4
O'Connor was silent for a few seconds, long enough to make Will wish he hadn’t just said that. But then O'Connor grinned. “It would seem I am. Will Simmons. I forgot that Leah had a little brother.” He searched Will’s face. “In my defence, you two don’t look alike.”
“We always get that,” Will said. “I look more like my aunts and uncles than my parents.” He moved back and openedthe door. “Come in.”
O'Connor examined the hallway, his eyes lingering on the family photos scattered, with no real order, along the walls. O’Connor offered the bottle to Will. It was the same bottle he’d seen him pick out at the store. “If I’d realised who you were, I could have gotten a recommendation.”
Will turned over the bottle to view the label. It was a red, and he didn’t know much about wine, other than he didn’t like it. “Leah and Dad will enjoy it.”
“And you?” O’Connor asked.
“I’m not a fan of bitter drinks.” Will heard the voices in the living room getting louder. O'Connor’s head tilted in that direction. “Plus, it’s a school night.”
O'Connor nodded. “Right, no drinking.”
“Kitchen’s through here,sir.” Will led the way, and he was grateful that they were out of earshot of the living room. Whatever was in the oven filled the kitchen with a pleasant aroma and gave Will sharp pangs of hunger. He was ready to eat now.
“I think for tonight you should drop the ‘sir.’” O’Connor leaned his weight onto the back of a chair. Will couldn’t help noticing how snug the fabric of his shirt was around his muscles. He also couldn’t help noticing the cuts and scars onO'Connor’s knuckles. “Call me Gabriel.”
“Gabriel,” Will repeated offhand, examining the cuts. They looked old and fadedas if they’d been healed for months or even years.
“Yes?”
Will glanced up to see Gabriel’s amusement,and he warmed. “Since we’re dropping the formalities,” he said with a straight face, “all my friends call me Mr Simmons.”
Gabriel grinned. He stepped around the dinner table and leaned against the chair closest to Will so that their feet were almost touching. “Mr Simmons.”
Will felt lightheaded, as though he’d had a drink or two. The overeager part of his mind, which found the man staring at him to be unbelievably attractive, overruled the cautious part. Gabriel’s eyes followed as Will placed the wine bottle on the countertop behind him. He then scanned Will’s body slowly, his gaze making its way up his arm, to his abdomen, to his chest, to his eyes.
“Yes?” Will enquired.
Gabriel’s eyes glistened. An invisible band was drawing Will in toward Gabriel, like a magnetic pull. As Will’s weight tipped forward, Gabriel reached out, his fingertips brushing against Will’s elbow, right where the fabric of his shirt ended.
“ Gabriel ,” Leah called, “I didn’t hear you come in.”
Gabriel dropped his hand. Will turned away quickly and rubbedthe back of his neck. What was that? He stared at thewine as Leah and Gabriel greeted each other. He peeked at Gabriel’s back. Had he been flirting with Will just now? Or was he misreading things because Gabriel was attractive?
Will calmed himself. He was probably misreading things. Maybe he imagined that someone else was interestedto make himself feel better about Jack?
To distract himself Will checked on the food in the oven. “I think dinner’s just about ready,” Will announced.
Leah hardly spared him a second and stayed focused on Gabriel. Will wasn’t the only one who was taken in by Gabriel. It was obvious during dinner that Leah liked Gabriel, but Will got the impression that the sentiment wasn’t returned. Will couldn’t detect anything in Gabriel’s gaze beyond simple friendship, and it wasn’t as if he paid her special attention either. He seemed just as interested in Leah’s essay as he was in Dad’s opinion on who was going to top the Six Nations and in Mom’s advice on how to make a good lasagne.
“Will, stop picking at your food and eat properly,” Mom scolded.
Will’s heartbeat faltered. He had eaten more than he usually would for dinner. “Sorry.” He noticed Gabriel looking at him. “I ended up having a late lunch,” Will deflected.
“Don’t tell me you got detention?” Mom lowered her cutlery.
Damn, she was in a terrible mood today.
