Page 29 of Steady Stroke
He lost track of time and started to doze, his thoughts wandering back to how much he’d enjoyed spending time with Lincoln. Despite how it had ended, he’d had fun today. He wanted to do it all again—except maybe without the migraine and pepper spray.
“How are you feeling?” Roxy asked at some point.
“Better.” Emmett lifted the warming ice pack. His skin was tender, if somewhat cold, and he imagined it was flaming red. “Thank you.”
“Believe me, it’s the least I could do. Lincoln is going to kill me.”
He tracked her voice to the other side of the sofa, where she loomed over him. “I don’t think so. He’d have a hard time explaining that to Dominic, wouldn’t he?”
She giggled. “Too true. So where’d you meet Linc?”
“Off Beat. The owner is my aunt.”
“That’s awesome.”
He fished his phone out of his pocket. Still two hours before he had to be at the club. Although Aunt Beatrice might take one look at his face and send him home. “How bad is my face, anyway?”
“Um . . .”
“Great.” He snapped a quick selfie to check the damage, and yeah, he looked bad. Like he’d gotten a horrible sunburn on his forehead, across both eyes, and on part of his cheeks. “Ugh.”
“Sorry?”
“Please, stop apologizing.” He deleted the photo, then sat up. “I should probably go.”
“Okay.”
She walked him to the door, wearing apology like a shroud.
“When Lincoln wakes up,” Emmett said, “tell him I had a really great time today.”
“I will. It’ll put him in a good place before he throttles me.”
He smiled. “If it helps, tell him I forgive you for the pepper spray.”I’ve lived through far worse.
“Okay. See you around, Emmett.”
“Bye, Roxy.”
Despite the pepper-spray incident and the police involvement, Emmett left happier than he’d been in ages. He’d genuinely enjoyed his time with Lincoln, and he wanted to see him again. Even though he wouldn’t risk anything except friendship with him, Emmett was eager for their next day out.
As expected, Aunt Beatrice took one look at his face, listened quietly to his explanation, and then told him to take the nightoff.
Emmett was so used to spending his evenings at Off Beat that he wasn’t sure what to do all night. Television wasn’t his favorite thing in the world, so he curled up on the couch with his tablet and picked a book he’d been wanting to read. The house was quiet until around nine o’clock, when Adrian banged through the front door.
He rattled around in the kitchen for a while before barging into the living room with a beer bottle and a sandwich on a plate. He stopped short. “Fuck, dude, you scared me.”
“Sorry.”
“Why are you home?”
The accusation in the question raised Emmett’s hackles. “I had an incident today. Your mom told me to stay home tonight.”
Adrian stepped closer and squinted. “The fuck happened to you?”
He sat in the armchair near the couch and ate while Emmett described his day. Adrian scowled through the whole thing, like he didn’t really care, but he also didn’t tell Emmett to shut up. It was as interested as Adrian had been in his personal life in forever.
“Maybe this is a sign,” Adrian said once Emmett ended with coming home.
