Chapter Four

True to his word, it was a few minutes before Brad walked through the door, followed by Luis. Brad had cut his long hair since the last time he had been in the bar. The long blond locks used to fall between his shoulder blades but now just covered the back of his neck. He seemed less like a Viking biker and a bit more professional. The latter was probably why he'd cut it, but he'd kept it long for years. Kendrick had always wanted to run his hands through it. He still did, but he mourned the loss of the long locks.

Brad didn't visit the bar often. He had come on the weeknights when Greg and Neil sang, and then only if Travis or Jackson had been there too. He always had water. Nothing else and left a five-dollar tip. Water was free. Kendrick didn't charge for the bottled water either, so Brad's tip was above and beyond.

It had been months, maybe even longer since Kendrick had seen him. The passing time made Brad more appealing, not less. His bright blue eyes held a light that softened Brad's expression. It had always been there whenever Kendrick spoke to him. He'd remembered one time, a couple of years back, when they'd had a serial rapist running around town, that the little sparkle hadn't been there. It had been when Kyler Huffington had gotten assaulted in the men's bathroom. Brad and Travis Heath had gone to his rescue like avenging angels, beating the perpetrator into submission. Brad had seemed dead inside, a robotic shell of a person.

Standing just inside the door with a toolbox in his hand and his lips turned up into a smile, the soul of the man shone bright enough he might as well have come from Olympus to save the world from leaky roofs. The god of all handymen everywhere graced Kendrick with his presence, and something about that made it hard for Kendrick to breathe. His chest muscles tightened, and his heart felt too big for his chest, restricting his lung capacity.

Luis chuckled, which helped Kendrick change his focus. He relaxed a little. His heart returned to normal size. "Hey Kendrick. How are you?"

"Fine. Fine. Just fine." He knew his voice shook with nerves. He didn't realize he wrung his fingers together like a dirty dishrag until Luis moved his gaze to them. He stopped and gripped the sides of his jeans.

Luis sat on one of the bar stools. He had gray coveralls on with his name on one side of his chest and Royce's garage's logo on the other. Brad must have picked him up from work before coming over.

It made Kendrick realize he must have interrupted Brad's day. Maybe he had just gotten done with his last client. He focused on Brad again, which did things to his body that were akin to a panic attack but didn't quite fit. Kendrick would have to dissect the feeling later. "I…um…sorry if you were busy."

Brad's smile turned to concern. "I wasn't. Perfect timing, actually."

Before Kendrick could say anything else, Brad came closer, his gaze stayed on the ceiling where the water dripped. He came around the end of the bar into Kendrick's domain, staring at the bucket on the floor and then to the ceiling again. "Just started?"

Kendrick couldn't breathe, not with Brad closing in on him. He just nodded because Brad stared, expecting a response to a question Kendrick hadn't paid attention to. His body responded to Brad's closeness and his brain shut down until all he could think about was Brad's chiseled chest muscles and the fact that he made Kendrick feel short.

Kendrick wasn't the tallest man in the world. He maxed out at five-feet-five inches, which meant he didn't even come to Brad's shoulder. And he was still several feet away.

Brad stepped into Kendrick's orbit, touching his shoulder, bending to meet Kendrick's gaze "Hey, are you okay?"

Kendrick wanted to say no. He hadn't ever been okay around Brad Flynn. Not in all the years they'd lived in the same town. Brad did something to Kendrick that no one else had, not since he'd escaped his relationship with Randall.

He never thought he would survive Randall's abuse. Lying in the hospital bed after the last time Randall had beaten him, he hadn't wanted to live. Buying into Randall's rhetoric had drained his self-worth until it flowed in the gutter under the hospital. Kendrick had gotten a lot of it back, although it had taken six years of therapy, and Royce.

Brad brought him back to a place before he had become a domestic violence victim and lost a piece of his soul. He wasn't sure what to do with it.

"Fine. Fine. Just fine." That had been what he'd been saying for so long. The words flowed from his mouth without thought.

Brad stepped close enough that Kendrick could smell the outdoors on his skin. The faint scent of cologne also clung to him.

The full package made Kendrick's cock harden. That was when the pseudo-panic took hold again. Kendrick didn't know what to do, so he took a step back and folded his hands in front of himself, trying to hide his hardness from Brad and Luis.

Brad's touch fell away, and he lost the smile. He stared at the ceiling again. His voice was flat when he spoke, and the little sparkle of light left his blue eyes. "An apartment is upstairs, right?"

Kendrick nodded again but Brad refused to look his way, so he said, "Yes."

Luis's sigh caught Kendrick's attention, so he met his gaze. He rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"I'll go up and look." Everything about Brad spoke of rejection, even when he addressed Luis. "It might be a while so if you want to go home that's fine. I'll call you when I'm done."

Kendrick's dick decided it didn't like Brad's sudden change of mood and deflated.

Luis waved his hand in the air, dismissing the idea. "I'm fine. As long as Kendrick is okay with putting up with me."

