Fall Apart (39 page)

“We need to talk, Mark.
Alone
.”

So much for the Christmas spirit.

***

Alarik dutifully followed Mandy and Luke out the front door, unconvinced that he’d made the right decision to get out of bed and endure hours of shopping with an eager pregnant woman and her equally energetic spouse. Now was the time for scotch, ice, and getting very, very drunk.

The huge arrangement of roses on his car’s windshield made him stop short. “My car got flowers,” he blurted.

Mandy was joyful, doing a little hopping dance step in celebration while Luke gave a less effusive, but no less pleased, fist pump.

“He’s chasing you,” Mandy cooed, then danced a little more. “There’s a note! Go read it.” She pushed him toward the car and he stumbled forward, looking up and down the street for any sign of Damon nearby. Nobody was around.

The envelope was crisp and white, tucked amongst the red buds, and he pulled it out carefully, not wanting to do any damage to the flowers. His name was written in an almost illegible scrawl, and his response when he realized that Damon had written the card with his left hand would have been worthy of an ugly cry if he were by himself. Alarik opened the envelope with Mandy and Luke hovering over his shoulder.

Alarik: Don’t give up on me. I’ll fix all of this. Let the chase begin…

The words sent a thrill down Alarik’s spine and the smile he turned on Luke and Mandy was so big it made his face hurt. He flipped the card and held it between two fingers so they could read it. Mandy squeezed him around the waist with a triumphant giggle.

“On the first day of Christmas, your true love gave to thee: two dozen roses on an Audiiiiii…” she sang.

***

“You want to do
what
with him?” Jessica asked, her brow crinkling up as she finally dialed into the conversation Damon was trying to hold with her.

“I need his help. It’s just this one time.”

“He has a bedtime, Damon. You know how he gets.”

“He can stay the night at my place and you can go out and be all MILFy, if you want. Call up some of your girlfriends. Consider it Davey’s way of contributing to the family because building with
Legos
doesn’t bring much in.
Please
, let me borrow my nephew!”

Jess paused, her eyes shining with possibilities for a night out. “He goes to bed the moment you get him home,” she warned.

“Scout’s honor.”

Snatching her phone off the counter and waving it in the air, she cried, “I’m calling Leann and we are going
out
!”

Damon hurried past her before she could reconsider and stuck his head around the door to the back room. “Davey,” he said to his nephew who was surrounded by blocks and a tractor, “Hop to it, kid. You’re bunking with me tonight.”

Davey flew at him with a wild grin, hugging his leg. “Can I bring my tractor?”

“Sure thing, but hurry before your mom changes her mind.”

Davey scrambled for his tractor, kissed his mom on the cheek and ran for the door with Damon in his wake. Once the kid was strapped into his car seat and kicking his feet happily, Damon gave him a serious look.

“I need you to do a favor for me and in return, I’ll get you an ice cream.”

An innocent, blank stare came back at him, then, “I like ice cream.”

“I’m counting on it.”

An hour and a half later, after chicken nuggets and ice cream cones, Damon and Davey were staked out a few houses down from Mandy and Luke’s place. He’d been texting Luke all evening to find out when they’d return from shopping and the latest message said they were minutes away. He glanced at Davey in the passenger seat and reassessed the level of commitment he saw there.

“Tell me again what you’re going to do.”

“I give that guy this present and run right back.”

“Yes, perfect,” Damon sighed, crossing his fingers.

“What if they want me to stay?”

“No, Davey. You run right back to me. Okay? Say ‘okay.’”

“Okay.”

Headlights appeared, turning the corner, and Damon tensed. “That’s them. Alright—get ready.”

Damon waited until Mandy’s car pulled into the driveway before sliding from the driver’s side and opening the door for Davey. He could hear his friends and Alarik talking.

“Okay, kiddo. Go for it.

Davey, decked out in an elf costume complete with sleigh bells on the toes, sprinted with his little kid legs across the neighbor’s yard, straight toward Alarik. From where he lurked behind a hedge, Damon watched as Alarik turned at the sound of the tinkling bells. The instant he recognized Davey, a smile split his face, and it was so beautiful it made Damon’s heart thud.

