THREE

This man, Brad, was probably not an enemy. Probably. Lester had been. Lester had screwed them all over, had stolen money and tried to blame it on someone else, but that didn’t mean Brad was the same.

But neither was he a friend. And he certainly wasn’t someone that Aaron should be looking at with sexual or romantic interest, either. It didn’t matter how broad his shoulders were. That was probably just the cut of the expensive suit jacket, anyway. It didn’t matter that his eyes shone like gold, or that he was tall, and well formed, and maybe the most handsome man that Aaron had ever seen.

It didn’t matter. Not in the slightest. So Aaron turned resolutely away from him, his hand reaching for the seatbelt to fasten himself into place. Which was a good in theory, but in practice, it proved to be a little bit difficult.

This cabbie, Aaron thought, would probably be better off in a bumper car than in a taxi. He drove with a reckless abandon that had Aaron and Brad rattling around, bumping into each other over and over again. None of which was helping Aaron’s admittedly very uncharacteristic attraction to this man and his desire to touch him.

It wasn’t going to happen, no matter what the stupid cab seemed to think. So finally, Aaron grabbed onto his seat belt and fastened it, giving the cab driver a dirty look, which the guy didn’t even seem to notice. Beside him, he felt Brad’s movements and realized that he was doing the same thing.

Restrained as they were, the ride got a little bit less bumpy, and they didn’t fly around in the back nearly as much. The cab joined the flow of cars going onto the main road through downtown and slowed to nearly a crawl.

Great. Now they were nearly gridlocked, and they both had a meeting to get to. It was pretty strange that he hadn’t even recognized this man at first, but then, he’d never seen him up close before.

“So what were you up to outside of Julie’s place?”

At first, Aaron couldn’t believe what he’d heard. Brad was not only talking to him, though Aaron was giving off all of his best don’t talk to me vibes, the ones that he had perfected ever since the death of his parents. But Brad blissfully ignored that, and that was strange enough, but he was also familiar with the group home where Leah was living?

Aaron turned to look at him, trying to figure out which question to ask first. But he didn’t really actually want to know about this man, did he? No, of course, he didn’t. He didn’t even know that many details about the other men he worked with, and the Lost Boys had been together for more than two years.

“How do you know about that?” Aaron asked, just as he had decided that he wouldn’t say anything at all, which made it more than a little bit surprising to hear the words spilling from his own lips.

“I used to live there.”

That was something that Aaron couldn’t have expected. Not in a million years. He looked at Brad, studying his face, sure that he must be being teased. Maybe he barely knew Brad, but he seemed strong and confident and not at all the sort of kid that Aaron would have thought would be a foster kid.

Of course, he would have thought the same about Leah, too. You really couldn’t tell anything about someone just by how they looked, and Aaron nodded a little bit and then sighed softly. He had made a huge mistake in asking the question because now it had to seem like he didn’t mind getting into a conversation.

“I don’t talk about my personal life with people I work with,” Aaron told him because, in his experience, it was better just to be blunt about that. And it really didn’t matter that Brad had told him something so intimate about himself. That had been the older man’s own choice, but it didn’t mean that Aaron had to return it.

“Okay,” Brad allowed, and Aaron didn’t quite dare to look over at the other man again. Didn’t quite dare to see if the amusement that he was almost sure that he heard in Brad’s voice was, in fact, present in his face. There was certainly a faintly mocking tone to his voice, but that was none of Aaron’s business.

This ridiculous attraction didn’t mean anything. It had to not mean anything, because, after all, Aaron wasn’t even going to be around much longer. He had much more important things to think about than Brad, and the rest of the trip stretched on and on in utter silence.

No matter how hard he tried, though, Aaron could stop thinking about the man at his side. It was almost infuriating.