I tuned out while they made their plans and didn’t even spare a thought for why Keith didn’t include me in the invitation. He never did. Chase was his son, and I was his stepson. It was a relationship that had died out long before my mother had passed. Hell, I couldn’t say there’d ever even been a relationship. Stepson and stepfather were merely titles that neither one of us really had any use for. I didn’t check back into the conversation again until I realized Keith was speaking to me. He’d stood up to leave and was buttoning his suit coat.
“Aiden, just make sure that friend of yours knows not to go swimming at night. The last thing I need while my name is still on the deed is another person who can’t swim for shit getting himself killed, okay?”
I stared after him, unable to move as his cruel words about Danny hit their mark. It wasn’t until well after his departure from the room that Chase grabbed my bicep and shook me gently.
“Hey, look at me,” he said softly. I turned to look at his face, which was taut with concern. “He’s an ass. Don’t listen to him. He knows it was an accident, Aiden. Don’t let him get to you. That’s just his guilt talking.”
“There’s not a cell in his body that feels guilty for Danny’s death, Chase. Not one. He blames me just like everyone else does.” I didn’t add the fact that Keith hadn’t given two shits about Danny dying. “I was the one who let go of Danny’s hand. It was my fault, plain and simple.”
“Bullshit,” he said harshly, squeezing my bicep to emphasize his words. “It was an accident. The riptide took Danny. You were a kid, Aiden. A grown man wouldn’t have been able to pull Danny out of that current. It wasn’t your fault.” Despite everything Chase had just said, it was the words your fault that kept echoing in my head until they were all I could hear.
Thankfully, Tomás came looking for me with a client on the phone needing immediate help with something. I jumped on the call and threw myself headfirst into putting out client fires for the rest of the day. When I finally returned home that evening, Ash was already there, curled up on the sofa watching TV. It had taken Ash a while to truly make himself at home in my place. He’d spent the first couple of weeks worrying about invading my personal space and had ended up spending most of his time in his room. I’d had to coax him out over and over again and even then, he’d been unnaturally polite and obsessed about not making any kind of mess. It was like he’d wanted to make himself as invisible as possible. Fortunately, in the past couple of weeks, he’d relaxed enough that I’d gotten to see the real Ash emerging more and more.
The funny, sarcastic, sweet Ash I’d only gotten glimpses of when he’d still been with his asshole ex.
“Hey,” I said, walking in and dropping my bag down next to the door. I shouldered out of my coat and hung it in the nearby closet. “How was work?”
He turned to look at me from over the back of the sofa and grinned. “You’ll never believe who came in today.”
The look of joy on his face was like an instant hit of some kind of happy drug. I felt the tension begin to release from my shoulders just from looking at his smiling face. “Who?”
“You remember that guy who played Raza in Iron Man?” Ash asked.
“You mean Faran Tahir? He was also in the Star Trek movie as Captain Robau.”
His forehead crinkled in thought. “Oh, shit. Really?”
“He was the captain of the USS Kelvin at the beginning of the movie, remember? He wore a blue uniform.” I waited for him to get an Oh, yeah look on his face, but instead his expression turned into a Gotcha face.
“Shit,” I mumbled, bracing for the ridicule.
“You geek! So much geekiness right now. Show us your nerd badge, ya big nerd. C’mon. Let’s see. Do you have a tattoo of—”
“Nope. I’m going to stop you right there. I do admit to having some ink, but my tattoos are only for people I get naked with.” I couldn’t help but tease him. Despite respecting his need to keep things platonic between us, it was driving me up the fucking wall. I saw his eyes go dark at my words.
“I already know about the one on your forearm,” he said in a huskier voice than normal. “It’s for your brother Danny, isn’t it?”
My playful mood incinerated in a puff of smoke. “Yes.”
I glanced at the tattoo of the intertwined vines that encircled my arm. Small blue flowers dotted the vines. Pushing away the turbulent thoughts that had snuck into my brain, I turned and began walking to my bedroom to change out of my work clothes. Before I got there, I felt a hand reach for mine.