Davey gave him the box wrapped by Molly, and shouted with the vocal potential of one of The Three Tenors, “You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you whhhhhhyyyyy—Uncle Day is commmming to towwwwn!”

They’d practiced the song the entire time they’d been together—through the chicken nuggets and the ice cream cone, and through one meltdown temper tantrum about the elf costume. The kid nailed it like a pro.

Davey came back his way full tilt while Luke, Mandy, and Alarik watched him go. He could hear them laughing and shouting thank you. Damon was about to write everything off as a success when Davey tripped over the curled toes of his elf shoes and plowed through a lighted display of plastic penguins in the neighbor’s yard.

“Shit!” Damon moved as quickly as he could around the hedge, still a bit gimpy. He waved off Luke, Mandy and Alarik as his nephew wailed.

That’ll wake the neighborhood.

“I’ll fix the penguins,” Luke shouted.

Damon threw out a thumbs up and hurried Davey and his skinned knees back to the car. His sister was going to kill him.

Crouched down in the garage, inspecting a pair of ski boots that he hadn’t worn in years, Zane fell backward on his ass when Reid burst in and slammed the door behind him. He saw Zane, hit the lights and tackled him to the cold cement like they were in the middle of a prison fight. They were a wrestling, hissing mass of arms and legs until Reid’s voice reached his ears.

“Quiet. Stay still!”

Zane opened his mouth to respond as the door opened again and Reid’s hand clamped down over his lips.

“Reid?” Sophia’s voice sounded in the darkness and Zane glared at his brother-in-law accusingly, hoping he could see the anger in the dim light from the open door.

Reid glared back at him, so Zane stuck out his tongue and licked Reid’s palm. There was some more muted wriggling, a wild-eyed warning look and the door closed again. Zane shoved until Reid scooted away, cursing.

“You licked me! That’s disgusting.”

“You tackled me in the dark and covered my mouth!—And why are you being such a dick to Sophia? She only wants to talk to you alone for a minute.”

“Exactly. I don’t need that shit. Nobody wants all this romantic drama unfolding here.”

“She likes you! She told me what happened.”

Reid muttered angrily to himself and scrubbed his wet palm against his jeans. “You shouldn’t have brought her along.”

Zane blew him off. “You’re not the boss of me. She’s a friend and I think you guys would actually be good together.”

“You two,” Reid said derisively, a sneer on lips that were so much like Mark’s. “A couple of dreamers, living fairy tale lives. You should know better than anybody the way relationships in Hollywood don’t work out. You and Mark are a fluke. I went out with her
one
time and the photographers were everywhere; they called me her bodyguard! I broke somebody’s camera!”

“Is that what this is all about? Your bad temper? You don’t feel good enough? You think it won’t work, so you don't even try? You and your brother—cut from the
same
cloth. You hassled him for the same thing you’re doing with Sophia.”

They heard the approaching footsteps at the same time and Reid launched himself forward again, tackling Zane behind a snow blower.

“Get
off
me, Reid!” Zane hissed, pinching him in the neck.

Reid yowled and squirmed, but he didn’t give up. The lights came on and they both went still.

“What are you guys doing? Alone? In the
dark
?” Mark said, stepping around the ski equipment and snow blower until they were both looking up at him. Zane made sure that every ounce of exasperation showed on his face, but Reid’s response ruined it. The other man threw his leg back over Zane until it looked like they were grinding together, and nuzzled Zane’s neck.

“We’re in love,” Reid growled. “Go drown the pain of betrayal and take Sophia with you.”

“Would you get him off of me!” Zane half-shouted, pushing at Reid’s shoulders without much success. The guy was sturdier than Mark and quite a bit stronger.

Mark leaned down and punched Reid in the kidney, sending him gasping and rolling to the side. Zane took the hand offered to him and stood up to dust himself off.

“Your brother is hiding from Sophia because he’s in
love
with her,” Zane spat.

Reid groaned from his spot on the floor, trying to massage where his brother had slugged him. “He’s a liar!” Reid gasped. “…doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

“I’m not the one hiding in the dark because a woman likes me so much she’s dying to tell me,” Zane muttered. “She feels pathetic, chasing you around just to be ignored. She told me she called you and you never called her back!”