Even with Luis's grin letting Kendrick know he wasn't entirely serious in the suggestion that Kendrick didn't want his company, Kendrick panicked. Again. He opened his mouth to speak and nothing came out, so he shook his head instead.

Luis chuckled. "Relax, Kendrick."

"I'm sorry." Kendrick's apologizing somehow made the situation worse.

Luis lost his smile when his brow furrowed in concern and that made Kendrick want to apologize again, but he kept his mouth shut.

Kendrick kept his gaze on the liquor bottles lining the back wall. Behind them a mirror reflected most of the bar, but all Kendrick noticed was Brad. It felt as if he were watching him through a television screen. It allowed Kendrick to relax a bit.

Even when Brad's brow furrowed too, making him and Luis resemble each other, the illusion that he was the only one in the room stayed with him. It was what he needed to collect himself.

"Access to the top floor is outside?"

Kendrick nodded. "Yes. Um…Will…uh…will you need roof access? That's outside in the back too." Kendrick met his gaze when he pointed toward the back.

Kendrick was fine until Brad smiled. His saving grace was Brad leaving the room through the door Kendrick had pointed to.

Once he was out of sight, Kendrick let out a shaky breath and slumped against the counter.

Luis raised his eyebrows. "He thinks you fear him. You get that, right?"

Luis reached across the bar, lying on the counter as he grabbed a drinking glass. He sat again and held it out to Kendrick.

"I get so nervous around him." Kendrick took the glass and filled it with soda from the tap, setting it in front of Luis. After he did that, he grabbed a water bottle from the refrigerators embedded into the back wall and set it on the counter.

"Yeah. No, shit." Luis held his full drink up. "Thanks."

"I'm not scared of him." Or he wasn't in the way Luis meant it. Brad made him feeling things he hadn't thought about in so long it felt foreign.

"I'm sure you know Brad's reputation."

Kendrick nodded. He had never put much stock into rumors and didn't listen to them on purpose. The conversations happening while he was behind the bar were unavoidable, but he hadn't taken part. "I don't pay attention to gossip."

"Well, he's sensitive about it. But he'd never hurt you."

Kendrick didn't annoy easily, so it had been a while, but Luis continuing to misunderstand him upset him more than it probably would have if they'd been discussing someone else. "I'm not scared. That's not why I act weird around him."

Luis raised his eyebrows but looked amused. He held up his hands as if he were under arrest. "Okay, okay. You don't have to explain to me, anyway. I just don't like it when Brad's feelings get hurt. That's all."

"Well, I don't either." He'd hurt Brad's feelings? Kendrick bit his bottom lip and leaned against the counter again. "What should I do?"

Luis shrugged. "I don't know. I guess be straight with him."

As soon as Luis suggested it, Kendrick shook his head. The pseudo-panic threatened again, only it was mild compared to when Brad was near. But just the memory of being near him was enough. "I could never tell him why."

"Why not? He's a pretty understanding guy. I'm sure if you talk about it with him, he'll do what he can to help you through it."

Kendrick pictured all the ways Brad could help him through the attraction, and most of them made him semi-hard again. He folded his hands in front of himself, blocking the view just in case Luis noticed. The entire time Luis had spoken, Kendrick shook his head. "I'm not ready."

It had been years. Six since he'd gotten out of a terrible relationship and longer since he'd dated or had ever done anything about an attraction. Hell, he didn't know if he had ever been attracted to anyone. It seemed odd that he couldn't recognize it for what it was, but in the past, he must have felt the way he did around Brad.

"Well, maybe you should come to dinner at our house. Get to know him better. You'll feel better about him if you do."

"I can't feel any better about him than I already do, unless…unless we have sex." He put his hand over his mouth and wanted to take the words back.

Luis grinned. "Oh my God. I never would have thought that was your issue."

Kendrick couldn't tell if Luis was being serious or sarcastic, but either way, Kendrick didn't want to talk about it.

Thankfully, he didn't have to because Brad returned. He took a few steps back, putting space between himself and Kendrick. Kendrick's body did that thing again, but something about working it through his mind a bit and saying it aloud eased the panic associated with Brad, which left more of the attraction.

"So it's your roof. I put a temporary fix on it for now. It should hold long enough for me to order the supplies or for you to call someone else if that's your choice." Brad stuffed the hand that wasn't holding onto the toolbox, in his pants pocket.

"No, no. I'd like it if you fixed it."

Brad nodded. "I'll get a quote to you tomorrow, so you'll know what to expect."

"I…um…trust you." Kendrick took a step closer. "Thank you."

"Glad to do it." Brad smiled.

Kendrick nearly forgot about the bottle of water. He handed it to Brad, who took it while thanking him.

It wasn't until Brad turned to Luis, dismissing him, that Kendrick realized Luis was right. Brad had misunderstood him. "Are you ready to go?"

Luis downed his soda in two big gulps and handed the empty glass to Kendrick, which Kendrick took, putting it in the sink to wash. Luis gave him a pointed look, which Kendrick didn't respond to, right before he stood and followed Brad out of the bar.