Rare (8 page)

It was good to see Joe. He’d been gone for weeks—the longest we’d been without him for over a year. I buzzed him in, opened the interior door, and stomped back to the bathroom. I’d forgotten his girl was in town until I glanced up from the tangled mess of copper to greet him.

Wow.

There was no other word for the couple who stood in the doorway. It was one of those moments when I appreciated the ability I had to see the beauty in both sexes. In a platonic way, Ash and I had always thought Joe was beautiful. He had a shock of jet-black hair and dark-green eyes that complemented his dark, Romany skin. The contrast with his girlfriend’s waist-length blonde hair and alabaster complexion was incredible. For a long moment, I found myself gawking at them. The girl was stunning; the kind of chick where it didn’t matter if she was a total airhead, because you’d put up with it to be with her.

Lucky for Joe, I could tell by looking at his girl that she was far from stupid. Her eyes were bright and friendly as she stepped around him. She extended her hand, the tiny stud in her nose glittering like a prism. “You must be Pete,” she said. “I’m Danni. Joe’s talked about you a lot. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

I wiped my hands on my jeans, still dumbstruck, and stupidly surprised at the strength in her delicate fingers. Her amiable smile surprised me too. Considering it was my fault Joe had been away from her for so long, I was half expecting a slap in the face.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” I said. “Joe talks about you all the time, but we were beginning to think he’d made you up.”

Joe glared up from inspecting the mess I’d made of the bathroom pipes, but I dodged the screwdriver he tossed my way. “What the hell are you doing in here?” he grumbled. “Ash told me there wasn’t much stuff to fix up.”

Joe was good with his hands, and had bucketloads of patience, which meant he was far less likely to bash a hole in the wall than I was. I watched him methodically piece together the pipes with a rueful sigh. Today was my only day off and I’d spent most of it doing something that was going to take him a few minutes.

Behind us, Danni cleared her throat. She’d wandered off to look around while Joe had been assessing the pipework, but now she was back. “How about I go and start unpacking your kitchen? You’ve been here, what, a month and you’ve barely unpacked a plate?” She inclined her head toward Joe. “You’re as bad as he is.”

Her wide, teasing smile was the sort of smile that spread. Despite my irritation with the bathroom pipes, I couldn’t help but grin back. “Hey, at least it’s clean.”

I’d only been to Joe’s shared Lakeview apartment once, but I’d seen enough to know what she was talking about. It wasn’t disgusting, but it was definitely grubby. Our place had never been like that. Ash didn’t like clutter—probably because he’d never had much stuff—and I liked to keep things clean. As all-male households went, ours was in good shape.

Danni rolled her eyes. “Yeah, at least your place doesn’t smell like ass.”

She disappeared. I turned back to Joe with a raised eyebrow.
What the fuck?

He gave me a wry smirk. “I told you she was hot.”

I let him have his moment. Danni was gorgeous, and he was owed a few bragging rights. That being said, I couldn’t help ribbing him a bit as I handed him a wrench. “Dude, it took you long enough to figure it out.”

If he hadn’t been knee-deep in my bathroom plumbing, I was pretty sure he’d have put me on my ass. As it was, he just growled and got on with fixing my mess.

I left him to it after a while. It was good to catch up with him, but I felt a little bad about abandoning his girl. I rescued Danni from the kitchen, where she was frowning at the lack of food in our cupboards, and let her take me across the neighborhood to a pizza place Joe said was good.

Though I didn’t know much about her, I wasn’t surprised when we got out onto the street and she slipped her arm through mine. Joe was like a Labrador half the time. It made sense that his partner was as easy with her affection as he was with his. I didn’t mind. It took me a while to get used to Joe, but with a chick it was different, and for some reason, Danni didn’t feel like a stranger.

We ordered some pizzas to go and stepped outside while they cooked. Recently, I’d spent most of my downtime in the apartment, sleeping or banging pipes. I hadn’t had the chance to take in our new neighborhood. Danni was a good companion as we walked around, bright and interesting. She was a photojournalist by trade, and she’d been all over the world. I’d never been further than Michigan, so I found her fascinating, especially when she told me she’d been to my mom’s hometown. She was wise for her twenty-five years, and more cultured than anyone I’d come across for a while. I could have listened to her talk all night, but after we’d picked up the pizzas, she decided to play me at my own game and turned the tables.

