Page 125 of If the World Was Ending

“Okay, well, it’s out there. Just let me know, angel, if you want to thank someone, Brodie is a good candidate,” she said and paused after twisting the door handle. “He got angry one day and told me, ‘You lost one child, and it almost broke you, so why the hell are you throwing another away?’”

She blew him a kiss as she left, and a second later, Brodie was breezing by him. “Thanks for the coffee and the chat. It’s good to see you again. And see you happy.”

He stepped onto Colby’s small, bricked stoop, and Colby grabbed his shoulder. Brodie looked at him, his gaze leery. He might never forget the feelings Brodie’s previous lack of support gave him, but he could maybe forgive them. He hugged Brodie, swift and hard, and then let go and said, “Don’t be a stranger.”

“I won’t.” Brodie smiled brighter than Colby had seen since they were kids.

Hunter walked up behind Colby and draped his arms over Colby’s shoulders. Colby smiled and said to Brodie, “But always call first. In case we’re occupied.”

Brodie laughed and shook his head. “Why do I feel like that’s a throwback to the time you caught Shelley Sanders and me in the pool house?”

“We had a sock on the door rule, and you ignored it!”

Brodie laughed as he made his way past the damaged garage. “It was summer! I wasn’t wearing socks, dude!”

Hunter and Colby stood in the doorway and waved as Brodie and Bonnie drove off. “I’ve never had a brother. This is going to be a fun learning curve.”

Colby turned and kissed Hunter’s cheek. There was something about Hunter considering Brodie his new brother that made Colby’s heart feel as weightless and euphoric as a hot air balloon ride. A shingle slipped to the ground from the damaged garage and landed on the stoop. “I think I need to call someone.”

“Not a bad idea.”

Colby turned under Hunter’s arms, put his hands on Hunter’s hips, and walked him back a few steps so he could kick the door shut. He kissed him, slowly, softly, but with a gentle pass of his tongue over Hunter’s. He tasted like coffee. “But first, shower? Together?”

Hunter nodded and led the way to the bathroom.

Colby hoped he’d be saying the word together a lot in the coming weeks, until Trevor was better, the tour started, and Hunter took a job that took him God knows where. But until then, together was their mantra, and it was about damn time.

Chapter 42

We got this

God, it felt good to be back on stage. It was one of those things he knew he missed but didn’t understand how much until he got to do it again. Now it felt like someone had just injected a much-needed nutrient directly into his bloodstream, one he didn’t know he was deprived of. He was sweaty and exhausted after the encore as he made his way off stage, the crowd roaring at his back. Trevor was smiling beside him, also sweaty and looking equally as exhausted, but that was a great thing. It meant he wasn’t hopped up on anything. He’d also gained a little weight and was smiling a smile Colby didn’t think he’d ever seen on his face before. It was gentle and authentic.

“Well, that didn’t suck!” Trevor said, high-fiving Romaine as he walked by. Yeah, the babysitter was still on the payroll for now. Label’s insistence. He also administered weekly drug tests to all of them. That was Colby’s idea to keep it fair.

With Kenner leading the way, the trio made their way back to their private room behind the stage. The organizers in Portland had followed the rider to a T, and the room had a table filled with chopped fresh fruit, non-alcoholic beer, Gatorade, pizza, and Sour Patch Kids. Ford was sitting in the corner of one of the couches, his left foot on his right ankle and his face buried in his phone. “Sounded great. Did it feel great?”

It was a little hard to believe he gave a shit when he didn’t pull his face out of his phone, but no one seemed to care. “Awesome. I can’t wait to do it again.”

“Ditto,” Trevor said, going straight for the non-alcoholic beer.

“Colby, I need you when you have a second,” Ford said.

“Give me a minute,” Colby said, looking at the door.

“Could take him a while,” Ford muttered. “Sold-out crowd and all that, and someone might recognize him. They know to look for him here now.”

Colby bit his tongue. Ford’s statement wasn’t a dig, it was fact. This was the fourth stop on their twenty-stop tour, and Hunter had been at all of them so far. And in the month before the tour, nosy photographers had caught them together around Los Angeles at restaurants, attending a play Brendan had directed, and walking Zeus down the block at Hunter’s with his dad. Speculation was more rampant than a wildfire, but not a single journalist had the balls to ask anything point-blank. And although Colby and Hunter weren’t hiding anything, they weren’t handing over details of their private life on a silver platter either.

Tidal had done a BuzzFeed piece, and when the reporter asked: “You seem very close to the actor Hunter Law, like he’s your best friend or something.” Colby had nodded. “Yeah, we are! Best friends and something.” Not a lie. And the reporter hadn’t caught the slight word twist or hadn’t had the balls to follow up, but boy had the comments section blown up on that piece. Everything from this has to be true because they’d be the hottest couple ever to This a-hole is going to hell to even joke about such sinful garbage.

Hunter had finally picked a new project that would start filming next month. Andi, the director of the superhero project, brought it to him directly, which was good because Hunter was agency-less at the time. He’d told Lorne flat-out that he was in a relationship with Colby, one he wouldn’t be hiding, and Lorne had advised him against it. Hunter had said, "Thank you for your concern, but I won’t be taking it under advisement.” Lorne had said okay, and the next day the agency’s termination papers arrived. To his credit, Hunter hadn’t panicked too much. And just as importantly, he didn’t entertain the idea of shoving them in the closet or worse, breaking up. Last week, Hunter had called Margo and asked her to take him on again. She’d made a big fake dramatic deal about what a pain in the ass it would be and then said, “Welcome back, kid. I can’t wait to get you an Oscar.”

He’d shared the script with Margo, who negotiated the hell out of the smaller production and gotten him a good chunk of the back end. The movie would be filmed in New York and Toronto. He’d be on set for six weeks, and they’d already figured out when Colby could visit in between tour dates.

The door swung open, and Hunter appeared, wearing his trusty Tidal shirt and smiling brighter than the glow stick around his neck. Colby laughed when he saw it. “Where did you get that?”

“Some girl gave it to me. She’s your biggest fan,” Hunter explained. “But she wanted a selfie with me, so I’m not chopped liver in her book either.”