“This is Adam,” Luke said, gesturing over at the man he’d just been making out with.

Thank God Adam had just called it off—Luke had been way too into the kiss, and he never would have heard Seth until the poor kid was walking in. He wasn’t keen on the idea of his twelve-year-old brother getting traumatized by seeing Luke shoving his tongue in someone’s mouth, or his hands down someone’s pants, which was what he’d been about to do when Adam had pulled away.

Why had Adam pulled away? He’d started to say something about how he couldn’t, but he hadn’t gotten any farther than that when Seth had entered.

Did he have a boyfriend or something? Oh, God, was Luke helping somebody cheat? Fuck.

Seth looked suspiciously from Adam to Luke and then back again. “What are you doing here?”

“Don’t be rude,” Luke replied. Seth had gotten pretty quiet after their parents’ death, and when he did speak, it was much more harsh and blunt than he’d been before. Luke figured it was part of how Seth was handling his grief, and that was fine, but it didn’t mean Seth got a free pass on being rude to strangers.

“It’s fine,” Adam said quickly. “I was caught in the rain,” he said to Seth, “and your brother was kind enough to let me warm up in here and borrow some clothes while mine dried out. My plane lost all of my luggage,” he added, directing this last comment at Luke.

Luke made a face in sympathy, although his stomach instinctively tightened at the thought of a plane.

“Okay,” Seth said, slowly, like he thought there was some kind of conspiracy afoot. “What brings you all the way out here? What do you do?”

“Seth, c’mon, give the guy a break.” Luke tried not to fidget. He had a feeling that Seth suspected Adam was over just to fool around with Luke, and that Luke and Adam were lying to him. It didn’t help that Adam was wearing Luke’s clothes.

“No, it’s fine,” Adam said, picking up his now almost-dry clothes and grabbing his briefcase. “I’m a lawyer, and I’m from New York. I’m here to get some stuff taken care of for a case.”

“What?” Seth’s whole demeanor changed. “That’s so cool!”

“Seth wants to be a lawyer,” Luke admitted.

Adam relaxed a little, smiling at Seth. “Is that right? Any particular field?”

“Civil rights law,” Seth said proudly. “What do you do?”

“My firm specializes in corporate and family law,” Adam replied. “I actually have a friend who does civil rights law though. You’d love talking with her.”

Seth began pestering Adam with questions—what law school did he go to, how did he get in, what was it like getting his first job out of college, when did he know he wanted to be a lawyer. Luke wanted to protest and say that Adam really was tired and shouldn’t be bombarded, but Adam, noticing, gave Luke a wink and went back to calmly answering Seth’s many questions.

Luke was distracted by finishing closing down the bar, so he wasn’t really listening to a lot of the conversation until he herded the two out the door so he could lock up. Law didn’t generally interest him anyway, although if the Harpers made good on their threat to get a lawyer, he might have to become a lot more interested in it.

By the time he tuned back into the conversation, Seth and Adam had gotten into a more serious topic.

“I wanted to be a lawyer before then, but after she died, I got a lot more determined. I wanted to make her proud and prove her faith in me was justified. She always believed that I could make it, and I wanted to do it for her,” Adam was saying.

“I’m sorry,” Luke said, confused, “Who?”

“My mom died in a hit and run accident when I was sixteen,” Adam explained. “It was what gave me the drive to work hard and get into a top law school.”

“And he did,” Seth said excitedly. “Yale! I want to go to Harvard though,” he added, looking at Adam apologetically.

He’d have to get into Harvard on a full-ride scholarship, Luke thought to himself. If the Harpers really did try and sue him for custody of Seth, then Luke would have to sell the family house—and probably most of what was in it—to cover the lawyer fees. It was an option he’d been considering since getting news of his parents’ deaths, but not one he’d wanted to act on until he had no choice. His dad had grown up in that house, as had Luke and Seth.

In any case, even if the Harpers didn’t take him to court, he’d taken a look at what it cost to get into law school. He’d have to sell the house just to cover Seth’s first year.

Luke had never talked to Seth about the financial aspect of becoming a lawyer. He didn’t want to crush Seth’s dreams, but there was a reason most lawyers came from families with money. Still, if someone like Adam, who was—Luke was now eavesdropping on his conversation with Seth—raised in the inner city by a single parent and then orphaned at sixteen, was able to get into Yale, who knew? Maybe Seth had a shot.

“I’ll take you to the nearest motel,” Luke told him. “Sorry it’s not fancy or anything. It’s run by a friend of mine, though, and I promise there’s no bed bugs or anything like that.”

