Staccato (Magnum Opus #2) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,89

a little awkward, until Nik reached for him, and it was too easy to step back into the embrace that felt like home. “Do I tell you enough how beautiful you are?” Nik asked him. His face was tilted up, so the porch light and the faint, dying dusk lit the sides of him like he was something otherworldly. Adam thought it was ironic, for a moment, that a man this gorgeous would think that about him, and he huffed a small laugh.

“You tell me more than anyone ever has. And that’s enough.”

Nik let out a slightly displeased noise, but he eventually dragged his hands away. “We have pizza waiting, yes?”

“Yes,” Adam said. Pizza, a movie, maybe a jam session that he wasn’t quite sure how to feel about. But Seth would be there, and Jay, and as much as Adam wanted to be greedy and keep Nik all to himself, he also wanted this.

It felt dangerous, to have so much, to want so much and not be denied. He felt like there was a giant shoe dangling out there somewhere, with a frayed lace waiting to break. And it would—he knew better than to trust fate with his heart. But at least he had this for now, and that had to be enough.

Chapter 21

Ostinato

Nik felt it the moment Adam lost his nerve to take his guitar inside, blaming the pizza he had to balance even though Nik had at least one perfectly free hand to carry something. But he could sense an anxious buzzing around Adam, something his boyfriend clearly needed to talk about, and frankly Nik needed that too.

He’d been called into Vanessa’s office that afternoon between his two lessons and given a formal reprimand. The chain had been started by Catherine Peters’ complaint, but she’d gone as far as to involve other parents who declared themselves uncomfortable with Nik being in an openly homosexual relationship.

Of course, Vanessa was more careful with her words than that, but Nik could read between those gaping lines. In the end, his frustration won, and he passed over his notice. “At the end of the semester, consider my business with the school terminated.”

Vanessa sat in silence for a moment, then sighed. “We’re not here saying you can’t love who you want to love, Yanik…”

“No, you’re saying keep it in the closet.” He folded his hands over his knee and shook his head. “I know what this small town is like. I bounced back to this place every single time my dad didn’t have work calling him to various places. I walked these halls. I graduated on the high school football field down the street. This is my home. I know what the people do and don’t want to see. It’s bad enough I have to navigate awkward questions about why some people don’t have eyes.”

She made a noise, like she wanted to argue, then seemed to remember Nik had walked in on a parent complaining to her about that very thing. She’d handled it with as much grace as she possessed, but Nik had a feeling it had taken more out of her than she’d wanted to give. And that was fine.

He didn’t need this job. His dad had slipped into a coma. Van had finally decided to sign the paperwork that allowed his dad to be kept comfortable but not supported, and now it was a waiting game. His dad would be hydrated and medicated, and eventually, one of his breaths would be his last.

It was a shitty time for Van to leave, too, but he’d been on the verge of quitting his job before Nik pushed him out the door. “He’s going to die no matter what, and he’s not…he’s not even there, Van. He’s just a body.”

Van tried to argue, but there was no fight left in him. He’d taken Nik by the shoulders, then dragged him into the first real hug Nik could remember having since he got back. They’d been close once, but never enough. “I’ll take off as soon as I can,” he promised.

But Nik told him not to hurry. After all, he was going to enjoy this small glimpse of what his future might be like. Nik there, house to himself, the quiet. He still had the rest of the month before summer, and he still had his private students, but there was so much out there once he climbed this hill.

That’s what kept his mood up as they entered Jay’s apartment, and he was