Page 72 of Vespertine
Nicky grabbed the mouse and clicked on exactly the email Jasperhad planned on deleting without reading. A photograph of a blonde woman wearinga bikini meant for someone half her size began to load. By the time it filledthe screen, Jasper had his head in his hands and Nicky was laughing so hard hecouldn’t seem to stand upright anymore.
“Can you please close it?” Jasper asked. “Even if I wasn’t apriest I wouldn’t want to see all that.”
Nicky clicked. “Check this one out.”
Jasper lifted his head. “No, don’t—”
A photograph of a headless, ripped male torso with a handdigging deep in a pair of underpants began to load. Jasper groaned while Nickyslapped the desk as he laughed his head off. “Look!” he gasped. “Tighty-whities!You two have something in common already!”
“Please shut up,” Jasper said. He made a grab for the mousebut Nicky blocked him and pinned his wrist to the desk.
“Just one more,” he said. “This is too good to pass up. Ihad to work very hard to get to this level of intrusive fans. You should feelhonored. All you had to do was look pretty on a magazine cover to make thecrazies come running. Love this subject line: ‘Do priests have Daddy kinks?’But no picture—boring!”
He clicked on a random email with an attachment and openedit. This time there wasn’t even a ripped stomach, just a giant…
“Whoa,” Nicky breathed. “That has to be Photoshopped. I haveneverseen a dick that big in my life. And I’ve seena lot of dicks.” He tilted his head to the side, peering intently. “Can Ireverse image search this? Maybe the guy has a Grindr.”
“Uh, no.” Jasper wrestled his hand free, grabbed Nicky’s armso he couldn’t move out of the way, and reached for the mouse. As quickly as hecould, he deleted the email. “Weren’t you here to look at a saw?”
“Drill bits are more interesting.”
Jasper rolled his eyes skyward but a light feeling filledhis belly. He’d missed their friendship and he hadn’t allowed himself to thinkof it in so many years, which was a shame. To deny good things that happened inlife was to deny gifts from God. Nicky straightened and shoved his hands in hispockets. Jasper looked up at him. “I’m happy you’re back, Badger.”
Nicky’s face was soft and unreadable as the silencelengthened. “Yeah, I know,” he said eventually, and his sharp, bright smilepoked Jasper’s heart. “But you can prove it by showing me your workshop.”Somehow Nicky managed to make it sound like Jasper had promised to show himhisdrill bit.
He rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help laughing. No oneflirted with him anymore. Probably due to the whole priest thing…but Nickywouldn’t care about that. And even though the flirtation felt slightlydangerous, it felt right too. Natural and normal, and it made his heart soar alittle giddily. He bit his lip and looked back at the computer screen. Why didn’tit feel wrong to let Nicky talk to him like that?
As Jasper rose, Nicky gripped his shoulder. “Hold on asecond. You have an email from John Arlington.”
“Who?”
Nicky looked at Jazz with wide eyes. “Who? Are you kiddingme? The golden child of the business world? Self-made man? One of the richest peoplein the world? There was that giant so-called scandal when he came out as gayafter his home state was about to approve the Religious Freedom Act and hethreatened to pull all his companies from the area if they went ahead with it.”
“It’s probably fake.” Jasper tried to step around him, butNicky leaned in and stopped him.
“Read it.”
“You just want to see more naked duck-face pictures.”
Nicky gave him a skeptical look. “Yeah, their faces, that’swhat I want to see. And trust me, I don’t need your email for that. Read it.”
“Fine.” Jasper bent over the desk and clicked. “Dear FatherHendricks…read the article…impressed with your work…my own background…” Jasperscanned the rest of the email in silence and straightened.
“Well? What is it?” Nicky pressed into his side so he couldsee.
Keeping his balance with one hand on the desk, he lookedback at Nicky. The knots in the wood felt familiar under his fingers. He’dtraced them often enough over the years. “He’s offering financial assistance,should I ever need it.” The slightly sweet mingled scent of wood and polishdrifted upward. “If it’s real.”
“And do you need it?” Nicky asked insistently, and Jasperremembered his piercing stare from the kitchen doorway as Adrian had deliveredthe news about the Blue Oasis contracts over their dinner table.
“No,” Jasper softly said. He glanced back at the computer. “Notas long as we’re part of the Church.”
“Can you think of any reason why that would ever change?”
“N—” Jasper’s voice broke when Nicky’s fingers inched alongthe wooden desk.
They didn’t touch, but their skin was no more than a hair’s breadthapart and it was like a tiny current fed into Jasper’s pores and crackled uphis veins until it burned in his lungs. Lifting his eyes quickly, Jasperglanced at Nicky. His head was bent as he stared at their almost-touchingfingers. Down the neck of Nicky’s Henley, Jasper could see the shape of thebeautiful fox tattoo. His fingers tingled with sensory memory.
A particularly long, bouncy wave of hair brushed the tip ofNicky’s slender nose. Swaying closer, Jasper could feel Nicky’s heat, and herealized his smell hadn’t changed that much over the years. There was a tingeof sweat that was more masculine, but the undertone of him was still the same:sweet, comforting, andhome.
