Sums of the Heart (Luv by Numbers #1)

1. Chapter One

Chapter One

Cade

Kincade Hayes climbed the fourth flight of stairs from the basement to reach his second-floor, studio apartment, trying like hell to catch his breath. He almost passed out from the trek, but his pride wouldn’t allow it. During college, he’d played tennis, golf, and softball with some regularity, so he liked to think of himself in decent shape, though now he was beginning to question it.

Unfortunately, none of his previous physical activity had prepared him for all the steps. He was pissed at himself for not reading the fine print on his freshly inked lease to see he had to reserve the elevator “ between the hours of nine a.m. and five p.m. They have to put up the pads so you don’t scratch the mahogany finish, which you will have to pay to repair if you use it against management’s rules. You didn’t reserve it so you can’t use it. The stairs are that way. ” The prick at the front desk haughtily jutted his chin when he relayed the information.

Cade balanced the box he carried on his right hip while bracing it against the wall as he tried to open the door to his unit. Of course, the box slipped and the key jammed in the lock at the same time. The bag in his other hand contained a few groceries—including eggs—but the box had glassware his mother had given him that used to be his maternal nana’s. Just as he’d decided to drop the bag, large hands grabbed the box from him. “Oops! Got it.” The stranger caught the box, startling Cade for a moment.

He glanced up to see a handsome man with wavy blond hair and tortoiseshell glasses. He was dressed in a light gray suit, the red tie loose at his neck. He’d dropped a tan leather messenger bag with the initials B.X.T . embossed in fancy gold letters on the flap. It was expensive, Cade knew. His corporate-mogul father had one like it in black.

“Thank you,” Cade finally inserted the key properly into the lock to open the door. He stepped into the unit and held the door for the handsome stranger, who seemed to hesitate.

“Uh, just a second,” Cade told him as he placed the bag of groceries on the floor and reached out for the box.

BXT smiled. “Where would you like it?”

“Um, oh, over there on the counter. They’re glasses.” Cade realized too late that the last bit of information was completely unnecessary.

After BXT deposited the box atop the black and gray granite counter, he turned to Cade and smiled. “Ford Thomas.” He extended his hand.

Cade wiped his hand on the leg of his jeans and smiled , offering his hand in return. “Kincade Hayes.”

The blond man smiled and shook his hand while looking deeply into Cade’s eyes. Cade noticed the stranger’s eyes were blue-gray, and they seemed to sparkle as if they had postproduction animated stars in them.

“Welcome to the building. I’m across the hall. You got more?” Just then, Cade’s best friend, Raney Wilson, stomped upstairs with two more boxes.

“You’re an asshole. Why didn’t you find out about the fucking elevator? This is going to suck ass,” Raney complained.

BXT chuckled, either at Cade’s friend’s complaining or the flush creeping up Cade’s neck to his cheeks. “Raney, we have a guest,” Cade hissed at him.

Raney put down the two boxes he was carrying, as he was about a foot taller than Cade and could carry more, then looked at the stranger in the room. He grinned as he gave the man the up-and-down.

Raney then grinned like an idiot and extended his hand. “Raney Wilson, best friend and pack mule for Lord Kincade, there.”

The man laughed at Raney’s comment. “Ford Thomas.”

Kincade found it odd that the man’s name didn’t match the monogram on the fancy leather bag. It was definitely BXT on the bag. Maybe it was his dad’s? Cade had a set of golf clubs back in Naperville that had been his father’s growing up, so anything was possible.

“Well, gentlemen, I’ll leave you to get back to your unpacking and pack muling. If you need anything, I’m in 2D. I’m going down to the gym for a few hours, so if it’s urgent, you can find me there. Nice to meet you both,” Ford told them as he walked out the door and retrieved his bag.

Cade’s gaze followed him and watched him open the door across the hallway as he whistled. When the door closed, Cade closed his and heard Raney giggling behind him.

“Hey, that’s a nice perk for you. Makes up for this cracker box. Surely, he doesn’t live in a studio.”

