Page 127 of Daily Grind
Rob felt his own burning at the back of his throat. He wanted to be more than an afterthought, but hadn’t wanted Brian to kill Grounds N’at in the process. Just find balance. He studied his hands. “I’m not entirely innocent, either.” The lobby was the wrong place for this. Too exposed, too public. “We should get out of here.”
Brian rubbed his temple and grunted. “I could use some coffee.”
A glance at his watch told Rob it was about ten thirty. On a normal day, Brian would have been on his third cup by now.
This day was shaping up to be anything but. Brian wore a frailty and sadness that dug deep into Rob and broke apart most of the resentment he’d felt. Brian had come here forhim.
“Give me a minute.” He dug out his phone and called Mallory. “Hey, Mal, something personal has come up. I need to cancel all my meetings for the rest of the day.” He paused. Brian stared at his hands again, but the trembling had stopped. “Maybe tomorrow, too. Let’s put those down as tentative.”
Tapping on the other end, and she replied, “You have a phone call with the board this afternoon.”
“It can wait.” He still owned more than half the company.
She snorted. “They won’t be happy.”
“They never are. And you’re a saint, Mal.”
A chuckle. “I hope everything works out for you.”
He studied Brian. “Me too. Thanks.” He ended the call and tucked his phone back into his suit jacket. “Did you drive or…”
“Rode my bike down. It’s locked up out front.” Brian sounded better. “You didn’t have to cancel your whole day for me.”
Rob reached out, tentatively, and touched Brian’s knee. “Yes, I did.”
Almost as slowly, Brian covered Rob’s hand with his own. “Rob, I—” His voice cracked to pieces.
Time to get out of here. “My bike’s in the bike room.” He nodded toward the door. “Let’s go.”
They both rose—Brian less steady than he should have been, but given everything, that was to be expected.
He washere. He’d closed the shop. Boggled Rob’s mind, that. Maybe—maybe they could patch things up. “If you need coffee, there’s several places we could go. Or—” He bit off the suggestion. They reached the bike room, and he pressed the badge in his wallet against the pad to unlock the door.
“Or?” Brian sounded more like himself, even if he looked shaken up and frayed at the edges.
Rob pulled his bike from its rack and steered it toward the door Brian held open. “Well, I don’t live that far away.”
Brian nodded but didn’t say anything until they reached his bike at the rack outside. “I’d really like to talk abouteverything. You and me. The shop. What went wrong… I don’t think I can do that in public.” He unlocked his bike. “So if you don’t mind your house…”
Rob unclipped his helmet from around the seat and strapped it on. “I don’t mind. I’ve just never done this before, so I don’t know the rules…”
“That makes two of us,” Brian said. He shrugged, though it was close to a wince. “Guess we make it up as we go?”
Kind of like everything else. He gripped Brian’s shoulder for a second. “Better than giving up.”
That teased part of the smile Rob loved so much from Brian. “Much.” That grin fell away. “You really ride in asuit? Your dry cleaning bills must be hellish.”
Heat to his cheeks. “It’s notthatbad.” Though, thinking about it, it was. “Come on.”
They set off down Penn Avenue, toward Bloomfield, Brian in the lead, as if he knew the way. But then, he did. This place, the city Rob had chosen as home, was Brian’s to the core.
What he really wanted was for Pittsburgh to betheirs. They still had quite a few things to hash out before that could be a possibility. There were events Rob never wanted replayed—and he needed assurances they never would be.
Then, only then, could he think about a future with Brian.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Whenever Brian cameto Rob’s house, there was a tingle of surreality, his past overlaid with the present. Now there was also the agony of what might never be and that left him a breathless, more than he should have been from the ride over.