Adam nodded. “Good,” he said, dryly, “Or I’d have to sue you.”

Seth looked appalled, but Luke laughed. Adam blushed, pleased. Luke liked Adam’s sarcasm. Adam and Jake would get along well.

Too well, actually, Luke realized with horror. They should never be allowed to meet.

But of course they wouldn’t meet. Adam was just in town on business.

“Say, how long are you in town for?” Luke asked, pulling into the motel parking lot.

“It was supposed to just be for today and a bit of tomorrow,” Adam said, “but my flight got delayed. I’ll have to take care of everything tomorrow, then I’ll be out of here.” He sounded relieved, but when Luke looked into his face, Adam’s dark eyes were soft with disappointment.

“Well, if you end up having some free time,” Luke said. “Let me know.”

Adam blushed again. “Um, yeah—okay.”

He all but stumbled out of the car. The poor guy was really not used to people flirting with him. “Goodnight!”

“Sleep well,” Luke replied.

Seth politely waited until Adam was out of earshot before making gagging noises. “Ugh, what were you two really doing in the back office?”

“We weren’t doing anything,” Luke replied firmly. “Poor guy just had a bad day.”

“Yeah, he was telling me how he thinks his firm might open up an office out here, and that’s why his boss gave him this case.” Seth rattled on about how law firms worked, but it was like the rest of Luke’s brain finally caught up with him and the world froze.

Adam was in town for one or two days, from New York City, from a law firm that specialized in corporate—and family law.

The Harpers lived in New York City.

What if Adam stumbling into Joe’s wasn’t just the guy looking for the first place that was open? Surely he had a working phone and could find a motel on his own. Why stop at a bar first? Why not run straight to a place that would give you a warm shower and a cozy bed?

He'd kept saying “I can’t.” He’d kept pulling back when Luke flirted with him—what if that was why? What if—

Luke hurried home, letting Seth talk on, but not really listening to any of it. The moment they pulled up at the house he dashed inside, pulling up his computer.

“Hey, Seth, did Adam say what his last name was?” Luke asked, typing Adam New York lawyer family law into the search engine.

“No,” Seth replied, walking into the house. “Why, are you internet stalking him?”

“No.” Luke frowned, staring at the extremely unhelpful internet search results. “Did he say what firm he worked for?”

“He said it was one of the top law firms in New England,” Seth noted.

“New York City isn’t a part of New England.”

“I don’t know,” Seth replied, obviously cranky from staying up so late. “I’m going to bed, have fun being creepy about your new boyfriend.”

“Brush your teeth!” Luke yelled after him. He hated to think it, but he was glad that if their parents had died, they’d done it when Seth was about to be a teenager. Teenagers, Luke could handle. A toddler? Or a kid? Yeah, no, he was not at all prepared for that yet.

He tuned out the sound of Seth thumping around upstairs and typed “Top New England law firms” into the search bar.

The search yielded about ten different results, because of course every law firm claimed they were the best. Luke groaned. Luckily, each firm had a page about their lawyers, complete with a little blurb about them.

The first four law firms didn’t have anything, and Luke was starting to relax a little. Maybe he was just overreacting. The frequent, and frankly nasty, phone calls from John and Wendy were just making him paranoid. What kind of bad luck would it be to have the hot guy he’d made out with be the lawyer sent to serve him papers?

Then he clicked on the fifth law firm: Nash & Forest.

On the employee page, there was Adam.

Adam Lerner, apparently, according to the blurb about him. The facts weren’t much. The blurb listed his college and law degree, mentioned a few volunteer places he’d worked at, and his years with the law firm. It stated that his role models were Atticus Finch, Oscar Wilde, and Tom Cruise.

Luke highly suspected that last one was a joke.

He shut down his computer and sat back, trying to calm his racing heart. So, Adam was from the east coast. So, he worked for a high-profile law firm. That didn’t mean that he was necessarily hired by the Harpers.

But wasn’t it just too many coincidences for him to ignore? Adam didn’t have to show up at the bar to hide from the rain, he could have just run to the nearest motel. And what brought him out to Luke’s part of town when Adam was clearly a hotshot lawyer? It all just felt too suspicious. It would also explain why Adam kept pulling away when Luke had felt how much Adam reciprocated Luke’s attraction. Luke could still remember how the slighter man had felt in his arms, a warm and sensuous weight, Adam’s lips soft and insistent against Luke’s.

