Page 16 of Forged

Surprisingly, Nick followed Aunt Janice’s advice without too much fuss. He grabbed a few things he said he would need to work on the unicorn, then he and Bax took their lunch and headed out.

“Yep,” Bax said as they headed down the hill with the skies clouding over and spitting light rain down on them. “Your mum and Aunt Janice are complete and polar opposites.”

Nick laughed. “You can say that again.”

“I’m not certain they’re even the same species,” Bax said.

He swayed closer to Nick to avoid a small pit in the path. Their shoulders bumped. Bax could have sworn Nick sucked in a breath, but he didn’t want to make a big deal about it.

He also didn’t want to step away from Nick and walk with a respectable distance between the two of them, but he did.

“The entire Hawthorne family is full of free spirits,” he said as they approached the forge.

“Really. I hadn’t noticed,” Nick said in a voice so flat it was almost sarcasm. Bax hadn’t ever heard Nick say anything sarcastic before. It was exciting.

Bax laughed as they ducked under the canvas shielding the doorway and into the surprisingly warm forge. Nick put the cool bag down on one of the benches, then immediately set to work checking the fires and feeding them so they would be hot enough for working, or so Bax presumed.

It was just the two of them, and with the canvas walls of the forge rolled down, it felt like they were alone and sheltered from the world. Maybe that was what made Bax bold.

“How on earth did you end up with someone like Raina when you come from the family that you do?” he asked as he helped himself to one of the beers and took a seat where he could feast on the sight of Nick working.

Nick huffed a laugh. “She found me,” he said. “After that first time she invited me out to the pub, she refused to let me go. That’s really the whole story of how we ended up together.”

“And you didn’t date anyone before her?”

“Not really.” Nick shrugged. “I mean, I fancied a few people, but I couldn’t stomach the thought of bringing them home so my mum and dad could scrutinize the hell out of them.”

Bax nearly swallowed his beer wrong and fell off his stool. Fancied a fewpeople, not a fewgirls. It could have been a slipof the tongue or it could have been deliberate. He needed more information.

“So that’s the only thing that stopped you from bringing someone home to meet the parents? The fear that they’d be scrutinized?” he asked, getting up and moving closer to the newer forge, where Nick was shifting parts around and doing things that were way above his technical know-how.

“I saw the way they were with Candice’s boyfriends,” Nick said, glancing quickly at him before finishing with the forge. “I didn’t want to wish that on anyone.”

“But you wished it on Raina,” Bax pointed out.

“Raina was a force of nature. She wished it on herself,” Nick said with a fond smile.

“That she was,” Bax agreed.

He still didn’t have the information he really wanted, though. Was Nick bi? And if so, was the heat growing between them more than friendship?

They moved to the side of the forge where their lunch waited. Bax made a point to sit closer to Nick than he would have if he didn’t particularly care about someone. He tried to make it look casual, but as they munched on their sandwiches, he rested his knee against the side of Nick’s beefy leg.

“I don’t think your mum likes me much,” Bax said with his mouth half-full.

Nick laughed out loud. “Mum doesn’t like anyone.”

“She likes Kate Danbury,” Bax said, taking a risk and imitating the way Mrs. Turner had said the woman’s name.

Nick flushed the cutest shade of pink. “Maybe I should say that Mum doesn’t like any of the Hawthornes,” he said.

That got a reaction out of Bax more than Nick saying he actually wanted to go on a date with Kate Danbury would have.

“I’ve noticed,” he said. “It’s inconceivable. The Hawthorne family is the best. We’re eclectic and creative and we take risks. And we’re all pretty cute, if I do say so myself.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s the reason she doesn’t really like any of you,” Nick laughed. “That and the fact that the entire family is queer as a unicorn in heat.” He nodded to his half-finished sculpture.

Bax laughed at the metaphor, but his laughter stopped abruptly. “She’s not homophobic, is she?” That would explain a hell of a lot.

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