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“She was wrong,” he said, his voice husky. “That was when I needed him.”
“I don’t think so, Nick,” Michael said quietly. “If that were true, he’d know your secret.”
Nick rolled that around in his head for a moment.
Michael kept going. “And look, I can’t pretend to understand this twin thing you two have. But I know Gabriel knows you.
And right now, he knows you’re keeping something from him.
It’s probably tearing him up.”
Nick wanted to scoff, but he couldn’t. He felt it every time he was in the house.
Too bad he was such a creepy freak, or he’d do something about it.
“Do you think maybe you resent him for not figuring it out on his own?” Michael said. “Or for not pushing you to tell him?”
Nick snapped his eyes up. “No.”
But he’d answered without thinking about it. Now the thought was lodged in his brain and he couldn’t stop thinking about it.
He could picture Gabriel right now. Sitting with Layne, working through math problems, trying to get his grades up so he could take the firefighter course in the spring.
But he was thinking about Nick. Nick could feel it.
His cell phone chimed.
A message from Gabriel.
How long do I have to leave you alone?
Nick turned the phone around to show Michael, who rolled his eyes and said, “See?”
Nick slid his fingers across the screen to respond.
But then he changed his mind, deleted what he’d typed, and shoved the phone back in his pocket.
He took a gulp of his rapidly cooling coffee. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore.”
“All right. Another question then.” Now Michael looked the slightest bit flustered. “Is there . . . you know . . . a guy in the picture?”
Nick couldn’t keep the blush from his cheeks. “Ah . . . yeah.”
“Aha. I was wondering why you told me now. Does he go to your school?”
“No.”
Michael stopped with the mug halfway to his mouth. “Please tell me he’s not thirty-five and you met him on craigslist.”
Nick glared at him. “No. Jesus, Michael. He’s nineteen. He dances with Quinn.”
“So all this time you’ve been spending with Quinn . . .”
“I’ve been spending with Adam.” His jaw tightened. “And Quinn has been spending with Tyler.”
“Whoa!” Michael’s eyebrows went way up. “Now we’re building a new puzzle.”
“Yeah, it’s fantastic.”
