Chapter 1

Chapter One

Adam

F or the first time in his life, Adam wasn’t the messy one, which was kind of an unfair statement since his friend was in the hospital and no one ever looked their best there. But he supposed if anyone could pull of a suave hospital look, it was Piper.

But Piper also looked tired. He looked like a man whose job had taken a massive toll on him. Like maybe Adam really should be worried about Piper’s message about how his heart wasn’t doing all that great and he was regretting his last trip up to the ISS.

“I definitely can’t do the conference,” Piper said, his voice hoarse. “I don’t think I’m getting out of here any time soon, and when I do, Phoenix isn’t going to let me leave the house for at least a couple of months.”

Adam had only met Piper’s brother a couple of times. He’d been a young, wide-eyed, inquisitive teen back then, who was now a wide-eyed inquisitive man. He was also protective of Piper. He’d looked Adam dead in the face and said he’d kill him where he stood if anything happened to Piper.

Just, matter-of-factly. Like he meant it.

And Adam believed him .

A small part of him wished he had family like that. He wasn’t an only child—not technically. But his parents had never kept it in their martial bed. They’d carried on with affairs until they couldn’t deny they were miserable. When Adam was fourteen, he’d been abroad visiting family and came home to his family in shambles.

His dad was spending a few days in the drunk tank for taking down a fifth of whiskey and trashing the house, his mom was throwing his stuff in the yard with one hand and moving her new boyfriend’s things in with the other.

His brother had fucked off to God only knew where, and Adam wouldn’t see him again for a full two years.

Adam just hunkered down and prayed he’d be able to get through his last year of high school. Which he did. He graduated with honors, got a full ride, and never looked back. The last time he bothered calling his mom was after he’d let a friend do some DNA experiment on him and found out that his dad wasn’t actually his bio-dad.

It had been a whole thing , but apart from feeling cheated out of knowing his birth family, he was happy. His dad had never liked him and now it all made sense.

It was lonely at times, though. Adam had never been great at making friends. No one was interested in the universe or physics, and they got tired of listening to him pretty early on in his life. He had a few fumbling sexual encounters in college when friends dragged him out to clubs, but it wasn’t until he got into grad school that he found himself in actual relationships.

And those turned into nightmares because he kept getting drawn in by pseudo-intellectuals who made their IQ their entire personality. They were pretentious and obnoxious and exhausting. Part of him wondered if that’s how people felt when they were around him.

Which, he supposed, made his sorry love life make sense.

Now he was content to just hang out with his colleagues, go home to his cat, and occasionally fill in at conferences for his friends at who were stuck in the hospital four days before Christmas.

“I have everything you need put together, but it’s on a jump drive at the rental I was supposed to share with Johansson,” Piper said, then broke off in a coughing fit. “He was letting me stay over on the way to the campus.”

Johansson.

Magnus .

Adam knew him—not necessarily well , but very few people knew the inner workings of Magnus’s mind. He was infamously famous, and Adam always thought it was a little cruel that his notoriety wasn’t for his work in astrophysics, or his contribution to CERN, or to the fact that he literally helped invent one of the new models they were testing for Mars habitation.

No, it was the fact that he was blind, and in his spare time he turned nebula sound waves into art for fun.

Adam had watched Magnus reduced down to a sort of parlor trick by their colleagues, and he could see it taking a toll on him because he rarely made more than polite small talk with people before quickly exiting a room.

They’d worked together in labs over the years, but Magnus was always set up in a private space with all of his equipment.

Adam did have bragging rights though. He was one of the few people that Magnus ever took lunch with, and one of the few people he let near his things. He’d even sent Adam several nebulae prints he’d done over the years—and Adam wouldn’t tell anyone this, but he had them all hanging in his room.

Which, he supposed, probably meant he had something like a crush on the man. It was hard not to. He was gorgeous—tall and lanky and kind of like a Renaissance angel with his very blond wavy hair and pale skin. His cheeks were dotted with freckles, which were always darker in the summer, and he wore designer shades because people never, ever stopped asking questions about his eyes.

Yeah, okay, he was a little bit obsessed.

So, knowing he’d have to stop by and see Magnus to grab Piper’s thumb drive wasn’t exactly a hardship.

“It’s about two hours from campus,” Piper said. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the pillows. “I’ll call him and let him know to expect you.”

“He’s not part of the panel, is he?”

Piper smiled and shook his head without looking at Adam. “No. You know how he feels about university politics.”

Yeah. Everyone did. Magnus had been asked over and over to guest lecture at some of the most prestigious universities in the country, but he told them all he wouldn’t set foot on a campus that allowed students to buy their way into programs while leaving talented children scrambling for fractions of what the privileged were given.

He was not a fan favorite amongst the bureaucracy, and it was one more thing Adam loved about him. Adam did teach, but mostly because he had bills to pay and research funding was getting harder and harder to find.

“Okay. I’m not sure if he has my number but let him know he can call me if he needs to. And tell him to be on the lookout for a blue SUV.”

