“Hey, what the fuck are you doing here?”
A sheepish smile spread across my face as I held up the folder. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I wanted to edit those photos. This is the best one, and I think your sister is going to love it.”
My breath caught as Joe stood and strode toward me. His long legs ate up the pavement. I wasn’t short; my brother and I both come in at just over six feet, but it never ceased to amaze me how quickly Joe moved. He was about the same height as me.
“Well, let’s see it.” He pulled the folder from my fingers and, like an idiot, I just sort of stood there staring at him. The folder opened, and he gasped.
“Fuckingshit, dude. How are you so damn good at this? Teresa is going to go nuts.” He snapped the folder closed and pressed it into my chest. I quickly grabbed it before damaging the photo inside or dropping it.
We walked up the steps to the front door, and he led me inside. The blast of warm air was welcome, and we kicked off our shoes as we made our way deeper into the house.
“Hey, Joe. Can you bring me the rags from the laundry... oh, hi, Aiden,” Teresa’s voice cut off, and she gave me a smile as she looked at her brother. He shrugged, opening the fridge and pulling out two bottles of beer. He popped off the caps and handed me one. It wasn’t strange, but Teresa rolled her eyes. “Well, even if you have a friend here, I need the rags from the laundry room. Can you get them for me, please?”
Joe took a swig of his beer before disappearing down the hall and leaving me in the kitchen with his sister. The cold bottle in my hand did nothing to calm my nerves. To think I thought it would be better to just talk to Teresa. What was stopping me from saying, ‘I’ve watched your brother jerk off on the internet?’
The awkward silence stretched on until Joe came back, setting a stack of neatly folded navy-blue rags on the counter. “Aiden met me at the park today. He brought you a present.”
Now I had both of them watching me again. I wanted to squirm, crawl into a hole, and hide, but I still handed her the folder.
The second the smile spread across Teresa’s face, half my anxiety eased.
“Really? I feel so spoiled. Photographers are so damn expensive, and I felt like I was missing out on getting so many nice shots of my baby growing up. Thank you.”
Her eyes watered as her fingers trailed across the image of her daughter’s smiling face.
“I should be thanking you. Half of these I get to use for school projects, so we both win in the end.”
Teresa left the room to find a frame for the photo, leaving me alone with her brother. A swarm of insects took up flight beneath the surface of my skin, but I let him lead me to the door that took us down to the basement. My throat closed off because I knew what happened down there now. The mystery was gone. It wasn’t just the place where Joe went to sleep.
“Joe...”
“I’ve got to show you this light I bought. I thought maybe it would help...”
“Help with what?” The question came out on a squeak, and we halted halfway down the stairs. The sudden lack of movement had me crashing into Joe’s back and almost sending us tumbling to the bottom.
Chapter 4
Joe
That was a major slip-up.
I’d been doing this for months and outside of the time that Brandon and Andrew had seen me coming out of the camera store, no one had any idea what I’d been up to. I’d planned to keep it that way. Aiden had been teaching me a few things about camera angles and whatnot under the guise that I wanted to take pictures of my niece myself so I didn’t have to bother him all the time. The kid was fucking cool to hang out with, anyway.
I rushed to grab Aiden before we fell down the stairs. My arms around his waist caused a squeak to escape his throat and his eyes widened at how close we suddenly were. His heart beat rapidly against my chest and I could smell whatever he used for deodorant before he quickly shoved me away and continued down the stairs. What the hell had that been all about?
“Fuck, I don’t know dude. Maybe I could turn this into like a little photo studio or some shit?” I said to cover up my fumbling.
Aiden turned to face me after seeing the new ring light standing next to my bed. It wasn’t suitable for professional photos, but maybe he would buy it, anyway?
“I don’t think so. Most photo studios would have a single bulb, maybe one of those umbrellas to help spread the light. This is more for videos and such.”
I nodded at his explanation as he continued to look it over. Was my neck fucking sweating? Shit. I needed to learn how to keep my cool better.
I forced a laugh, which did nothing to hide my discomfort. “Fuck? Really? I guess I shouldn’t buy things without asking first, then?” I scratched my neck as I stood next to Aiden. He looked at the light again and then over at my bed. His face pinkened before he moved across the room to sit in the chair in front of my desk.
“I mean, it doesn’t mean it won’t work. It’s just not traditional. The industry is changing all the time.”
Aiden wouldn’t meet my eyes. Something was up and it was bothering the shit out of me. He had never been uncomfortable around me before. Something had to have happened. Hopefully, Nathan hadn’t finally gotten in the way or in his head too much.