Cade retrieved the map from his rental packet to show Raney the various floor plans. “This is the way it’s cut up. On floors two, four, and six, there are two studios and two, two-bedroom apartments. On three, five, and seven there are two, three-bedroom apartments, and on eight there’s a penthouse. The gym, locker rooms, and laundry room are in the basement next to the parking garage. There’s also a convenience store and the front desk lobby on the first floor, which is where the mail station is. Now, let’s get the rest of my stuff before someone robs me blind.”

Two hours later, all the boxes and the few pieces of luggage with Cade’s clothes were moved in, and Raney and Cade were putting together the new futon so they’d have a place to sleep that night.

They’d assembled the other few pieces of furniture they’d found, courtesy of a good deal at a big box store. “So, when are you going to start your job? Do you know your schedule yet?” Raney asked as he turned a hex key to tighten a screw.

As Cade was about to answer, the front door intercom buzzed. He hurried over and hit the audio button. “Yeah?”

“Let me up, sexpot. I forgot my keys.” Cade looked at Raney, whose eyes were as wide as his own.

“What do I do?” Cade whispered loudly.

“It’s obviously a wrong number. Tell him so,” Raney responded.

“Sorry, but you have the wrong number. I’m not expecting anyone who’d call me sexpot ,” Cade remarked into the intercom.

“Oh, my bad.” He heard the loud busy tone, signaling the connection was terminated, so he walked across the room to finish putting together the piece of furniture.

Both of their stomachs were growling, so they rushed through the project—ending up with a handful of screws, nuts, and bolts, which Cade decided to worry about later—and they placed the large, charcoal-colored cushion on top, leaving the futon in the upright position.

“What do you want to eat?” Cade asked. It was the deal they’d made… Raney would come into the city for the weekend to help him move from his apartment near campus, which he shared with two girls he didn’t like, into his new apartment.

Raney still lived in Naperville with his parents and brothers. They’d both grown up there and had been best friends since the first day of kindergarten. While Cade went to college in Chicago, Raney went to a Catholic university in Indiana, from where he’d just graduated. Raney was home for the summer before he went to law school in New York in August, and Cade knew he’d miss him like crazy.

Cade had moved to a mid-rise apartment building in the Edgewater area of Chicago. He liked the neighborhood a lot, and it wasn’t far from some beaches, which counted as a huge plus even if it was reflected in the price of the rent for his two-hundred-and-fifty square feet of living space. Cade was willing to live in a smaller space if it allowed him to be within walking distance of the beach.

He was also not too far from the CTA station to get downtown where he was set to work as a junior administrative assistant for a trader, Clarence Radcliffe of Triad Capital Partners, LLC. His mother had been instrumental in getting the interview—she was on a museum board with Mr. Radcliffe’s first wife—but Cade had been told that he’d been hired on his own merit. Whether that was true remained to be seen.

Cade majored in financial services and minored in investment management in college. While the job sounded like it was beneath his educational accomplishments, Cade knew it wasn’t. Entry-level jobs in his particular field of study were extremely competitive in the Chicago area. Getting the shot at working for Clary Radcliffe was like being an intern at the White House—without the blue dress and sex scandal.

“Let’s get pizza?” Raney’s suggestion sounded good to Cade. He went to the information packet provided with the apartment and looked up local food spots.

There was a mom-and-pop pizzeria not far away that delivered to his building, so Cade called to order a large, deep-dish supreme pie. The nice lady told him it would be delivered within the hour.

“It’ll take about an hour for the pizza to get here, so I’ll run down to the grocery store and pick up some beer. Here’s some money in case the delivery is early. You need anything else? How are you on smokes?” Cade asked. His friend had started smoking in college, and while it wasn’t a habit Cade wanted for himself, it didn’t offend him when Raney smoked.

“I’m good, but I’ll walk down with ya. I’ve been too busy to notice I haven’t been outside all afternoon to have a smoke. When I’m not stressed with school, I don’t crave nicotine so much. If I wasn’t going to law school, I’d quit altogether,” Raney remarked as he grabbed his cigarettes out of his jacket pocket.

