Page 12 of Steady Stroke
“What?”
Van pointed. Emmett followed the direction right to Lincoln. Lincoln stared into those pale eyes, uncertain of their exact color because of the sunglasses, but damn they were pretty. Emmett was pretty all over, with soft cheekbones and kissable lips.
Emmett blinked hard several times. “Um, hi?”
“Hey, nice to meet you,” Lincoln said. “Lincoln West.”
He gave a slow nod, up and down, then back to center. “I know. You played with XYZ.”
Lincoln grinned, impressed the kid had surprised him with that. “Yeah, I did, until last summer. Car accident kind of cut that career short.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault.”
Emmett flinched, but maintained eye contact. “What are you doing here? I mean, not that you aren’t allowed to come here, but, um, aren’t you from Philadelphia?”
“Yeah, but Trey is letting me and a friend use his apartment this summer while he and Dom are on tour.”
“Oh. That’s really nice of him.” Emmett cast around, as if determined to keep the conversation going but unsure what to talk about. It was all kinds of endearing. “Um, how do you like it?”
“I love the area, but I’m bored out of my mind. I can’t get a job, and I can’t play my guitar.” Lincoln hated how self-pityingthat sounded. “At least I’m alive, right? I was a quarter inch from being a vegetable.”
Emmett’s eyes widened. “Wow, really?”
“Yeah.” He hated talking about the accident. “So Van mentioned you’re staying here, working for your aunt.” Time to turn on a little charm and feel the boy up. So to speak. “You do anything for fun?”
“Fun?” He practically squeaked the word. “Not much. I don’t really know anyone, except the people who work here, and they’re all older than me.”
“How old are you?”
“Nineteen.”
Damn, he was still a baby. “College?”
“Online courses. I’m not big on crowds of strangers, so a college campus . . . couldn’t do it.”
Lincoln wanted to point out that he was surrounded by about a hundred strangers right now, and he seemed to be okay. “Do you work tomorrow?”
Emmett blinked. “Like during the day? No, we don’t open here until seven.”
“You want to hang out?”
“With you?”
He made a show of glancing all around him. “Um, yes? Unless you have other plans.”
“I don’t.” Emmett stared at him with owlish eyes. “You really want to hang out with me?”
“Sure. I have exactly two friends in this town, and they’re both chicks. I could do with some testosterone in my life.”
That got a sharp belt of nervous laughter. “But you don’t know me.”
“Well, I’m trying to change that. Hanging out is typically how human mammals learn about each other, right?”
“Right.”
Lincoln was starting to take the owl-eyed hesitation personally, until he remembered that Emmett had severe anxiety issues. “Dude, I’m not a serial killer, I don’t have any sort of hidden agenda, and I promise I’m not trying to get into your pants.” Even while XYZ was on the rise, Lincoln never hid that he was gay. Hell, the fact that all four members of their band were queer had actually helped them get bookings and blog attention.
