He leaned in and said in a low voice, “Those had better not be?—”
“What are we looking at?” Ray said brightly, pulling up a chair and sitting next to Adam.
“Nothing,” Adam said. “Mind if I have another brownie, babe?” He reached for one.
Ray quickly slid the plate out of range. “You don’t even like brownies that much.”
He was successfully distracted. Adam returned his focus to me. He looked at me levelly for a long moment, then rolled his eyes. “Give them here.”
I tapped the thick stack of photos on the tabletop like a deck of cards and passed them to him. “Kevin found my old photo albums.”
“You’re supposed to keep shit like that out of the sight of men you’re trying to impress, Charlie. Don’t you know anything?”
“They were out of sight, until Kevin got a hard-on for my garage.”
I’d given in and gone through the albums and loose photos when he was at work one day. Seeing my uncertain, closed-off,teenaged face had left me feeling oddly tender towards that boy I could hardly remember being. It was half a lifetime ago, after all.
That Charlie Galloway had thought it was only a matter of time until he’d be out of Chipping Fairford and living life.
He’d thought he’d find love any minute now. He’d thought he’d have adventures. Do something important.
He had no idea.
No clue that he’d have to wait almost his entire life all over again before he reached the happiness that he wassurewas right around the corner.
It took a lot longer than a minute, but in the end, I did find love.
I’d had an adventure. Okay, I never expected it to include dead bodies, but Ididhave one.
And I did something important. Every day, I made a difference to the people of Chipping Fairford. It was a small difference, but it mattered.
Although my life had worked out beyond teenage Charlie’s wildest dreams and I wouldn’t change a thing, the sight of that Charlie would always, I thought, make me melancholy.
And the sight of Adam and Jasper rioting in the background of my past would always make me laugh.
Adam glanced down at the first photo in the stack, his expression blank.
Ray leaned in, shoulder to shoulder with Adam. “What are these? Old modelling photos? Or are they—huh.” He pressed his lips together and bit back his smile. He was less successful at holding back the surprised snort of laughter.
Adam pinned me with a look. “I’m getting you back for this,” he said.
For all his poise and—for lack of a better word—cool, it suddenly hit me that even someone as grounded and together asAdam might not necessarily want to have his past sprung upon him without warning like this.
He’d been loud and obnoxious and fierce as a little baby gay, but?—
“It’s fine, Charlie,” Adam said.
“Sorry, I didn’t think…let me take them back and?—”
Adam stretched out a leg and gave my chair a gentle kick. “It’s fine.” His smile lit his hazel eyes. “But you’ve got to give me copies.”
“Yes! Copies!” Ray said loudly, flipping through. “Oh. Look at this. Emo Adam.Somuch eyeliner.”
“No need for copies,” I said. “Have the originals.”
“You don’t want to keep them?”
I didn’t hesitate. I shook my head.