“So, Ash is your boyfriend, right?”

“Something like that,” I hedged, wary. I had no idea how much Joe had told her about me, Ash, or the reasons he’d stayed in Chicago.

“How long have you been dating?”

I swallowed a laugh. Ash was my best friend, my lover, and the closest thing to a soul mate I’d ever find, but in all the time we’d been together I couldn’t recall a time I’d ever considered us “dating.” He’d been the center of my world since the day I met him. How could I measure that? “He moved in with me a few years ago.”

“That’s nice.” Danni turned her face toward the sun with a wistful smile. “Is he going to paint the walls with some of his stuff?”

“I don’t think the landlord would appreciate that. They only let us paint the walls white because they couldn’t be bothered to do it themselves.”

“Shame,” she said. “He’s really talented.”

I shot her a sideways look. “You’ve seen his work?”

“Sure I have,” Danni said. “It’s plastered all over Joe’s back.”

Huh
.

Sometimes I forgot that everyone I knew, save my mother, had a piece of Ash etched on their skin. Ellie had a tiny fairy on her hip; Charlie a psychedelic design on his arm that covered the mess left by somebody else. Even Mick had been by the shop to get the names of his kids tattooed on his chest. I should’ve remembered Joe’s ink, though. It had been a work in progress for as long as I’d known Ash, and he’d only recently finished it.

It was strange, actually. Ash had battled with the Romany design for so long, but one day it clicked and overnight Joe was covered in ink. It took me a while to figure out Joe had told Ash about his brother, Larry. I didn’t speak Romany, so I didn’t know the old script I’d been staring at for years was fraternal, but it was.

Fratele meu, pentru totdeauna.
Brother mine, forever.
Those words meant everything to Joe, and as soon as Ash had made the emotional connection between the words and Joe’s life, he’d found a way to finish the sketch. I’d never figured out who the woman with her eyes sewn shut was. I had a strong suspicion it was Joe’s mother, but who knew? It wasn’t something he liked to talk about.

“You could tack some chipboard over the walls,” Danni said when I didn’t respond. “He could paint that and you could take it with you if you moved out.”

I chuckled. “You should have this conversation with Ash. He’s got a thing for white walls, but you might be able to persuade him.”

We reached the house. Danni took the pizzas while I found the right key. “I’ll certainly try,” she said. “He sounds amazing. I can’t wait to meet him.”

I had to agree with her, and with Ash due home anytime, I hoped she wouldn’t have to wait too long.

Joe and Danni stayed most of the evening, and the more time I spent with her, the more I liked her. Though there was some obvious, unresolved tension between her and Joe, she fit well with him. He was practical and logical, and Danni? Well, she came across as a little wild. I liked that, and I was glad when she told me she’d decided to stay in Chicago, now that she’d finished her studies, and rent an apartment a few streets away from me and Ash. She had a lot to figure out, but didn’t everyone?

Long after dinner, Joe and Danni got up to leave, and he handed me the spare key to the old place. “Guess I don’t need this anymore.”

I took the key and put it with the set we had yet to give back to our old landlord. I rummaged through a drawer of random crap and retrieved the new key I’d set aside. Joe didn’t look surprised when I held it out to him. Ash was doing well, but we both knew his recovery was far from over.

Joe slipped his key chain back into his pocket. “Where’s he got to, anyway? I thought he’d be back by now.”

I shrugged in answer, watching absently as Danni sidled up to him and kissed his cheek. The genuine warmth between them was nice, but I was starting to worry about Ash. He’d planned to work late in Lincoln Park and make a final stop at the old place, but even with all that, he should’ve been home hours ago. I’d had half an eye on the door all night. At one point I’d even thought I’d heard it open, but it seemed I was hearing things.

Danni said good-bye and hugged me. “It was really nice to meet you, Pete. Maybe you and Ash could come and have dinner with me in a few weeks? Joe’s working out of town so I could use the company.”

I returned her embrace easily. “Make sure you’ve got a big dessert. Ash has a freakishly sweet tooth.”

