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Alex glanced up and over, grinning a little. “What kind of person did you take me for?”
“Something a little more … high-brow, I guess. Virginia Woolf or Kazuo Ishiguro. Salman Rushdie.”
“Should I be flattered or offended?” Alex asked, tucking one finger between the pages of Baldacci’s most recent novel to mark his spot.
Lee made a seesawing gesture, one corner of his mouth hitching up. “Little bit of both? Also, who still buys hardcovers, mate? Especially when it’s a thriller you’ll read once—that’s what ebooks are for.”
“Can’t put an ebook into one of those neighbourhood book exchange boxes, can you?” Alex countered.
“I strongly doubt you live in the kind of neighbourhood that has a book exchange box.”
“Please, as if you do. But I drive by one on the way to team practice.”
“So you’re like the book-dropping fairy?” Lee’s smile was fully pronounced by now, the evening light washing his features in warmth, and Alex reminded himself not to stare.
Lee had an unfortunate habit of stripping down to boxers and a white tank top once he’d brushed his teeth in the evening, and it showed off his arms rather nicely. There’d been a time when footballers were all about leg work while upper body strength wasn’t much of a priority—not anymore, and Lee was someone who took his whole-body workout programme seriously. Sucked for Alex’s peace of mind, especially as he could hardly tell Lee to put on some clothes when Alex himself liked to sleep naked and compromised by wearing boxer briefs when sharing a room.
“I’m giving back to the community,” he declared with an air of grandeur.
“Giving back to the community—of course.” For once, Lee seemed to be laughing with Alex rather than at him. “It’s hard-won, your reputation as everybody’s darling.”
It was, and leaving free books scattered about Liverpool had nothing to do with it. Alex had learned to soften the crisp edges of how he’d grown up speaking with anyone other than his relatives, to balance his parents’ expectations with what he wanted for himself, and to keep any interest in the male half of the population in check—that was the price he paid. He led a privileged life, no doubt about it, but being well-liked didn’t come naturally to him.
Funny how Lee had never bought what Alex was selling.
“Well,” Alex said. “Since you’re mocking me and my taste in books, what areyoureading?”
Lee cut him a smug look. “See, that’s the beauty of a Kindle—you won’t know unless I tell you.”
“I’ll grab it while you’re in the shower.”
“It’s passcode-protected.”
“You’ve got trust issues, man.”
It was meant to be a joke, but based on how something tightened around Lee’s generous mouth, it fell flat. No response.
“I was kidding,” Alex added after a few beats of uncomfortable silence. “You can do whatever you want with your Kindle—I’m not judging.”
“Right.” Lee’s voice was slow, eyes distant, before he suddenly focused on Alex. “Nah, it’s probably true about the trust issues.Youtry having a stepdad who ditches you when you’re just a kid and doesn’t bother getting back in touch until he sees your name in the papers. And when you tell him to go to fucking hell” —Lee drew a sharp breath— “he decides to sleaze his way back into your sisters’ lives. Right? See if that teaches you to expect the worst from most people.”
That was … a lot.
Alex twisted his upper body to fully face Lee, and for a strange moment, he was tricked into the illusion that Lee’s gaze skimmed from Alex’s chest down and around to his boxer-briefs-clad arse, the room warm enough that Alex had kicked the sheet down to his feet. A blink, and whatever Alex might have seen was gone.
“So let me get this straight.” Alex took a moment to realign the pieces of what he’d overheard earlier. “When you told your sister to be careful around him—on the phone just now… I take it you were no longer talking about the guy who hadn’t bothered to text her?”
Lee pursed his lips. “Why would she need to be careful around someone she almost certainly won’t be seeing again?”
“I don’t know.” Alex shrugged one shoulder and smiled in a way that he hoped would diffuse some of the tension hanging around Lee. “I was caught up in a literary assassination, so I didn’t listen too closely. Just caught a few words here and there.”
“Right,” Lee said slowly.
“Not that I deliberately listen in on your conversations,” Alex hurried to add. “But we’re sharing a room, so there’s not a lot of privacy, is there?”Abort, abort. “Anyway, I just… That sucks. About your stepfather.”
Lee exhaled, some of the tightness around his eyes fading. “Yeah. It does.”
Since there wasn’t anything helpful Alex could offer, he simply nodded, and after a few seconds, Lee turned back to his Kindle. Alex waited for another moment, just in case there was more, then he reopened his book.