Dad frowned at her. “Leave him be, Maddy.” He’d finished his first plate of food and was onto his second helping. His dad, while unshaven and on the scruffy side, had clearly been convinced to change into a neat blue polo shirt and plain black trousers. It was a more respectable image of his dad than Will was accustomed to seeing.
Will sank, waiting for his mom to explode. Growing up, Will had learned that being married didn’tmean being in love. Mom worked two jobs to pay all the bills, and she was always the one cooking in the house. Dad seldom worked, and even when he did, he spent all his money on beer. Their household was at its most peaceful when Dad drank at the pub. At least that way Mom didn’t have to see him getting drunk.
Mom set her chin high and fixed a mean stare on Will. He shrunk down further in his seat, any words of defence dying in his throat. He didn’t understand why she was out to get him tonight. Usually, she wouldn’t even get mad at Dad in front of guests. “Causing trouble in your final year—”
“Mrs Simmons,” Gabriel interrupted smoothly, “a lot of final-years study during their lunch break and eat between class instead.”
His mom sat back, either appeased or deciding to hold back because she’d remembered there was a guest. Will couldn’t quite relax enough to eat anything else. His stomach was in knots, and every glare his mom cut in his direction made it worse. He opted to not look at her anymore.
Dad pushed aside his empty plate and leaned forward to engage with Gabriel. “You probably don’t know, since you juststarted, but Will here is the star of the soccer team.”
“Dad—” Will began.
“He’ll say he isn’t, that the other lads are better than he is, but don’t let that fool you. He’s just being modest,” Dad continued happily. He too ignored the way Mom glared at him.
“I knew Will was on the team,” Gabriel said with amusement, “but I didn’t realise he was so good.”
“He brought the team all the way to the All Irelands last year,” Dad said, “and he does charity work with other clubs in the town.”
Gabriel looked impressed. “You do charity work?” He directed the question at Will.
“That’s news to meas well,” Will replied with a frown. Dad was drunk, and off on one of his tangents. The wine Gabriel brought had gone down quick.
“Leah’s the one that does charity work, darling,” his mom said dryly.
“Yeah,” Leah perked up, “At—”
“The volleyball kids,” Dad spoke over Leah. “He teaches them how to play it.”
Will could see how frustrated Leah was, and the tension at the table was getting hard to ignore.
Will kept his voice light. “Dad, I’m part of the club. They are the ones who taught me how to play the game. You’ve met the coach before, remember? Riley?”
“Riley says Will is better than most professional players,” Dad told Gabriel.
Gabriel at least seemed amused by Dad’s rant. He was leaning forward on the table to listen.
“He didn’t say that, Dad.” Will rolled his eyes. “Come on.” He nudged Gabriel’s leg under the table. “He’s not being serious. Stop believing him.”
“He knows sign language, too,” Dad added.
Mom and Leah were both sitting back with their arms crossed.
Gabriel tilted his head to Will. “Do you know sign language?”
Will deflated. “That one’s true.”
“Really?” Gabriel focused on him, and as he turned, their legs knocked together again. And they stayed knocked together. “Why did you learn it?”
“My friend is deaf,” he answered. Their eyes met, and Will felt stuck. Heat crept up on him under Gabriel’s attention. He needed to keep talking to distract himself. “His name’s Jack. He’s a sixth-year too.”
“Dad,” Leah said in a strained voice, “Would you mind if we talk about something other than how great Will is for once?”
“He’s a good lad.” Dad gave him a bright smile. He beamed pride, but Will only wished he would stop making Mom mad.
“And what about his grades? Are those good?” his mom muttered, getting up from the table and bringing her plate with her to the sink.
Will felt his expression sinking. He turned away from Gabriel as embarrassment rosein him. He hid it with a shrug. “It’s only maths that’s bad.”
“Not failing doesn’t mean they’re good, William,” his mom scowled. “Leah had all A’s throughout secondary school, yet you—”
“Leave him alone,” Dad interrupted. “He may not have the same grades Leah did,but she never played in the All Irelands.”
“No, I didn’t,” Leah snapped, furious. “I was busy passing all my classes.”