They left, leaving me alone again in the apartment. I kicked around, restless and bored. I’d been on night shifts for a few days and I felt a little wired. I flicked through the TV channels and spent some time inspecting the progress Joe had made in the bathroom. I shouldn’t have bothered with that. It was depressing. The dude had done more in twenty minutes than I’d managed all day. I was still glaring at it when the front door opened for real.

I padded through the apartment to the hallway. Ash sat on the floor, unlacing his boots. He looked up when he heard me coming. “Hey.”

“Hey. I thought you’d decided to stay in Lincoln Park without me.”

Ash chuckled. “You’re not that lucky.”

I held out my hands and pulled him to his feet, frowning when his eyes met mine. He’d had a long day, but I wasn’t prepared for the exhaustion I saw in his face. “You okay?”

He shook his head, a motion so slight someone else might have missed it. “I… fuck, I don’t know. I guess I’m tired. I don’t know how you face that train ride every day.”

I wrapped my arms around his waist. He relaxed a little as he leaned on me and let me hold him. I took advantage of his closeness and wove my hand into the hair at the nape of his neck. “I don’t face it. I had to ask a little old lady to wake me up at my stop yesterday.”

“Did she poke you with her stick?”

An encouraging spark of humor flashed in his eyes. I stole a quick kiss and let go so he could take his coat off. “No, but she did talk my ear off, so I missed my chance to nap anyway. Are you hungry? There’s a pizza leftover from dinner.”

“What kind?”

“Sausage.”

His favorite was pineapple, but he’d have to buy that shit himself. The fact that it was in the refrigerator was bad enough. His penchant for cold pizza would never cease to horrify me, but dessert aside, there was nothing else he’d rather eat. If he’d had as bad a day as his slumped shoulders seemed to indicate, he needed to eat and get a good night’s sleep.

He perked up as he ate. When he was done, he wandered off to the bathroom to clean up. I threw the pizza box in the trash, turned off all the lights, and made my way to the bedroom. Ash was still in the bathroom, and I felt too awake to sleep, so I dragged the box he’d brought back from Lincoln Park from the hallway and set to work unpacking it.

I was halfway through when Ash reappeared. He dropped down beside me, rubbing a towel over his wet hair. “Man, that hot shower was good. I can’t believe you finished the pipes. I was expecting to wash in the sink again.”

The sight of him all damp and disheveled was distracting, but I tried to ignore it. Something told me he wasn’t in the mood to get jumped. “I didn’t finish them. Joe did, in about ten seconds flat. I was going to bash them to bits with the hammer.”

That earned me an amused snort. Ash leaned against me and stretched out his legs. He frowned when his feet collided with something. “What’s this?”

I glanced at the metal cylinder he’d retrieved. It was a portable oxygen system from a city ambulance—
my
ambulance. The night Mick had brought it to the old apartment seemed almost a lifetime ago. I’d forgotten we had it. “It’s oxygen. You needed it when you had pneumonia. This was the spare tank.”

Ash stared blankly, but for once it didn’t worry me. He’d told me before that all he recalled about being so sick was feeling like he could sleep forever.
Lucky him
. I remembered it all. At one point, he was so ill, I had to wake him up and beg him to breathe. I took the cylinder and slid it under the bed. “Remind me to take that back sometime.”

He hummed a drowsy response. Warmth traveled through me as he laid his head on my shoulder. “You okay down there?”

“Mmm, yeah. Sorry if I spaced on you.”

“You didn’t.” I pressed a quick kiss to the top of his head. “Anything in particular trigger it?”

Ash sighed tiredly. “Not really. Just the same old shit. Hey, did I tell you Ted put me in for that GED thing?”

“What? No. When did that happen?”

“Yesterday? A few days ago? I don’t know. The test is in a few months.”

I was more surprised than I let on. Not by his vagueness—I was used to that—but by his sudden acquiescence. Ash had just turned fifteen when he ran away from Texas to live on the streets of Philadelphia, and even up until that point, he’d barely attended high school. Ted had been pushing him to go back and get his diploma for as long as Ash had worked for him, but he’d never had much interest in it. “What changed your mind?”

Ash let out another long suffering sigh. “He’s doing it too, so I can’t really say no.”

“Ted’s getting his GED?”

“Yep. Out of fifteen employees in three shops, only four of us ever finished high school. Can you believe that?”