Stories Beneath Our Skin (16 page)

"
Um, yeah." Liam delivered a quick peck, flushing in Technicolor.

"
Maybe the rosebuds thing wasn't that far off the mark, huh?" Gene reached for the remote.

"
Just change the channel, old man," Liam ordered, putting away his pad. "I can't beat you as bad if we miss the first question."

When Liam got home, Ellen
's car was still in the driveway. A faded Co-Exist bumper sticker clung to the back, its tattered edges mixing with another that read "May You Have Exactly the God You Deserve". He chewed that one over up the sidewalk and into the house.

Ace and his mother were sitting at the kitchen table, empty mugs in front of them. She had taken Ace
's hand in her own, the palm stretched upward. She was talking, and Ace had the same expression of fond tolerance that Liam had aimed at Gene a thousand times. Cole was playing under the table with a pile of Legos, snapping the bricks together then apart again.

"
Hey, there you are." Ace looked up, free arm opening wide to call Liam to his side.

It was too easy to cross the void between them and settle into the welcoming crescent. Liam leaned his hip against Ace
's side. Ellen glanced between them and then huffed softly.

"
Well then." She released Ace's hand and picked up both mugs. "I should head home before it gets too dark for me to see."

"
I can get those." Ace protested, but she was already rinsing them out. "Mom."

"
Son," she repeated with the same grave sturdiness. "This, I can do."

"
Grandma's leaving," Liam told Cole. "You gonna say goodbye?"

"
Bye, Grandma!" Cole chimed, then went back to his Lego.

"
Bye, baby." She embraced Ace, her chin tucked over his shoulder and eyes closed. "You be good."

"
Me or Cole?" Ace asked.

"
Yes." She pulled away. "I'll see you next Friday."

Not long after that, Ace bundled Cole off for a bath over much protesting. Liam stood alone in the kitchen, looking out into the darkness. The tub started running
, and a raucous debate between man and boy drifted outside over the sound of pounding water.

This calm, this bright loving chaos, this was Liam
's life. For now. From this breath and the next at least. He didn't know what kind of god he deserved, but he hoped it was one that would let him hold onto this feeling as long as he could.

Chapter Eleven

The tiny white missile soared through the air and stuck into one of Goose
's wild black curls.

"
I am the master!" Deb pumped her fist in the air.

"
Master-bator maybe." Goose rejoined, flicking the paper ball back in her general direction.

It was late. Late enough that the sign had flipped to close
d, though the buzz of Ace's gun still rattled through the air. One last appointment. Technically the rest of them could've gone home, but Goose had stretched out on the waiting room couch and Deb hadn't budged from behind her desk. Liam, watching the two of them egging each other on, had taken up one of the chairs. He was still working on the sketch of Gene's hand.

"
That was weak," Deb chided. "What's with the mopey routine?"

"
I'm not moping." Goose clucked his tongue. "I'm thinking. Deeply. I know, I know. Rare sight, don't hurt myself, and all your sarcastic blah blah blah."

"
About?" she prodded.

"
An offer."

"
From Frankie?" Liam asked, pencil stopping mid-stroke. "How did your talk go?"

"
It went." Goose shrugged, loose limbed.

"
She made you an offer, and you didn't jump on it?" Deb sent another paper ball soaring. It landed in Liam's lap.

"
She told me I had to think about it. So this is me. Thinking about it. Apparently, it's what adults do," he drawled in the same soft cadence of Frankie's voice. "Only fools rush in."

"
Good thing no one here is anything like foolish, right Professor?" Another paper ball dinged off the tip of Liam's nose.

"
Right," he grumbled.

He and Ace hadn
't come out and said anything to Deb or Goose, but they both seemed to know anyway. Goose hadn't given any signal that it mattered to him one way or another, barely pausing in his rant about the unacceptability of generic brand Oreos to acknowledge it. Deb vacillated between tacit approval and hard-edged ribbing that probably amounted to the same thing.

"
So what's the offer?" Deb asked.

"
She thinks I should come work at the bar one night a week. She doesn't have time to date, so... we could do that instead? But it seems sort of forced to me." Goose exhaled hard. "And I'd have to give up a night here, and the money isn't as good."

"
She can't squeeze you in some other time of week?" Liam added a line on the index finger, then erased it again.

