The words knocked the breath out of him. Tristan waited for the urge to flee, but it didn’t come. Opened his mouth to return the words, but damned if he could make them come out, no matter how true they would be.

Instead he leaned over and opened the drawer beside his bed, pulling out the carved bird from inside. “I saw this a few months ago, and it made me think of you. I didn’t make it, but—”

“It’s incredible.” Josiah plucked it out of his hand.

Tristan cupped his face and pressed a kiss to his lips. “Stay in here with me tonight.” There were so many things he couldn’t give Josiah—words, promises—but he wanted to give him what he could. Wanted to hold him at night and pretend he had it in him to tell Josiah he wanted Josiah to be his.

Chapter Sixteen

Josiah

Even though he kept his things in his room, Josiah never slept there anymore. It started out slowly, the night they made love. Tristan would invite him into his room, and then ask him to stay. As the months went on, he stayed there more and more, until one night when Tristan shrugged and said, “There’s no reason to go to your bed anymore when you almost always end up in mine.”

So, he hadn’t. In a lot of ways, that was the only thing that changed. Tristan still didn’t sleep well. Even though Josiah woke early to walk, it was rare Tristan didn’t make it out of bed before he did. And it was rare that Tristan didn’t walk with him, too. The few times Josiah had told him he loved him, he still never returned the words, but he would smile, or kiss him, showing Josiah he was important to him.

Josiah walked through their living room on one of his rare days off from both school and work. With graduation approaching, he was crazy busy. His cell rang on the way to the kitchen, and he smiled when Tristan’s name lit up the screen.

“Hey, aren’t you supposed to be saving the world in court today?” he teased.

“Very funny. Court date got postponed. I have about an hour left here, and then I’m going to stop by my mom’s for a little while. What do you want me to get for dinner on the way home?”

Home. The word still comforted him. As did the fact that a man like Tristan shared it with him. That he called to bring home dinner to someone like Josiah. That even though Tristan couldn’t admit it, he was Josiah’s as much as Josiah was his.

“I can cook.” Josiah opened the cabinet to see what they had.

“I told you I don’t want you cooking every night. That was the deal before.”

He never said what the “now” was as compared to before. Was it because Josiah meant more to him than he originally thought? That they were now in a real relationship, whether Tristan would admit it or not? “Okay, then you can cook for me.”

Tristan laughed. “Would you like me to cook something from the Thai restaurant or the Italian place?”

Before Josiah could reply, the doorbell rang. “Someone’s at the door. Hold on a second.” Josiah walked over with the phone in his hand and pulled it open to see a blond man in a suit. “Can I help you?”

“You must be Josiah. I’m Tristan’s friend, Ben.” Ben, who obviously knew who Josiah was even though Josiah’d never heard of him.

“Shit,” Tristan groaned into the phone. Josiah just stared at the man.

“Yeah. Hi. I’m Josiah.”

Ben reached out and shook his hand. “Is that Tristan on the phone?”

“Yes.” Josiah’s hand tightened on the cell, not wanting to give it to the man.

“Let me talk to him.” Tristan growled into his ear and Josiah handed it over.

“Surprise!” Ben laughed into the phone, paused as though he was listening to Tristan before laughing again.

“Is that any way to treat your only friend? Well, maybe not only one now.” He raised a brow at Josiah before adding, “but your oldest.”

Another pause. “You’re stuck with me now, Tristan. I’m here.”

Josiah watched the whole thing play out, wondering if Tristan laughed on the other end of the line. Wondering how this man knew him when Josiah didn’t know who he was. He couldn’t help but wonder what he meant to Tristan.

A minute later Ben ended the call without Josiah speaking with Tristan again.

“He said to tell you he’s skipping out on his plans after work and will be home as soon as he’s done there.”

He doesn’t know about Tristan’s mom, Josiah realized. He may be someone in Tristan’s life who Josiah had never heard of, but he didn’t know about the most important person in Tristan’s world.