Risking the Shot (Stick Side #4) - Amy Aislin Page 0,72

two characters walking through a forest. Colorful flowers bloomed and light filtered through the treetops. On the right: a front view of the two characters, showing one blushing, and the other sort of side-eyeing his friend like he didn’t want to be obvious that he had a huge crush.

Dakota didn’t know much about art or art styles or whatever, but looking at Tay’s, he knew how it made him feel. New. Fresh. Happy. There was something in his style that was decidedly sweet. Maybe in how the emotions of the characters came through. Maybe it was how the background set the mood or how it wasn’t quite fully fleshed out. He could tell that those were flowers, and that was a small forest creature, and what was a tree versus a tall bush. But it all had a blurry sort of dreamy quality to it that was fanciful and light.

“Tay. This is . . .”

“My art style’s changed a lot since I started this. See?” Tay did something and the lovely page Dakota was looking at was replaced with a four-panel page.

His eye was drawn to the drawing in the bottom left, of two men—different than the previous two—laughing together in the rain. Drawn from the torsos up, their love for each other was obvious in the way they gripped each other’s waists and smiled at each other. Again, the background was blurry, obviously rain but done in a way that wasn’t explicitly detailed. The details came in the characters’ drooping hair, in the droplets traveling down their necks and temples. The style was similar to the previous page, but not as polished.

“This one’s from the second book.”

Reluctant, Dakota passed the tablet back over. “Second book?”

“It’s a trilogy. Each brother gets his own book.”

“Can I read it from the beginning?”

Tay’s smile was beautiful. “You want to? I can export it and send you a PDF. Except the third book’s not finished. I’m only about halfway done. Maybe less.”

“I’d love to read it.” Tay was in his lap now, sitting on his knee. Dakota kissed the top of his head. “Thank you.”

“Just don’t laugh when you read the first book. I was still figuring out my style.”

“What are you going to do with these once you complete the third book?”

“Hm. I don’t know.” Closing down the app, Tay swung the cover back over and set the tablet on the coffee table. “I had this idea, once, that I’d post it to Instagram, one chapter a week. But then I chickened out, so . . .” He slumped into Dakota, his head resting against Dakota’s chest. “I don’t know. I also don’t think it’s ready to see the light of day. I’m sure I’ve got typos and grammatical errors everywhere.”

“Thank you for sharing it with me.”

Tay tilted his head back to look at him upside down. “You really liked it?”

“Your art is . . . whimsical. The colors are vibrant and the detail is stunning. From what I saw, you’ve got a way of conveying emotion that’s simple but that punches the reader right in the gut. I’m sure a lot of other people would love it too.”

“You’re good for my ego,” Tay said, patting Dakota’s knee.

“I’m just honest.”

Straightening, Tay sat up and faced Dakota again, bunching the bottom of Dakota’s T-shirt in one fist. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it when you asked. I honestly didn’t think you were interested. Thought you were just asking to be nice.”

“If I’m asking, it means I genuinely want to know, okay? I’m not just making idle conversation.” He kissed Tay’s nose, earning himself a smile. “I’m interested in everything about you. Even in whatever happened today.”

“How do you know?”

“You didn’t seem like yourself when you got here.” Part of that could’ve been attributed to whatever was going on between them, but there’d been more under the surface.

Groaning, Tay fell backward onto the couch. “It was a disaster.” He was very dramatic.

Stifling the urge to laugh, Dakota rubbed his leg. “What was?”

“The first practical for my pre-hospital care class. And it wasn’t even an actual practical, just the prep for it. It was like my mind was a blank slate, two years of knowledge just . . . poof. I panicked. Couldn’t answer the most basic of questions.”

“Why?”

“Because being responsible for someone’s life scares the absolute shit out of me.”

Whoa. “Okay.” Dakota crawled onto Tay’s thighs, staring down at him. It was a nice vantage point—brought back all sorts of memories from when