Cade locked the door to his apartment, and the two of them made their way down the hallway toward the elevator. Just as the car arrived on the second floor, a loud voice blasted, “ Hold that, please! ” Cade held the open button as someone rushed down the hallway.

A man stepped into the elevator and looked at both of them with a bright grin. “Thanks, guys. You just move in?”

The guy was large—like WWF large. Well, maybe he wasn’t as muscular as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in his prime, but he wasn’t far behind. His auburn hair was pulled back into a short ponytail, but Cade couldn’t see his eyes because he was wearing Oakley sunglasses.

His legs, which were clearly visible in the pair of athletic shorts he was wearing, were muscular and tanned with a light coating of coarse reddish-blond hair. He was tall, and he had a bright, white-toothed grin.

“Uh…” Cade stammered.

“My friend here just moved into 2C. His name’s Kincade Hayes, and I’m Raney Wilson. I’m just here for the weekend,” the taller friend introduced them because apparently, the cat had Cade’s tongue.

The man chuckled and extended his hand to Raney. “Jax Delacroix. I live in 2D. Nice to meet y’all,” the man told Raney as they shook hands before he turned to Cade, repeating the handshake.

Mr. Delacroix pushed the button for the basement before he pulled out his phone, seemingly engrossed in something on the screen. When the doors opened on the lobby level, Cade and his friend stepped out of the car and said goodbye to the larger man who grinned in return.

They walked down the sidewalk to the street and stopped under a tree. Cade could tell by the way Raney was dancing around that it was something important his friend had to say. If he kept tugging at Cade’s arm, he was going to stretch it several inches longer than the other. “ What? What’s so fucking exciting?”

“D-do you know who that w-was?” Hearing his best friend’s stutter reappear after he fought to overcome it since high school with the help of a speech therapist, Cade knew he must be very, very excited—or very, very upset—and he was worried.

“Okay, slow down. The man was handsome from what I could tell. Is he some actor or something?” Cade asked. He watched Raney pull out a cigarette and light it, taking a long drag before he exhaled, his eyes closing.

After a minute, Raney opened his eyes and grinned. “Sorry about freaking out, dude. I’d like to confirm my information before I tell you, since he’s going to be your neighbor. Go get the beer. I’ll be inside when you come back,” Raney told him.

Cade nodded and headed down the street toward the local Whole Foods. He was excited to find out what had Raney in such a tizzy, so he jogged to get there. He wouldn’t be running back if they wanted to drink the beer that night.

“Oh, God that was good,” Cade proclaimed as he laid on his back on the large area rug his mother had bought him for his old bedroom in his college apartment. The new apartment, which she’d helped him find on the internet, had hardwood floors, and the rug acted as a room divider, as she’d suggested.

The main living area was ten by twenty feet, and the whole place was painted antique ivory. The kitchen area was against one wall, and the bathroom was hellishly small. There wasn’t much storage space, but it was all his.

The café-sized table and chairs, along with the small rug beneath, gave him a place to eat, and his dresser made up for the lack of storage and would hold his television. The way he and Raney had set up the place made the most of the allotted room.

“Yeah, that was great. When’s the cable guy coming?” Raney asked.

“To answer your earlier question, I don’t start work until Wednesday. I’ll be in orientation for three days while Mr. Radcliffe is out of the office. The cable guy is coming on Monday to set up the cable and the Wi-Fi. Mom wants me to get a landline, but I’ve got my cell. So, genius, that guy from earlier? Who was he?” Cade asked.

Raney whipped out his cell and pulled up something on it before he handed it to Cade. The headline read:

Jackson Delacroix Comes “Out” at Minicamp

“What’s minicamp and why did Delacroix showing up make the papers?” Cade asked before stretching and yawning.

