush against warm skin. “Move over.”
“Hey.” Reece turned around. “Iam the holder of the keys in this relationship—”
“You’re gonna learn to share.” Grayson bent, and beforeReece could get another word in, he levered him up and over his shoulder in one easy, graceful lift.
Reece let out a surprised laugh.“Evan.”
“You were blocking the door.”
“But—”
“And you’re not gonna give me any empath sass about hurting myself.” Grayson wrapped an arm around the back of Reece’s thighs to pin him in place as he fit the key into the lock. “You know full well I regularly lift things that weigh more than you.”
“Ugh,fine.” Reece huffed. “But you can’t win all our fights by picking me up—son of a bitch.”
“That was another lie, wasn’t it?”