Fuck. The first guy that Luke had a chance with in six months, and the first guy he’d been painfully attracted to in, well, ever—high school didn’t count. Luke had been painfully attracted to every guy back then, thanks to teenage hormones. Of course the guy was probably working for his snooty asshole sort-of step-grandparents.

He’d wanted Adam from the second he’d seen him, his white button-up shirt wet and almost translucent as it clung to him, water droplets sliding down his face and making Luke want to lick them off. Why hadn’t Adam just gone up to him and told him why he was here? That would have been the right thing to do. Why, if he was working for the Harpers, would he not say anything about it? Why let Luke be nice to him and let Luke make out with him?

He’d have done more, honestly, if Seth hadn’t interrupted. He’d been unable to keep his hands from roaming all over Adam’s body, feeling the lean muscle there, the soft, easy bend and flexibility of his body. Luke was built broad, always had been—he’d played football all through high school and still played on the weekends with Jake and the others. He liked how lithe Adam’s body had been.

Ugh. Luke rubbed frantically at his eyes. He was obviously way too tired for this. Okay. Tomorrow morning, he’d stop by the motel and talk to Adam and figure out what was going on. If Adam wasn’t working for the Harpers, then great. He’d ask Adam out, see if maybe they could start up where they’d left off last night.

But if Adam was working for the Harpers…

Luke swallowed against the strange feelings of disappointment and frustration surging up in his chest. He’d literally just met the guy, it wasn’t like Adam owed him anything.

It just felt like—like the universe had finally been giving him a break, handing him Adam like this, that maybe in the midst of all this other crap he could possibly have something good.

Luke couldn’t deny that he felt like a bit of a fuck up. He’d have already graduated from college by the time his parents had died if he had just gotten his shit together faster. Hell, if he hadn’t puttered around for a year in between high school and college, who knew where he’d have been by now. He could have a well-paying job, something that would have allowed him to have savings that would keep them afloat as he tried to do something with Joe’s.

But no, he’d played around instead and now he was reaping the benefits of that. He had a possible court case on his hands, a kid to raise, and a bar that he might have to give over to the developers.

So when—he knew it was stupid, all right, but… when Adam had walked in, gorgeous and asking for shelter from the rain like some kind of romantic comedy cliché, Luke had thought that the universe was about to give him something good in return for all the shit it had thrown at him. Maybe this was the universe’s way of telling him hey, I know that things are bad right now, but you still deserve good things. You’re not a fuck up.

And now the fact that Adam might be the person to deliver Luke the second-worst news of his life, well... it hurt.

Luke made himself get up and pad through the house, making sure all the lights were turned off and that the doors were locked. Sometimes he still felt like a ghost in his own house. He’d grown up here, yes, and there’d been kind of this unspoken agreement between him, Dad and Lyla that Luke would come back home to live here after he’d graduated college.

That would have been one thing. But now, with him suddenly the owner of the house, without Dad and Lyla there… it was like he was walking where he shouldn’t be. Trespassing, somehow, in some way.

With everything taken care of, Luke went upstairs to look in on Seth.

Poor kid was passed out, dead tired. He’d thrown himself into his big lawyer dream after the crash, but Luke feared that meant he was pushing himself too hard. All AP courses, that kind of thing. The kid was only twelve. Too young, in Luke’s opinion, to be dealing with shit like dead parents and too much schoolwork.

Luke knew how it felt, of course. He’d been young when Mom had died too. Knowing how Seth was feeling only made it worse though, because he knew how awful it was, and he’d give anything to take it away.

He tiptoed into the bedroom, carefully cleaning up the pile of clothes and putting them in the laundry hamper, putting the books back up on the bookshelf, and plugging in Seth’s laptop to charge.

Seth looked even younger than his twelve years like this. It made Luke’s heart clench. Seth was quiet—and now he was brusque and hurting. What could Lyla’s parents possibly do to help him?

They could give him money. Luke clenched his jaw, then carefully pulled Seth’s old Star Wars blanket up over him. He’d had that blanket since he was five.

True, the Harpers could give Seth money. Seth would never have to worry about affording law school if he was theirs.

What if Seth changed his mind about law school though? They’d be furious. Seth deserved a normal life. As Luke had gotten older, Lyla had told him about her childhood. The pretentiousness, the fake friendships, the gossip and backstabbing, how damn snobby everyone was. Luke didn’t want that for Seth, and he knew that it wasn’t what Lyla or Dad would have wanted.

Luke straightened up and left the room.

Fuck the Harpers, and fuck Adam if he was working for them. Seth was his brother, and he was staying with Luke. Nobody could take that away from him.

Nobody.