Chapter 13 Nick #2
The tension in the kitchen increases tenfold, and I look for an escape, but Aaron walks over, puts his arm around me, pulls me close, and kisses my temple, then looks across the kitchen. “Kit.” His voice is low, but the warning is clear.
“What, Aaron? Forgive me for thinking you could have done better than falling for one of Zack’s leftovers.” He turns his head to take in everyone in the room. “Or has no one noticed that they’re together?”
Aaron’s mother gasps, but I can’t tell if it’s because of the way Kit’s behaving or because of what he said.
One of Kit’s friends leans forward and whispers something in his ear, another steps to his side and slings an arm around Kit’s shoulders.
I’m distracted from watching the interaction by Aaron’s mother coming up to me and pulling me into her arms.
I’m shocked speechless, and it takes me a moment to relax. When she lets me go and steps back, she wipes her eyes.
“Thank you,” she says. “I am so grateful you came forward.” She laughs.
“I’m sorry. I’m Helen. This is Shayna, Aaron and Zack’s sister, and her husband, Mark.
” She continues around the room, introducing everyone to me including Zack’s friends and the other couple who turn out to be the parents of one of the guys.
Everyone echoes Helen’s thanks for helping with the investigation.
Everyone except Kit, of course, who stands rigidly in the corner, glaring at me, and it suddenly hits me what’s going on.
Aaron thought Kit had a thing for Zack, but I think, given how he’s acting toward me, it’s a lot more likely that Kit has a bad case of unrequited love for Aaron.
I’m not going to say anything because it’s just a hunch, but I’m definitely going to ask one of my friends to help me navigate this unexpected wrinkle if Aaron’s going to be a part of my life. Which I really hope he will be.
Conversation gradually resumes around us. Shayna and her husband join our circle, and Aaron doesn’t leave my side as we talk to his parents about how new and unexpected our relationship is, and how we’re just figuring things out.
“Last night was actually our first date,” he says, then gives me a lopsided, hopeful smile. “So, I guess this might be our second?”
Weirdest second date ever, I think, but I nod. “It could be,” I say, and Aaron’s smile becomes genuine.
After Kit’s friends pull him out the French doors and onto the deck, Aaron tells his parents and the other couple about me rescuing Kit at the club last weekend. I notice Kit’s friends pull out vapes, and it doesn’t take long for a distinctive skunky odor to reach us.
“Jace is worried about him,” the older woman, who was introduced to me as Ellen, says. Jace is her son and one of the guys currently standing outside with Kit.
“I am, too,” Aaron says. “He’s taken Zack’s death really hard.”
I don’t say anything about my suspicion that there’s more going on for Kit than that and idly cast my glance around the kitchen while the conversation turns to him. It’s homey, but also immaculate with gleaming stainless steel appliances and pressed-quartz counters.
I’m oddly relaxed in the midst of this uber-domestic scene.
Aaron has introduced me to his parents, and I haven’t run screaming from the house.
We haven’t defined anything about our…well, I guess it is a relationship…
haven’t put a definite label on it, but I find myself wishing he could have introduced me as his boyfriend.
It’s an unfamiliar feeling, but as I stand next to Aaron, my arm wrapped around his waist, his arm around my shoulders, I have an inkling that this is something I could get used to having in my life.
That he is someone I want to have in my life.
And, somehow, that thought isn’t one that makes me want to do anything other than snuggle closer to Aaron and wish we could be alone for a few minutes so I could tell him how grateful I am to him for seeming to want the same thing.
My thoughts are interrupted by Jace stepping back into the kitchen to announce that he and his friends are going to take Kit home. A silent conversation goes on between Jace and his mom that I can’t interpret, but fifteen minutes later, Kit and the rest of Zack’s friends are gone.
Aaron nudges me, and when I look at him, he asks if I want to see more of the house. There’s an invitation in his eyes that I can’t miss, so I say sure.
“I’m going to show Nick around,” Aaron announces and leads me out of the kitchen and back to the hallway where stairs lead to the lower level. “My parents’ bedroom is on the upper floor, but you probably don’t want to see that.”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I kind of have a kink about doing it in parents’ beds.
” I grin at Aaron’s shocked expression, then laugh so he knows I’m kidding.
“I did it once when I was in high school, and it was just…weird. Not sexy at all. Especially when we found their stash of sex toys.” I shudder.
“Scarred for life. I still freak out when I see purple dildos.”
Aaron finally laughs. “Good thing mine’s black,” he says and leaves me speechless as he heads down the stairs.
I follow him and take in the family photos that line both walls.
The photos closest to the top of the stairs are of a baby and young child that has to be Aaron.
When he’s a toddler, he’s joined by a sibling, and then, just after an adorable photo of him on his first day of preschool, he and Shayna are pictured holding a new baby, which is obviously Zack.
From then on, it’s the three kids, and I watch them all age from toddlers to elementary school kids to middle school.
By the time Aaron’s in high school, it’s clear how similar he and Zack look.
The stairs end in a family room and the far wall displays high school and college graduation photos of all three siblings.
Aaron doesn’t say a word as I take them in.
It’s amazing how much alike Aaron and Zack look, almost like they’re twins despite the obvious age difference.
It’s also disconcerting knowing I’m looking at the man I shared space with right before he died.
The man I invited into my home without knowing anything about him, only caring that he wanted my dick.
I didn’t even know his name until I met his brother. God. I am such a piece of shit.
“Hey,” Aaron says softly as he wraps me in his arms and wipes at the tears I didn’t even realize were running down my cheeks. “Whatever it is, it’s okay.”
I shake my head and bury my face in his shoulder. I don’t want to look at him. I don’t want to see echoes of Zack in his features. Not right now.
“I’m sorry,” I mumble.
“Nothing to be sorry about.” He rocks me gently against his body. “I know you didn’t really know him, but it’s got to be a shock to see his pictures. I’m sorry I didn’t think about how that would affect you before I asked if you wanted to come down here.”
I lean back so I can see his face, and it stuns me that I’m not seeing Zack at all.
I’m seeing Aaron. Only Aaron. The Zack I met was perfectly styled, his appearance sculpted and contoured by makeup and regular visits to the gym.
I’d thought he was stunning in his profile pics, even more so when we met at my car.
But that image can’t hold a candle to the man standing in front of me.
Aaron is beautiful and perfect, his gorgeous eyes full of concern for me.
In the short time I’ve known him, I’ve had so many firsts with Aaron.
They’re not the firsts I always thought were important, the ones I was told were important, the ones that meant I was a man and around which I based my sense of who I was.
But now I know. These firsts I’ve had with him are the ones that truly matter.
And I know something else.
For the first time in my life, I’m falling for someone. And, from his expression, I think he might be falling for me, too.