and resting his weight on his wrist. “My private students are better.”
“Is that the whole spring whatever?” Adam said. The bench was moving, and it took Nik a second to realize Adam was jiggling his leg. “My boss mentioned it. Vincent? He owns the tattoo shop—I guess he did some ink for your brother.”
“We met a couple of times, I think,” Nik confessed, but his memory of the shop owner was foggy. He knew Van had gotten tattoos, but he hadn’t bothered to ask about them. Nik didn’t understand the need to ink skin, and he didn’t understand the way Van wanted to feel the pain like that. “But he’s right, yes. I’ve put together a program for my advanced piano students at St. Michael’s at the end of the month. They’ll be playing a selection of my original compositions.”
“That’s bad ass,” Adam said, and he sounded like he meant it. “Fuck, I miss playing.”
“Piano?” Nik couldn’t keep the wonder and disbelief out of his tone, and something fluttered in his gut when Adam burst into laughter.
“Oh god, no. I would be the worst. No, I play guitar. I was in a band for a while when I was in college, but everyone got lives or whatever, and we drifted apart.”
Nik wrinkled his nose in sympathy. “Sorry to hear it. Were you any good?”
“Probably not,” Adam answered, huffing a quiet laugh. “It was all pretty raw. DIY punk shit, you know? Basement tunes, just screaming into the void because everything sucked. Except Damien fell in love, and things stopped sucking as much. Then everyone else started finding reasons to move on, and I was just…there. Like some mollusk.”
Nik bit his lip, then shifted a little closer. “Sounds rough.”
“Sounds pathetic,” Adam corrected, then nudged Nik’s thigh with his knee. “I’m just whining. I don’t hate my life. I’m helping my sister out with Evie until her husband gets back. Then…fuck. I don’t know. I have a useless Associate’s Degree in general education, a background in piercing. My sister says I look like one of those old thirties side-show freaks at those dusty roadside carnivals with all the metal in my face, so it’s not like I could go be a doctor.”
Nik laughed. “Why would that stop you?”
“Come on, man,” Adam said, nudging him again. “No one wants a man who looks like this as their doctor.”
Nik shrugged. “Wouldn’t bother me.”
There was a pregnant pause. “Did you just…?”
Nik grinned widely. “You set it up so perfectly, Adam. I had to.” There was something new between them—almost tangible. Like if Nik reached out, he could twist his fingers through it and feel the warmth curl around it, nestle into his palm.
The moment broke though, not a minute later, when tires crunched on the asphalt, and a door slammed. “Hey, man. You good?” Van was clearly asking him, and Nik felt a burst of annoyance at the protective note in his brother’s voice.
“This is Adam. He works over at the tattoo shop across from the piano store.”
“Vincent’s place?” Van asked.
“Yeah, that’s the one.” The bench jostled again when Adam rose, and Nik heard palms slapping into a shake. “Your brother said you might be able to help me with a jump. My battery died, and the roadside thing is taking forever.”
Van hummed. “Where are you parked?”
“Right over there.”
There was a pause, and Nik assumed there was non-verbal communication happening—the bane of his existence. For a single, jealous second, he imagined his brother making eyes at Adam—whatever that looked like. But he imagined that Adam liked it, that they smiled at each other and had a moment. Jealousy wound its way around his throat and squeezed.
It made no sense, though. Adam was sweet, but he was a stranger, and Nik didn’t want to date. He didn’t want the mess of feelings, even if it would fill the empty ache inside of him. Then a hand touched his arm, and he knew it wasn’t his brother.
“You want to walk over with us?” Adam asked.
Nik shook his head. “I need to listen to a couple of emails. But see you later?”
Adam slowly drew his hand away. “I still owe you a slushie.”
Nik felt his cheeks ache with his grin. “I’ll be around. Can’t stay away from my piano for too long. Maybe next week?”
“Jesus Christ,” Van muttered under his breath. “You coming or staying?”
Nik bristled. “Staying. Don’t take too long. I’m exhausted and starving.”
“Yes, your majesty,” Van muttered. There was only one set of footsteps at first—his