Page 34 of Blindsided

At least for Easton.

A message pinging on my phone finally got my head back from the clouds.

Bodhi

You good?

I looked at the clock and shook my head.

It’s barely past dawn there! Why are you already awake?

Bodhi

Breakfast with my brother before he goes in for the day. Don’t change the subject. You good?

Yeah. Going to dinner with Easton tonight. We sort of talked.

It could be considered that, maybe, if someone squinted and turned their head a bit. There was dialogue that happened between the two of us, at least.

Bodhi

Thank fuck! You two, scratch that, you, it’s all been you, have been dancing around like an idiot since day one. Do not let that man get away again.

Okay, now that I know you’re good, I gotta go.

I shook my head but was smiling. The woman was a menace to society. It was probably a good thing she lived on the other side of the world from me, or she’d have tied me to a chair and made me talk to Easton earlier. Actually, maybe I needed her to meddle in my life more.

“What are you smirking at?” Easton asked from the doorway, looking way too fucking good in a navy blue button-down shirt, loose-fit jeans, a pair of black leather boots, and with a small bag swinging from his finger. If he replaced the dress shirt with a T-shirt, he would be ready to parade me around a club… and I wasn’t allowing myself to go there.

“Wha—” My voice broke when I opened my mouth and I had to clear my throat and start again. “What are you doing here already?”

“Well, according to my watch, it’s five forty-seven. Figured since you were here so early this morning, you might appreciate an earlier meal.”

My head bobbed since my brain had gone unhelpfully blank when he’d appeared in my doorway.

He waited patiently for me to shut down my computer, then grab my suit coat from the hook. We were walking toward the elevator when he finally spoke again. “You wear a suit well, Mr. Barrington.”

The day before I would have thought he was making fun of me, but I could hear the true admiration and approval in his voice. I didn’t love him calling me a Barrington, though. I liked being Lincoln Lewis to him. They hadn’t just been words I’d thrown out when I’d told him I was more myself than I’d ever been when I’d just been plain old Lincoln Lewis.

“Thank you,” I managed to say through a weird mixture of pride and melancholy.

The elevator closed and Easton pinned me with a stern expression. “What’s that about?”

“What’s what?”

“Thank you,” he parroted. “It sounded strained.”

I chuckled uncomfortably, my breath leaving in a whoosh. “Why do you know me so damn well?” Shaking my head, I continued. “I was just thinking it sounds weird hearing you call me Barrington.” I dropped my gaze to the floor, struggling to meet his eyes as I told him what was happening in my head. “College was magical. That sounds so stupid, but it was the first time I got to do something without my family name attached to it. Then there was you. You just accepted me.”

Easton’s hand fell gently on my shoulder. “Link, you don’t have to tell me this. You said basically the same thing this morning.”

I forced my eyes upward to look at him. “Actually, I do need to say this.” The elevator dinged and we stepped off to a mostly vacant main lobby. The people who were there weren’t giving us a second glance, and I dropped my voice to make sure we remained inconspicuous and uninteresting. “Yes, I did leave because I didn’t want you to go through the insanity that being linked to a Barrington would bring to you, but that’s not the only reason.”

Easton was giving me his full attention and barely blinked as I spoke. It took a few breaths to gather my thoughts and another for me to convince myself to open my mouth. “I was scared. Scared that our bubble would break. Scared you wouldn’t want the drama and the insanity. It was a lot more frightening to tell you who I was and have you choose to walk away than it was for me to decide that you wouldn’t want it and walk away myself. I’m so sorry.”

An eerie silence fell over us. We were alone despite people walking around us. With my confession out, I held my breath and braced for Easton to once again tell me that I fucked up by not letting him decide for himself. The seconds stretched out to what felt like an eternity and just when I’d started to breathe again, Easton spoke.

“That couldn’t have been easy to tell me, and thank you. I’m not going to lie. It hurt like hell when you dropped off the face of the earth. I didn’t understand why you ghosted me or where you went. I was already at training camp when I realized you were gone. By the time we were graduating, I’d been completely virtual for over a year and while I’d had the opportunity to return to walk at graduation, I hadn’t wanted to. I’d lost you and I knew that.”

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