"
It's like some kind of test, man. I don't know. See if I'll do it."

"
Frankie isn't the testing kind," Deb put in, finally abandoning her desk chair. She picked up Goose's legs, then sat down on the couch and let them fall back over her lap. "You could take Tuesday. You never make money on Tuesdays."

"
You're helping." Goose's eyes narrowed. "You're actually helping. Why?"

"
Because you're really goddamn annoying when you're all lovesick. Better to get it over with, one way or another." She glanced at Liam. "Besides, I've got to live vicariously through someone."

"
You guys having a sleepover?" A tall redheaded woman slipped out from behind the curtain, her arm swathed in Ace's neat bandaging.

"
Thinking about it." Deb cracked a yawn. "How'd it come out?"

"
Brilliant, thanks. I'll be back again next week to get the color. Don't know my work schedule yet. I'll call."

"
Sounds good." Deb smiled brightly. "Talk to you soon."

When the door closed behind her, Deb sagged further against the back of the couch.

"Don't you people go home?" Ace came through a few minutes later, laughing at the curled up mess of bodies on the couch and Liam half-asleep on the chair.

"
Comfy." Goose protested as Deb shifted beneath him.

"
You'll give yourself a stiff neck if you sleep there again." Ace ruffled Goose's curls, dislodging a stray paper ball. "Time to go home."

"
Frankie wants to date him at work," Deb reported through an uneven yawn. "Like have him show up so they can hang out, but also make him mix drinks or whatever. I think it's brilliant. Cheap labor for her."

"
Uh-huh." Ace raised an eyebrow. "You gonna do it?"

"
I dunno, man. Maybe. Way she talked about it, it sort of made sense. Then I walked away and thought about it, and it just seems messy. I mean, I'm crazy about her, but she's lukewarm on me at best. I keep running after, but she never gets any goddamn closer. So maybe it's time I backed off."

"
Seems like she's getting closer now," Ace pointed out. "I'll even give you Tuesday nights off. You never make any money on Tuesdays."

"
Now you're all just ganging up on me."

"
Not me," Liam protested.

"
You're doing it in your head. Don't think I can't see your judgmental eyes."

"
You're not even looking at me!"

"
Am too!"

"
Okay, children." Deb got to her feet, and Goose tumbled to the floor. "Time for all God's creatures to go sleep in their own beds."

"
S'what I was trying to say." Ace laughed, offering Goose a hand up. "You good?"

"
Peachy."

They stumbled out in the misting rain
which had been falling all day. Ace turned his face up to it, tongue out.

"
Gross." Deb laughed pushing at him. "Who knows where that's been?"

"
Don't care. Feels good. I gotta call the AC guys to come look at the damn thing again."

"
You're just having hot flashes." Deb rolled her eyes. "Nothing wrong with the unit."

"
I think I'd notice if I got menopausal," Ace drawled.

They were still at it when Liam got into his car. He glanced into the rearview mirror, waiting for Goose to back out and caught something. He stared into the mirror and reached up. He touched the edges of a smile. Not the small thing he
'd been wearing for the last few weeks, but a huge, goofy, honest-to-God grin.

The lights were on in the living room when he got home
; the teenager Ace had hired to babysit was watching television with her feet tucked beneath her on the couch.

"
Everything okay?" Liam asked.

"
Sure. He didn't wake up the whole time I was here." She turned off the television. "Do you want me to stay until Mr. Reece gets back?"

It took him a minute to puzzle through who she meant. Liam hadn
't heard Ace's last name mentioned more than once or twice. He'd started to think of him as just having the one like Cher or Madonna or something far less embarrassingly stereotypical.

"
Oh. Um. No? Unless he needs to pay you."

"
No, I'm good." She toed on her sandals. "Have a good night!"

"
Good night."

Liam went down the hallway, cracking Cole
's door open. There was a lump underneath the dark blue blanket, and it rose and fell minutely as he watched. When Liam came to live with Gene for good, he'd often be woken in the middle of the night by Gene creaking open the door to check on him. The first few times it had made him nervous, kept him awake, but it soon became another sort of lullaby.

"
You okay?" Ace asked, and Liam had to bite back a yelp. "Jesus, sorry. Thought you heard me coming."

"
It's fine." Liam pressed a hand to his chest, the pound of his heart meeting his palm. "I got lost in thought."

