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“No.” His heart was still working double time.
He expected Adam to press the button to refuse the call, but he answered it, putting the phone to his ear and saying “Hello?”
before Nick fully comprehended what he was doing.
Nick sat there and stared, torn between grabbing the phone to disconnect the call, and sitting in morbid fascination about what Adam would say.
Adam drew his knees up and rested an arm against them. His voice was low, quiet and confident. “He doesn’t want to talk to you right now.” A long pause, then he said evenly, “I told you, he doesn’t want to talk to you. Maybe you didn’t understand me since I wasn’t thpeaking in thtereotypes.”
Nick snorted with laughter before he could help it, and had to slap a hand over his mouth. It was nervous laughter more than anything. His eyes were wide. No one ever talked to Gabriel like that.
Then Adam sighed and spoke into the phone. “Guess what, sunshine? It’s not about what you want. I’ll tell him you called, okay?”
He didn’t wait for an answer. He disconnected the call.
This time, the phone stayed silent.
Adam looked at him. “He wants to talk to you. That’s all he said.”
Not I’m sorry.
Nick’s emotions weren’t sure how to process that information.
Adam set the phone on the concrete. “Why did you want to call him?”
“I just wanted to make sure he got home.” Nick stared out at the dissipating fog. “I was going to tell him. Last night. That’s why we were at the coffee shop.” He glanced over at Adam. “I keep wondering if it would have turned out any differently.”
“You mean, if he would have hit you either way?”
Nick nodded.
Adam shifted across the concrete to sit beside him again.
“Look, I’m not going to defend your brother. I know he hurt you.” His voice softened. “I know he hurt you a lot. But when he came after me, I don’t think it had anything to do with me being g*y, and everything to do with protecting you. On the phone just now, he wasn’t an ass**le, either. And he could have been.”
“Do you think I should call him back?”
“Do you want to?”
Nick thought about it. He imagined his twin brother standing in the kitchen, deliberating whether to call a third time. Nick wished he could put everything back the way it had been.
Then he glanced at Adam and realized that wasn’t true.
He shook his head. “No, I don’t want to talk to him. Not yet.”
“Okay.” Adam took another sip of coffee. He laced the fingers of his free hand through Nick’s again, and they sat there for the longest time, watching the mist thin and swirl.
Nick hadn’t realized how easy this could be, sitting with someone who wasn’t judging him. Who wasn’t piling expectations on him.
Adam’s phone chimed again, and Nick’s pulse jumped. He should have known it wouldn’t last for long.
But Adam smiled. “Well, look at that,” he said. “Quinn wants to know if we’re still on for dance this afternoon.”
Nick hadn’t realized how worried he’d been about Quinn until that very moment. She was okay. She had to be okay if she was sending a text about dance.
Adam was texting back, talking while his fingers slid across the face of the phone. “Studio classes end at one, so I can meet her after lunch. Want to join me?”
Nick looked away. “She probably doesn’t want to see me.”
