Stories Beneath Our Skin by Veronica Sloane

different, but he couldn't blame Gene for everything that had happened with Brandon. There was only himself to set that burden on.
    He pushed into the room, smile on his face and Ace on his heels.
    "Sorry I'm late."
    " Started to think you got eaten by a bear." Gene struggled to sit up. Breakfast sat neglected beside him.
    " My fault." Ace stepped inside. "He was playing guardian angel last night for a group of us. Kept him up too late. I'm Ace."
    " Liam's boss?" Gene held out a frail hand, which Ace shook. "He's told me a lot about you."
    " That so?" Ace said mildly. "Good things, I hope."
    " With Liam? Always a mixed bag with him. Boy never met a dog that didn't bite, you understand?"
    " I'm not that bad." Liam slumped into a chair, already regretting not locking Ace in the car. "Just a realist."
    " Half-full or half-empty?" Ace challenged.
    " Depends on how much you started with."
    " Don't bother, he'll argue you to death." Gene gestured at the unused second chair. "Pull it up and tell me how my boy is getting on."
    " He's good." The chair squawked as Ace dragged it closer to the bedside. When he sat, his knee bumped into Liam's thigh. "Got a flair for art and shaky clients."
    " Never did know why he stopped." Gene shrugged. "Don't take much to tattoos or the like myself, but art always had to be more than scribbles on paper for him. Like it was alive inside him, and he wanted it alive in front of him. When he started his apprenticeship, I was worried he'd give up on college there for a while. I was shocked when he gave up tattooing instead. Never did understand why."
    " I am still sitting here." Liam knotted his hands together. He'd told Gene that he didn't have time or a place to tattoo in California and assumed the story had been bought. He should've known better.
    " Doesn't matter. He kept the knack." Ace shrugged, knocking his shoulder gently into Liam's arm.
    " You going to eat that?" Liam brought the oatmeal in, putting the spoon in Gene's hand. "Not going to do you much good in a bowl."
    " Well, it's cold now." But Gene ate a few methodical bites. "Watched the news this morning. Heard about this mess with the Sheriff's department and the gambling ring?"
    " Randy Jacobs, right?" Ace snorted. "Went to high school with him, and the guy has always been as rancid as three day old meat. We all knew when he became a cop that it wasn't going to end pretty."
    " Think he was bad? His father used to work for me. Never actually caught him at anything, but he could make a person uncomfortable. Slimy son of a bitch. Not surprised his kids turned out the same way." Gene leaned forward a little, eyes bright. "If you know the Jacobs, then you have got to know Sandy Pritchard."
    " Sure. She was a little older than me, but everyone knew Sandy."
    The conversation spilled out from there, acquaintance after acquaintance brought up and compared. Liam had always known that he 'd grown up in small community, but he'd been a latecomer and often lost in his own world. Most of the names were only familiar to him through Gene's stories. With nothing to add, he sank back and watched Gene grow increasingly animated.
    " You probably don't want to hear an old man's ramblings," Gene scoffed an hour in, halfway through a story about his friend Rick, a plane, and a very confused cow.
    " I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be right now." Ace grinned, wide, boyish and utterly honest.
    Whatever burgeoning crush Liam might have tried to smother to death in darkness abruptly flowered into bright painful reality. He could have withstood the good looks, amazing art , and animal rescuing, but genuine interest in the only person Liam cared about and a smile that lit up the entire dreary room? He wasn't made of stone.
    Liam spent the next hour trying to focus on the conversation instead of stealing glances at the lean lines of Ace 's body or worse, the plush arc of his lips. Despite his late night declarations, there had been people Liam was physically