Will was ready to die now. Gabriel looked beyond awkward, withdrawing so that he was pressed against the back of the kitchen chair, as far from everyone as he could get. He didn’t seem to know where to look,forced to watch the family feud unfolding around him.
Will needed them to stop. “I think the dessert is—”
They talked over him.
Will adjusted himself, trying to catch someone’s attention by leaning his elbows onto the table. “Should we put on some music?”
None of them even looked in his direction, too caught up in their showdown.
Feeling somewhat desperate, Willturned toward Gabriel. “Want a tour of the house?”
“I’d love one,” Gabriel answered.
Will pulled the kitchen door shut to drown out the voices. Keeping his humiliation hidden and his back to Gabriel, he did exactly as promised and gave Gabriel a tour of their house as if it were a historical monument. He never knew—not until he was explaining why the coffee table had coffee stains on it—that he could spew out so much nonsense. But Gabriel played along and asked questions when Will stalled in his storytelling. He led him up to the second floor, and since Leah would probably strangle him if he showed Gabriel her room, he brought him to his.
It was small but tidy. Most of the space was taken up by his desk.
Gabriel took his time looking around. “Why do you have two chairs for the desk?”
“This chair came with the desk.” Will tapped it. “I picked this one up when my play dates turned into ‘please help me with my homework’ dates.”
Gabriel was still searching the room for something. “Where do you keep your football medals? I know whenever I won any, the first thing I did was hang them up on my wall.”
“You told me you didn’t play any sports?”
“You asked if I played any team sports. Which I never did,” Gabriel explained. “I did boxing all throughout secondary school and most of college.”
“Ah,” Will gestured toward his hands. “That’s what the marks are from.”
Gabriel turned them over. “You’re observant.”
Will pulled out one of the desk chairs and sat down as he openedthe drawers. Gabriel joined him in the other chair. The middle drawer had his collection of medals. It had grown a lot over the past three years. There was a mixture of all three colours, but the dominant colour was golden.
“You’ve won a lot more than I have.” Gabriel leaned in close as he pulled a few out.
“During the summer, there can be a match every week,” Will explained. “Plus, at tournaments, you’ll play tons of games, and there arealso quite a few participation ribbons here.”
“What’s that one?” Gabriel nodded to the bottom of the pile where the edge of a wooden backing poked out of bubble wrap.
Will pulled out the plaque and freed it from the bubble wrap. It was a wooden shield with all his teammates’ names etched onto smaller golden shields. “Ah, so this one was from an annual tournament. We won it last year,so the team keeps this until the tournament comes back around.”
Gabriel moved his arm to the back of Will’s chair and looked closely at it. “If it was a team win, why is it you get to keep the shield?”
“Everyone voted.” Will stared at the shield, pretending to read the names when really he was just avoiding Gabriel. He could see him watching his face, and he was too close for Will to keep a neutral expression. “I got the winning goal, so they ended up picking me to have it.”
“And why do you keep it in the drawer?”
“We, uh, we don’t really hang stuff like this up in the house?” Will shifted. He hadn’t meant for it to come out as a question.
“Why not?” Gabriel pressed. “Your dad likes to talk about your achievements. I imagine he’d like to have these up on the walls.”
Uncomfortable, Will wanted to talk about something else. But he couldn’t turn away from Gabriel, and even as the silence between them grew, Gabriel waited for him to answer. Summoning up a light-hearted demeanour Will knew would appear awkward in the tension, he answered, “I’ve never given it much thought.” He shrugged. “I guess we’re more focused on academics?” Again, it came across as a question.
Footsteps came up behind them, and they both looked up at the same time.
“Oh, come on Will,” Leah interrupted. She looked at him in disapproval. “You’re as bad as Dad.”
That stung. Will put the shield down. “Is it safe to go back downstairs?” He didn’t acknowledge her comment. What was he meant to say to that? In front of his tutor, no less. It wasn’t as if he could rebut her and start another argument in front of Gabriel, no matter how unfair her jab was. It was like this entire night had been planned to make Will too embarrassed to ever set foot into maths study ever again.