Raney sighed. Obviously, Kincade’s lack of sports knowledge was aggravating his friend, once again. “Cade, I thought we talked about this. If you want to attract butch guys, you need to be able to talk about sports—regular sports like football, baseball, and hockey. Yes, some guys follow tennis, and some guys follow golf, but not as many as follow the big three.”

“Okay, then translate.” Cade returned the phone to Raney.

“Fine, but you desperately need to catch up on current events, my friend. Jackson Delacroix is a defensive tackle for the Chicago football team. You can look up his stats online. Anyway, according to the article, he got photographed in a compromising position with a guy in Cabo this spring, so he came out at minicamp. He just told them he’s gay, and apparently, the team isn’t sure what to do with him. He’ll be a free agent next year, so they could cut him. Problem is, they need him. He’s too damn valuable to the team to let him go just because he’s gay. Plus, if they cut him, what’s that look like?” Raney slumped back in his chair and closed his eyes.

Cade pulled up the team website, found Jackson’s picture and stats, and began analyzing the statistics for Number 79. He was six feet four, two hundred eighty-eight pounds. He was thirty years old, and from what Cade could see in the picture accompanying his statistics, he had gorgeous green eyes which had been hidden behind those Oakley sports shades earlier. As Cade read the article, a key piece of information emerged from his subconscious…

“Oh my God… Jackson Delacroix lives with Ford Thomas. They both live in 2D. Holy shit,” Cade’s eyes glazed over at the idea of drilling a little hole in the apartment wall to peek inside in the hopes of catching them fucking or blowing each other. Yes, it had been too long since he’d had sex, but he’d been busy, graduating and all.

The last guy he dated, Marcus Drury, was nice in the beginning, but as time went on, things got ugly… and physical. It wasn’t anything Cade had ever told Raney. It was too embarrassing as it was, so he was in no hurry to share with his best friend the events which led Kincade to the emergency room one night after Christmas break the previous year.

The cracked ribs and dislocated shoulder had caused him to concoct a laborious story for his mother after the hospital called her as his emergency contact. One of his neighbors had called 9-1-1 after they heard the commotion from Cade’s apartment, and the sirens had thankfully scared Marcus away. Thanks to a collapsed lung, Cade had believed he was going to die and was grateful when the paramedics showed up.

It hadn’t been easy to throw his mother off the scent of the true cause of his injuries when she arrived at the hospital—his father hadn’t bothered to show up. He initially told her he’d fallen down the stairs but eventually said he’d been mugged, not wanting her to worry. She had believed him enough to leave him alone about it for the rest of the year, but she’d become involved in finding his new apartment to ensure it was in a safe neighborhood.

As he was remembering a dark time in his life, it occurred to him he needed to notify the prick at the front desk regarding the restraining order against Marcus, along with the picture of him in the event the man showed up. He wasn’t sure if Marcus had given up his obsession, but Cade certainly hoped it was the case.

As Cade and Raney went to sleep that night, Cade quizzed Raney about the pink-haired, Asian girl whose picture he’d found on Raney’s phone, having snooped through the device while Raney was in the shower. Her name was Cindilu Hu, which Cade challenged as a fake name. Raney looked her up on LinkedIn to prove it wasn’t, though her hair wasn’t pink any longer. “Dude, she gave a hella good blow job, but she wouldn’t go any further,” Raney told him as they turned off the lights.

“Thanks for coming to help me, Raney,” Cade offered.

“I’ll do anything for you, Cade. You know that.” After that, they both fell quiet.

Cade thought about how much he and Raney had grown up over the years. They met the first day of kindergarten at Emmett Wallace Elementary School in Naperville. All through grade and middle school, they were inseparable, but during high school, they’d drifted apart for a couple of years due to Raney’s participation in sports and Cade’s darkest secret even he wasn’t ready to accept.

Thankfully, they had a lot of classes together during their senior year and grew close again, but the guilt Cade felt at keeping something so huge from his friend kept him awake many nights. He wasn’t sure how Raney’s jock friends would feel about Raney being friends with a gay guy, so Cade continued to keep his secret.

