Page 28

“How’d you guess? From what I said when I talked in my sleep?” He sagged in his seat. “I should’ve known.”

“I can see the hurt in your eyes, too. I won’t push you, but I will absolutely be right here with you. Like I said, you and Wyatt are worth it.” Colt eased over to Ashley and threw his arm around Ashley’s shoulders. “You learned from the experience with Lane and I learned from mine with Jay. We move forward together with Wyatt and say to hell with the coalition. I like you and Wyatt.”

“You’re crazy.” He rested his head on Colt’s shoulder. “But I like your kind of crazy.” He smiled to himself. “Now you know my demons. I’ve never been enough and I’m starting to come around.”

“You’re just fine.”

Something occurred to him. He’d wanted to ask about the tattoo on Colt’s chest. “You mentioned the trinity knot wasn’t for anyone. Not even for Jay?” Like binding them together forever?

“Not even for Jay.” Colt kissed the top of Ashley’s head. “I have a thing about not getting inked for others. I hadn’t planned on getting inked at all, but when I saw the knot at my friend Joe’s tattoo parlor and I knew what the knot meant, I wanted it.”

“Why in the middle of your chest? Why not over your heart or on your back?”

“You can’t really see a tattoo on your back and I wanted to be able to see it.” Colt turned enough to point to the ink. “It’s right here because it’s my center. Body, mind, spirit…all right here.”

“I like it.” Ashley trailed his fingers over the knot. “It suits you.”

“I did a stint as a curator in my college museum. We did a show based on knots. The artist—Joe, actually—created works of art with different knots on body parts. His tats didn’t look like simple ink, but real art. That’s where I learned about the different ones. This was the knot I wanted. Think you’d ever get ink?”

“Me?” Ashley asked. He’d thought about it, but being a teacher, especially with little kids, he wanted to be an example. “No. I don’t know what I’d get.”

“If you’re meant to have one, you’ll figure it out.” Colt patted Ashley’s shoulder. “Come back to the bedroom with me. I’ll hold you so you can sleep, babe. I’ll sleep better, too.”

Ashley considered fighting the desire to sleep with Colt, but why bother? His mother had encouraged them to be together. Wyatt seemed to like Colt. What would one night hurt anything? He allowed Colt to drag him to his feet and followed Colt upstairs to the bedroom. He left the door open a crack and settled on the bed with his boyfriend. For the moment, life was good—really good.