"
I'd figure you spent so much time there you wouldn't need a map to get back."

"
Cute." Liam closed the door to Cole's room. "You going to go to bed?"

"
Not alone." Ace slid his hand around Liam's side, spreading it flat on the small of his back.

"
I'm not tired." Liam leaned in.

"
Think I can change that."

They stumbled to Ace
's bedroom, the door swinging shut softly behind them. It hadn't taken long for Liam to give up the fight not to have sex here. It didn't even look like Gene's room anymore, which helped substantially. Ace's things spread over every surface, his clothing spilling out of the drawers. The heavy curtains were permanently drawn back, Ace relishing the sun like a lizard on a rock in the mornings. The thick scent of Old Spice had been banished in favor of the pervasive peppermint (Ace's shampoo, as Liam finally discovered in the shower. He may have used some himself and been driven to distraction for the rest of the day) and cedar (an elegant, carved wooden box that divulged a jumbled handful of earrings and other piercing jewelry).

Even the bed was different. Gene
's practical linens had been banished in favor of sheets in a weird shade of green that felt like silk on Liam's bare skin. They landed on them in a jumble until Ace slid like a puzzle piece between Liam's thighs.

"
Your hair is getting long." Ace drew back from the kiss to run a hand through it.

"
I missed a cut or two." Liam lifted up his arms, making room for Ace to pull both their shirts off.

"
You should miss more. You'd look good with a ponytail. Add some tiny round glasses, and you'd be a dead ringer for Lennon."

"
There a Beatles fetish you want to tell me about? Because I can't sing worth a damn." Liam tickled his fingers down Ace's ribs, the hard reality of them shooting straight to Liam's dick.

"
Hilarious."

They made out for a
while, unhurried and dreamlike under the lamp light. Ace kissed like he had nothing but time. He brushed his lips against Liam's over and over until every nerve tingled in anticipation of more. Liam got drunk on it, head spinning pleasantly with the lack of oxygen.

"
You should fuck me," he murmured in the thick of it.

"
Should I?" Ace's laugh reverberated between them. "What if I want you to fuck me?"

"
I can do that." Liam traced the plunge of the sword on Ace's arm. "Whatever you want."

"
What do you want?" Ace poured the question right into Liam's mouth. "Wanna roll on your stomach for me?"

"
I like being on my back more." He wrapped one leg around Ace's waist, arching up in demonstration. "Get to see everything."

"
You're a hazard." Ace groaned. "It really always is the quiet ones."

"
The meek shall inherit the earth." Liam winked and began the arduous process of trying to get out of his jeans and briefs without breaking contact. Ace was no help at all, petting at every inch of bared skin until Liam forgot what he was trying to accomplish.

"
Your legs are a mile long." Ace dropped down to drag his tongue over Liam's left thigh. "Gonna look like a pit bull trying to mount a greyhound."

"
Good thing no one else is watching then." Liam tugged at one of Ace's dreadlocks, escaped from the leather thong. "You gonna spend the rest of the night down there?"

"
I might." Ace nipped at him, then stood to shuck off his own pants. The light picked up all the gold hair on his body. Liam wanted to run his hands over every shining inch of him, then let his mouth cover the territory again. He watched appreciatively as Ace bent over to look for the bottle of lube they'd tossed aside that morning.

"
There's condoms in my room," Liam offered.

"
I've got." Ace straightened, triumphant with the bottle and three foil packets.

"
When did you buy those?"

"
The day after we slept together the first time." Ace looked sheepish. "Just seemed like the thing to do. When did you get yours?"

"
Dunno. Months ago, before I moved back. Hope springs eternal." He spread his legs, welcoming Ace back between them.

"
Were you thinking about anyone in particular?" Ace slotted back, bare skin electric against Liam's.

"
No. Didn't really think at all. Lot like right now."

Ace grabbed a pillow from the head of the bed, then slid a hand under Liam
's ass to encourage him upwards. Liam had forgotten the awkwardness of sex, the reality of fumbling fingers and mess. When he'd been with Brandon, everything had a drug-fueled smoothness. He liked this better. Liked how Ace dug his fingers into Liam's hips and laughed when the lube got all over his hands. He liked the catch of a callous as Ace slid a finger into him.