Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 23821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 119(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 119(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
“Yeah, but—”
“No, Graham,” I promised with a sigh. “There’s nothing.”
“There’s something.” He stepped closer, lifted his hand under my chin to tilt my head back.
“We’ll always be friends; we grew up together. If it wasn’t for Varro and his family, I would have gone from foster home to foster home, bouncing around the system, and who knows what would have happened to me. I owe them a lot.”
“Yes,” he said, his eyes on my mouth.
“It’s what I was thinking of when I started Chameleon, the debt I owed and that I should give back. The whole pay-it-forward thing, right?”
“Sure.”
“But really, me and Varro, we’re not close anymore. We’ve barely spoken since I left a year ago. Our lives are so drastically different. I mean, like, polar opposites. It’s crazy that we could even know each other, really.”
“You’re rambling.”
I was talking too much about something that was supposedly no longer the most important part of my life.
“Brian.”
But so many things had changed in a twelve-month period, and Varro had no idea. “I just don’t want you to think that he’d ever be anyone—”
“Okay.”
“I probably won’t ever see Varro Dacien again.”
He nodded.
“It’s true, you know, even though you’re looking at me very dubiously.”
He appraised me. “You wanted him.”
“Of course I wanted him, he was my first love.”
“But?”
“But he couldn’t love me back, and you can’t be an idiot forever.”
“No,” he agreed before he sighed. “You can’t.”
“What?”
“It’s lucky that you two never got together.”
“Why’s that?” I teased, beaming as he bent toward me.
“Because he’s stunning and so are you. Not fair to the rest of us mere mortals.”
But I knew what I looked like, and even though blond hair and green eyes were appealing on other men, I had never been able to stop traffic, myself. I was more of the plain brown-wrapper variety, nothing like Varro, who turned heads wherever he went. I had often wondered when I was growing up what it was like for him to be that beautiful, what it was like to see the world through Varro’s eyes. It was nice to finally be in a place where it didn’t matter.
FIVE
Iwaited around the next morning, but by the time noon rolled around, I was wishing I had taken Graham up on his offer to spend the night with him instead of going home. But I had promised Aidric I would be there, so I was going to be a stand-up guy; it was kind of annoying to get blown off when I could have gotten blown the night before.
As I was heading out to meet Graham for a late lunch, Varro’s number appeared on my caller ID.
“Hey.” I smiled into the phone. “This is weird timing.”
He cleared his throat. “Bri.”
I waited, but there was only silence, and because of that, I stopped on the cobblestone path between my little pale-blue California bungalow and the street. Varro was never quiet. He was big and loud and vibrant and… that was missing. “V?”
“Did you talk to Aidric?”
“What?”
“Just—did you?”
“Varro?”
“Brian!”
“No, I mean, we talked, but he was going to— Where are you?”
No answer.
But because I knew him so well, so thoroughly, I understood. “What did you do? Come chasing after Aidric?”
“No.”
“Yes, you did. Where is he?”
He coughed softly. “He went back to his farm this morning.”
“Because you what? Threatened him?”
“What?” His voice went up way too high.
Uh-huh. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Varro lied, and because I knew him, I could tell.
“Where are you?”
“I’m at the airport.”
I absorbed that. “If you were leaving, why didn’t you just go?”
He was silent again.
“V?”
“I just thought it was a shame to come all the way from Malta and not say hello.”
“I would think so,” I huffed. “God, you’re an ass.”
“Me?” he flared. “What about you?”
“I haven’t done anything!” I was incredulous.
“No, you haven’t,” he agreed snidely. “Nothing at all.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Christ, no one wound me up as fast as Varro! I was so calm and serene ninety percent of the time. Only with him did I turn into a crazy person.
“You left me.”
How he could fill three little words with so much hurt and surprise and anger all at the same time, I had no idea. “I always said I was going to find a place and settle down, and you—it was a year ago, asshole.”
“I know precisely how long ago it was.”
“You were fine with it.”
“I thought you were coming back when the new season started.”
“Why?”
“I just did.”
“You just did?” What the hell kind of logic was that? “That’s ridiculous.”
“But you showed me, huh?”
“It’s been a year!” I retorted. “We talked on the— How can you be mad now when you weren’t mad then? That makes zero sense.”
“I was always mad.”
“You were always mad? That’s crap. How come you never said anything?”
“What was there to say?”
“What’s there to say now?”
Silence.
“Varro?”
“There’s nothing to say,” he said quietly. “So I guess I’ll—”