“Well,
he
licked my hand,” Reid told Mark and pointed at Zane accusingly. “Think about
that
!”

Mark looked at the ceiling and sighed. “I’m going to walk away now.” In the doorway, he turned and gave his husband a long look. “Max is looking for you. Reid, Sophia is looking for
you
. You’re gonna have to man-up and talk to her sometime.”

“Not even,” Reid grumbled. “Watch me disappear.”

Zane blew out a quick breath through tight lips. Times like these he understood Mark’s hesitation about a family get-together. He turned to follow Mark upstairs and saw Sophia waiting in the doorway. Reid was still hidden by the snow blower, so he hadn’t seen her yet. She looked pissed. Zane waved his arm toward the hiding spot and she nodded, her mouth set in a firm line.

“Hey, Sophia,” he said, then slammed the door behind him, grinning when he heard Reid scrambling for an escape. His husband was waiting for him at the top of the steps with a beer and he accepted it gratefully. “Sorry about that.”

Mark gave him a look that said what he just witnessed was the least of what Reid could do. He pushed Zane toward one of the many open chairs at the kitchen table. Max was there and the expression on his face said something very bad indeed.

“What is it?” he blurted. “What’s going on?”

Max flicked his phone away from him, weariness in the lines of his shoulders. “Casey Krane is being released from his contract—the lump they found is cancer and he’s in for a serious round of treatment.”

Zane collapsed into his chair and stared. Krane was his co-star, the leader of the group that Zane’s character was infiltrating. They’d filmed a lot of key scenes together already. He loved working with him, and
cancer
...? Damn!

“That’s rough,” he breathed, gazing dumbly at his beer.

“It is,” Max agreed. “But, they caught it early.”

“What does it mean about the stuff you already filmed with him?” Mark asked, unfamiliar with situations like this because Zane had never had to discuss them with him.

“Reshoots with a new actor. We could try to do the rest of the movie with someone else and keep the original scenes with Casey, but I don’t want to do that to him.”

Zane nodded. “Yeah, it’d turn into a circus. He doesn’t deserve that.”

Mark looked back and forth between them for a second. “Well, you must have someone in mind—one of the other guys who auditioned for the role, maybe?”

Max frowned at the tabletop. “This one may not be entirely up to me. Sunrise Productions isn’t the only company with money wrapped up in this project—nor the company with the
most
money in it. I hired Casey against their wishes, knowing he had some health issues and putting him in the role anyway. I don’t think they’ll go for my next choice.”

“Which is?”

“Bill Austen,” Zane and Max answered at the same time.

“He’d be great, though!”

“They think someone else would be
greater
,” Max admitted. “I’ll find out who they want in the next couple of days. Then, negotiations.”

“Is Casey with his family for the holidays?” Zane asked.

Max nodded. “Indianapolis.”

“I’ll go call him.”

***

Alarik couldn’t help himself, he smelled the roses that were in a vase on the dresser and looked at the gift Davey had delivered to him. His heart banged around in his chest at the sight of it and at the memory of the note Damon sent along. The gift was a three by five framed picture of Damon and Todd when they were in their teens. They were smirking at the camera, both in swim shorts without shirts. They were whip-thin. Damon’s hair was more red than brown in the picture.

Even without reading the note, Alarik understood why Damon was giving it to him. This was an important part of his lover’s life. By giving over this picture, he was saying that he could share who Todd had been to him and the grief over his loss. It was incredibly meaningful and a big step for Damon who was so accustomed to handling everything on his own.

Alarik smiled to himself. His mood was drastically improved compared to the night he arrived at Mandy and Luke’s. Now, he was looking over his shoulder and wondering when Damon would appear. He was being pursued in such a fun, sweet way, and it was more than he’d thought possible days ago. Alarik was soaking it in.

Christmas Eve was the following day and he hoped he could spend it with Damon. They’d been in the same room together Alarik’s first night back in Ventura, but they hadn’t really touched. Now, all Alarik could think about doing was holding Damon and kissing him again.

“Alarik!” Mandy called up the stairs. “You better come down here.”