Finally, when it was time to go their separate ways to college, Cade opened up to Raney about his orientation. Raney seemed surprised, but he hugged Cade and told him he was secure enough in his masculinity for Cade to lust after him. Cade had laughed until he’d cried at his friend’s comment, but Cade just couldn’t make a move on Raney because the man was like a brother to him. The two of them had vowed to stay in touch. Over their four years of college, there had been times when they’d had less contact, but for the most part, they’d remained best friends.

Raney hadn’t been around to witness Cade’s boundary-blurring walk along gender lines. Glitter, eyeliner, mascara, and pink lip stain had been his most important possessions during his first three years of school until he met Marcus at the beginning of his fourth year, who insisted it had to go.

Yes, Cade could flame a bit at times, but he was young and finally exploring what his sexuality meant for him. He had several twink friends who showed him how to apply makeup and glam it up for a night at the club. While he no longer lived the fabulous club life, he had fond memories of the time. Unfortunately for him, it was time to put away things of the sort and become an independent adult.

Cade carried his best friend’s weekend bag to the elevator. “You’re doing what for the summer, Randall? Anything productive?” Cade asked with a smile. He knew his friend had planned to lay around his parents’ pool for the summer, and he couldn’t blame him. He also couldn’t help teasing him.

“You’re just fuckin’ jealous, Kincade. I’m going to have the fun you wish you were having while you’re working at your new job. If you get a chance to come home for the Fourth, let me know. I’ll plan a party with some of the kids from high school. Keep me updated about Jax Delacroix and Ford Thomas, please? Not the gay stuff, but if you hear anything regarding Jax and Chicago, let me know. I wanna put him on my fantasy football team,” Raney told him.

Cade laughed. “I don’t know what that means, but okay.”

Raney chuckled. “Work in some ESPN between commercials of Drag Race,” he ordered as he took his bag and hopped into the SUV they’d used to haul Cade’s things to his new apartment. It had been a great weekend, and Cade was sad to see his friend leave, but he was excited about his upcoming plans.

After Raney was out of sight, Cade tugged at the glass door of the lobby. Unfortunately, when he pulled on the inner door, it wouldn’t budge. He looked toward the desk to see it empty, likely Darren, the snobby concierge, didn’t work on Sundays. Cade reached for his keys, feeling that the pockets of his shorts were empty before remembering everything was on the counter in the kitchen. He was well and truly screwed.

The only people he knew at his new apartment building were the men who lived in 2D across the hall from him, so he had no choice but to push the buzzer for their intercom. Hell, he didn’t even know if they were home, but it was definitely worth a try. Finally, he heard the returning click of a connection. “Yeah?” he heard. He didn’t know if it was Ford Thomas or Jax Delacroix, but the person didn’t sound happy.

“I, um, I’m sorry to bother you but I’ve locked myself out. It’s Kincade Hayes. I live in 2C, across from you.” Cade’s nerves at speaking to one of the two handsome men nearly has his throat closed.

He heard the buzzing sound of the door and called, “Thank you” as he hurried into the lobby, stepping into the elevator and tapping the button for the second floor. When it didn’t move, he remembered he needed his key for that damn thing as well. Suddenly, the doors closed, and the car began ascending, surprising the hell out of him.

When the doors opened, he was happy to see Ford Thomas with a toothy grin. “It’s a bitch when you forget your keys. Jax does it all the time, and the former occupant of your place used to let him in. I’m hoping you’ll do the same for him going forward. Anyway, are you settled in your new place? You want to come over for a beer?” Ford asked.

Cade started to decline the invitation, but his curiosity got the best of him. He could play it off as if he didn’t know anything about Jackson Delacroix. It would be nice to get to know the neighbors, after all. He was a grown-up. It was a grown-up thing to do, so he nodded and walked with Ford Thomas down the hallway to 2D. Here’s to new friends, he thought as he followed the tall, blond inside.

It was a new opportunity for Cade to make older friends without his mother schooling him in etiquette and social niceties, and he’d be a fool to pass it up. They both seemed nice… and hot!