Page 71 of Conquest

“He still has it,” Jesse said quietly. “The Mustang.”

Greg looked at him, a smile relaxing his pained expression. “I wondered what had happened to it. I was afraid he got rid of it like he did all his others when he left.” He nodded to himself, and cleared his throat to proceed. “There were times when I thought the album would never get finished. Not that I was upset with Evan. I understood that he needed to care for his father. He was the one who took Ethan to all his doctor appointments. He prepared all of his meals for him, helped him bathe, took care of his medications. He did it all.”

“He told me his mom didn’t handle things well when his father became sick, but I didn’t realize he did so much for him.”

“Well, Evan pushed her away a lot because of that, but I also think he felt she wasn’t capable of caring for Ethan as well as he could, and that was probably true. To this day, I still believe Evan holds some resentment against her.

“At Ethan’s the funeral, I expected to see Evan break into hysterics, but he cried so silently you wouldn’t even be able to tell unless you looked at his eyes. I didn’t see him again for a week, then at twelve o’clock at night there was a knock on my door, and when I opened it, there he was. But there was a strangeness about him, a coldness that hadn’t been there before, and he said, ‘My album’s been out for two months. It’s time to get this tour rolling. Make the arrangements tomorrow. I want to be on the road before the month ends,’ and he turned to walk away. I called to him to come inside, but he refused, and disappeared into the night. From that moment, he was never quite the same person as when his father had been beside him.”

Both Jesse and Greg sat silent. The ghosts of Greg’s spoken memories hovered in the air above them. A physical ache tightened Jesse’s chest over Evan’s emotional pain. After a long pause, Jesse stood up and walked over to Greg.

“I know Ev would’ve told me eventually about everything, but it’s nice to hear someone else talk about his father. He sounds like he was a wonderful person.”

“He was. I tried my best to be a father figure to Evan after Ethan passed, but I know I failed. It doesn’t change the fact that I love him like a son of my own.” Greg looked at Jesse intently. “So, you take good care of him.”

Jesse turned for the door. “I will. I already promised that to him.”

  

Jesse walked through the house, his thoughts weighing down his mood from everything Greg had told him. To hear how dedicated Evan had been to his father, to picture him so diligently caring for the man he admired and trying to battle an unconquerable foe in the illness, made such sorrow for Evan well up inside him that he could hardly breathe.

Then to think after years of hiding Evan had finally found the courage to make his music public again, and he could be the one to destroy his comeback, made determination mix with the sadness. He wouldn’t allow that to happen. No matter what it took, no matter what he had to do, he wouldn’t drag Evan down, and he would make sure Evan’s comeback was successful, if not just for Evan, then for Evan’s father, whose dream had been to see his son share his beautiful gift with the world.

Jesse stopped at the French doors in the music room and looked outside. The sun was beginning to set, turning the sky to burning oranges and reds, misty blues and violets. Evan walked onto the diving board at the far end of the pool. He bounced once, and for an instant, his sleek body became silhouetted against the golden sky. He arched in the air and descended into the water with hardly a splash. He surfaced, shaking his drenched hair from his eyes, the gold and copper highlights bright against the saturated darker tones.

So beautiful, Jesse thought. His gift, his spirit, his physical appearance, all that made Evan who he was, was beauty so supreme to rival the angels. Watching Evan at that moment and knowing what he knew now, if it was possible for the immense love he felt for him to grow, then it doubled its depth into his soul, and he knew whatever future they would have, his love for Evan had melded into his very essence.

Jesse took a breath to pull himself from his thoughts and opened one of the doors. He walked toward the pool, holding one arm behind his back, and watched Evan swim, admiring the ripples in his deltoids and how the water rolled off the muscles in his back.

Evan reached the shallow four-foot section of the pool and touched bottom. His eyes fell on Jesse and a wide smile shone over his features. “I knew you were here,” he said, walking through the water and brushing his hair back with one hand.

Jesse went to one knee at the pool’s edge. “Did you see me standing inside?”

Evan reached the edge of the pool and shook his head. “I felt you. Does that sound weird?”

Jesse stroked along Evan’s cheek with his fingertips. “No. It’s happened to me when you’re near, too.”

Evan gazed up at him, his smile fading slightly. “Are you okay?”

Jesse nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just tired. It was a long day and I feel bad for getting home later than I told you.”

“Don’t feel bad. I know how it goes when you’re trying to get stuff done in the studio, especially when you got new people playing for you.” Evan smiled up at him. “But pretty soon we’ll be going to work together. I talked to JJ today and he’s flying in on my birthday. He’s planning on taking the next day to recover, but after that, for the rest of the week we’ll be in the studio getting things ready to start recording and working with the other guys Greg’s bringing in.”

“I can’t wait to meet him. Are we all going to go out for your birthday?”

“Well, his flight comes in late in the afternoon, and I was planning on picking him up, but I’m not sure he’ll be up to partying. He’s flying from Australia and he’s not the best flyer to begin with, so I’ll probably just get a drink with him then come home.”

Jesse leaned down, stopping with his lips a fraction from Evan’s. “I was thinking about taking your birthday off, so I’ll go with you.”

Evan put his index finger to Jesse’s lips. “No. You’re not going to disrupt your work because of me. It’s just another day.”

“It’s not just another day. It’s your birthday.”

Evan tapped his finger once against Jesse’s lips. “No.”

Jesse exhaled a frustrated huff. “Fine.” He brought his arm forward from behind his back, revealing a gold bag featuring a stylized design of a nude woman with long hair riding a horse. He pulled out a gold box with the same design on the lid, and opened it to neat rows of Godiva dark chocolate truffles. “Even though you’re mean to me, I guess I’ll still give you these since you were pouting last night about there not being any good chocolate in the house.”

“You’re scary perfect, you know that?” Evan pulled one of the truffles from the box. He bit it in half and held the other half up to Jesse. Jesse bent down and took the delicacy, along with Evan’s fingertips, into his mouth. Evan slowly drew his fingers back and tugged on the bottom of Jesse’s khaki shorts. “Are you coming in?”