Piper opened his eyes and raised a brow at him.

It took Adam far too long to realize his mistake. “Fuck. Right. Uh…don’t tell him I said that?”

Piper laughed. “He’d probably laugh, but since we’re friends, I won’t mention it.”

The last thing Adam wanted was for Magnus to think he was some sort of jackass with his head in the clouds. “Can I blame the holidays?”

Piper snorted. “Go for it. I’ve been blaming them for everything. Then I’ll blame spring pollen counts, and summer heat…et cetera.”

Adam grinned softly. “Get some rest. And call me if you need anything, okay? Just…take care of yourself.”

Piper gave a slow nod. “Between you and me, I think you’re taking my last hurrah.”

“Which means?—”

“Retirement,” Piper said with a heavy sigh. “I can’t keep up.”

“If anyone’s earned it, it’s you.” And Adam meant that .

Piper had put in the work. Most astronauts didn’t lean in the way he did. They didn’t fall in love with the stars and the atoms that made up the universe. They did the job NASA asked them to do, then they went home and went about their business.

For Piper, he’d put everything he had and everything he was into his education. It was heartbreaking to see his body failing him, and Adam sent a prayer off to the stars they both loved so much that this was only temporary.

That Piper would heal, and he would find his own happiness he’d put on hold for everyone else.

Adam wasn’t a big fan of long drives, and he was even less of a fan in the deep winter when there were back-to-back storms on the horizon. He’d heard a few whispers about polar vortexes which was just what he needed, but he knew if he could hurry and make it fast enough, he’d be able to get in, get out, and make it to the hotel with just enough time to settle in.

He felt unsettled the way he always did during the holidays. He had no real family to speak of anymore. His parents had moved on with younger spouses and new kids, and he’d been all-but forgotten every year. Every now and again, his mom remembered to call, but Adam spent most of the season lying through his teeth when he told people he didn’t care about the holidays.

He did care. He just had no one to care with him.

Or about him.

And he’d rather live in his untruth than admit how pathetic it all was.

At least the conference would distract him. It was on work he and Piper had been researching together long-distance, so he wasn’t going to be out of his depth. Piper had worked closely with the panel while Adam hadn’t, but he hadn’t heard any protests about him joining up, so he was calling it a win .

He’d spend forty-eight hours with a small group of people, then he’d head home and wallow for the few weeks everyone was on vacation before he could get back to work.

“In ten miles, take the exit.”

Adam startled at the sound of his GPS. He hadn’t realized how close he was to getting off the freeway. The dark clouds on the horizon told him that was a good thing. They were fat and deep, rich grey and full of snow that would eventually pile on the asphalt. He’d been stranded more than once, and the last place he was good at surviving was in his car in a blizzard.

He had a survival kit but he didn’t want to use it.

His gaze caught on a snow-covered sign for a gas station, so he pulled over to fill up—just in case—and stock up on a few snack items.

It felt good to stretch his legs. The air had that dry, almost cruel winter chill to it which made his nose immediately start running, and his eyelashes felt frozen by the time he made it inside. Drops melted, drifting down his cheeks, and he shook out his hair before he went to the sad little turnstile cooking hot dogs.

They were a weird orange-grey color, so he grabbed a few bags of chips instead, then some Gatorade from the fridge before heading to pay. The man behind the register looked about as thrilled as Adam felt to be out there in the middle of nowhere.

“How bad do you think the storm’s going to get?” Adam asked.

The guy stared at him like he’d just started speaking Greek. Then he let out a small grunt. “Bad.”

Bad . Okay. Fair enough. He swiped his card, gathered his things, and rushed back to the car to fill up. He was half-frozen by the time the pump clicked off, but at least it was full now. If he did get stuck— God forbid —he’d have enough heat to last him a while.

Turning on the car, he let the heater kick back on before he pulled away, and his phone flashed, letting him know there was a message waiting. He was half-expecting it to be Piper checking in on him, but instead, he saw Magnus’s name.

Magnus

you might want two stay tonight the weather is bad period

Magnus’s voice to text was always on the fritz, and it made Adam smile as he pulled up the keyboard to type out his reply.

Adam

I’ll check the weather when I get in. I’m not going to risk it.

Magnus

I have a spare room if you need period

Adam

Thanks!

Thanks? With an exclamation mark.

God, could he be any more of a complete loser? He had the worst habit of making a fool of himself every time he was around Magnus, and there was no chance in hell the man hadn’t noticed. He was smooth as fuck, especially compared to Adam. He’d dated a couple of minor celebrities in the past, though the rumor was he’d been single for a good, long while.

Not that Adam thought he had a chance. He wasn’t delusional.

With a frustrated sigh, he plugged his phone back in, started up the GPS, and saw he had twenty minutes to go twelve miles, which meant either the roads were shit, there were accidents, or both. Either way, he was going to make it well before the storms.

Maybe.

Probably .

But he was starting to wonder how bad it would be if he didn’t miss them at all.