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It ached a little, the realisation that Eric missed that—sleeping next to someone. “You wouldn’t mind?”
“No. You’ll stay here as of tomorrow anyway, so what’s one more night?” Adrian raised himself up on one arm to peer at the side of Eric’s face. A teasing edge swung in his voice. “There’s a price, though.”
Eric turned his head to meet his eyes, familiar by now with Adrian’s brand of humour—cheeky, yes, but never mean. “A price?”
“I want a second line.”
Eric didn’t manage to catch the grin before it turned up the corners of his mouth. “But you already got one today.”
“I’m a greedy bastard.” Adrian made it sound like something to be proud of, giving a small twitch of his hips to illustrate his meaning. “I want another.”
The warmth that settled in Eric’s stomach didn’t mean anything—just the afterglow, no more than that. He rolled onto his back so he could look up at Adrian, cataloguing the silver gleam on his skin and shoulders.
“Lost in your moonlit curves,” Eric said softly.
The words hung between them like a confession, too big and bright. Maybe Eric should find some way to lighten them, claim he’dwritten them a year ago and recycled them now because Adrian had put him on the spot.
Before the lie could fully form, Adrian draped himself over Eric’s chest, his expression oddly serious. “That’s really beautiful,” he told Eric.
Whatever Eric could have said in response got lost between their mouths. Safer that way.
10
Eric picked his parents and sister up at the end of the train line, in the small town where they’d gotten mulled wine and cheese the day before. The sun came out as they began the drive up the valley, houses dwindling down as the road narrowed. While the scenery was achingly familiar by now, Eric had done the driving just once before, after a trip to the hairdresser, so he was careful taking the tight curves and sharp turns.
The sad honking of the post bus, on its way down, made him pull over to the side of the road. Ahead of them, a tourist car hadn’t understood the warning and got caught by surprise when the bus suddenly appeared in all its yellow glory. The car was forced to back up into a lay-by that sat right next to a steep drop, the bus driver climbing out to help them navigate.
“Does that happen a lot?” Mum asked, in the passenger seat with a colourful scarf wound around her neck.
“All the time.” Eric raised a hand to greet the bus driver, who occasionally stopped at the Gletscherhaus for a quick dash to the loo. “Road wasn’t built for two cars to pass each other, and it definitely wasn’t built for a bus like that. A lot of tourists get nervous whenthey’re suddenly forced to back up on a steep road—even worse when it’s uphill.”
“Tourists, huh?” Olivia’s voice betrayed a hint of suppressed laughter.
Eric sent her a frown via the rear-view mirror. “I’m not a tourist. I’ve been here for over a month, and I work here.”
“Oh, chill.” She waved a dismissive hand while the bus driver got back behind the wheel. “I’m just teasing.”
“Right.” Eric waited until the bus had passed and the tourist car was back on the road before he pulled out. He kept his voice off-handed. “By the way, two things you should know before we arrive—first off, they don’t know I’m … you know. Kind of successful.”
“Kind of?” Olivia scoffed. “I didn’t raise you to be this modest. What went wrong?”
“You didn’t raise him at all, young lady,” Dad put in.
“Of course I did. Older sisters get twenty percent of the credit—it’s the law.”
“If that’s true, I want a refund for faulty upbringing,” Eric informed her.
She leaned forward to blow warm air into his ear. “It’s also true that you’ve got a face for radio, but you don’t hear me asking for a refund, now do you?”
“Be nice to each other. Both of you.” Mum turned to Eric. “Why not tell them you’re doing well, love? It’s something to be proud of.”
“I don’t want things to be weird.”
“You’reweird,” Olivia said, and Eric stuck his tongue out at her.
Mum sighed. “We’ll keep it in mind, honey. What’s the second thing?”
Ah. Yes.
