Page 34 of Paint Our Song (Cloverlily #1)

T he first thing Calvin does when they get to his apartment is peek at his studio. “This is a lot of new stuff.”

“… Yeah.”

“Can I see?” he asks, as if he isn’t already looking at everything.

Miles nods.

“Are you currently obsessed with cats?” Calvin chuckles, waving at the embarrassing amount of cat sketches spread out on the table.

“Only because of you,” Miles confesses.

Calvin’s ears go red, but he says nothing, and he glances at the rest of the room. “You finished the painting of the band,” he murmurs, pointing at it. It’s still on the easel.

“I was inspired.” Miles’s face is so warm. His chest tingles at how Calvin goes through all the works he’s done—of the band, of cats, and of Calvin himself. There’s so much going on in all these new pieces, and Calvin’s eyes are wide and unblinking .

“Wow,” Calvin says, voice quiet. “This is way more than the painting I asked for.”

He groans. Miles did want to show Calvin his new works, but he didn’t expect him to actually come over to this apartment—to see his mess of a studio. At least not right away. “This is really embarrassing.”

Calvin chuckles and turns to him, expression all fond and soft.

And—Miles can’t take it. His heart’s close to bursting. It’s as if he’s eaten five bags of gummy worms with all the pent-up energy in him. Miles could paint an entire gallery right now, but he’d much rather put his hands all over every inch of Calvin’s skin.

Calvin takes a step until he’s in Miles’s space. Rattled by the sudden closeness, Miles’s heart skips a beat—with Calvin this near, he can practically feel his warm skin, and he smells so nice. There’s a hand on his cheek, gently nudging him, and Miles tilts his head. He leans in and kisses Calvin softly.

“Hi,” Miles says.

He squeezes Calvin’s hips, then trails his hands upward and winds it in his hair. God, he can’t breathe. Kissing Calvin is everything to him. Calvin makes a soft sound when Miles bites at his lip, then he tugs at the bottom of Miles’s shirt—a question.

Miles can’t take his mouth off him as he leads him to the bedroom, his hands in Calvin’s hair as he walks him backward. He nudges his bedroom door open with a foot and Calvin makes a surprised sound when he pushes him back gently against the bed.

“You drive me insane,” Miles says, too genuinely, putting his elbows on either side of Calvin’s head and pressing their foreheads together. Calvin’s breath is warm on his lips, his chest expanding against Miles’s with every breath. “All I think about is you, it’s absurd. Those days I was at the inn without you? I couldn’t do anything because of you.”

“Yeah, and whose fault is that?”

Miles kisses him hard. He trails his mouth on where his shoulder meets his neck, runs his hand across his chest, and grips his hip to keep him from moving. He pops open Calvin’s button, pulls the zipper down, and Calvin looks at him with wild eyes when he tugs his pants off, along with his boxers.

A hand tugs at his hair. “Miles,” Calvin breathes.

Miles holds his gaze. “I want you.”

Swallowing, Calvin nods.

Miles puts his mouth all over him, licks his skin, runs his nails against his tattoos. Then it’s skin against skin, and Miles kisses him desperately as he puts his full weight on him. They go slow and take their time, their foreheads knocked together, and Miles listens to every single sound Calvin makes, and watches the way he trembles when he comes.

***

A barrage of beeping noises wakes Miles up, and he groans and squints at the light coming in from the window.

“Calvin, your phone,” Miles whines and presses a pillow over his head. Calvin sits on the edge of the bed, phone in his hand. “It’s too early for this. ”

“It’s almost noon.”

Surprised, Miles sits up. He throws the thick, warm, comfortable blanket off himself. Like Calvin said, the clock on his nightstand says it’s past eleven a.m.

“You haven’t been sleeping well?”

Miles shakes his head. It’s the first time he has slept soundly in days, and he knows it’s mostly to do with Calvin—Calvin, whose hair is damp from a shower, and is wearing one of Miles’s old shirts. He looks absurdly hot in it. It’s unfair.

“Chase has been texting and calling me nonstop, wanting to know if I’m okay,” Calvin mumbles as he types a response to his friend. “Derrick’s back to figuring out how to split royalties and everything, and the PR disaster this is going to be, and Gil’s sending… videos of up-and-coming singers from TikTok?”

Miles yawns. “Why?”

“He says… it’s proof that there’s no shortage of great singers out there.”

“He’s right. You’re the best, though. Fucking extraordinary.”

Calvin blushes. “Stop that.”

Grinning, Miles gets up and pulls on his boxers. He heads to the bathroom to freshen up and doesn’t miss the way Calvin’s stare lingers on his body. It’s a boost of confidence is what it is, makes him want to puff out his chest.

While in the bathroom, he checks his phone. His mom sent him a picture of the flight tickets Miles bought for her. Last night, Calvin had talked him into it, saying that his mom would love the surprise. After a quick call to let Gabby know that he’d be surprising Mom with a vacation, she promised she had everything at the inn under control, and Miles booked the tickets.

Miles clutches at his chest and dramatically sniffs. “Everything’s good, Dad,” he says softly.

He peeks out of the bathroom. Calvin’s still there, of course. Miles stares at his tattoos and his unkempt hair. He can’t believe he’s got this man in his apartment, on his bed, right now.

Once he’s done freshening up, Calvin’s still focused on his phone, so he doesn’t disturb him. Instead, Miles heads to his kitchen and sees if there’s anything to eat.

“Miles, there’s food on the table,” Calvin calls from the bedroom—and he’s right. There, on Miles’s dining table, are some freshly baked bagels. Calvin must have bought some from outside while he was knocked out cold. He sinks his teeth into it and actually moans from how good they are.

“Thank you, god, I love you so much,” Miles says in-between bites. Calvin joins him at the table and grabs a bagel for himself.

Not even a minute has passed, and Calvin’s phone rings again. It’s a video call from Chase, and before Calvin can decline it, Miles reaches over and presses the green button instead.

“He’s not going to stop,” Miles says when Calvin glares at him.

“Yo!” Chase shouts. His face takes up the screen, and he’s beaming so widely it must hurt his cheeks. “Finally. I thought you were dead or something.”

“Gil there?” Calvin asks.

“Nope. I can add him.”

Oh, cool. For the first time ever, they’re not together. Miles was under the impression they were joined by the hip.

“You don’t have to,” Calvin says, but no, it’s too late, and Gil’s face pops up on the screen.

“What’s going on?” Gil yawns.

Chase says, “Show Calvin the videos of the TikTok singers you found!”

“Already saw them,” Calvin says. “I want to go on break for a bit.”

“Yeah, sure! But we’re still a band, right, the three of us? Are we even going to keep the name Cloverlily? How’s that going to work?”

“I don’t know. I want to take a break. That includes not having to think about those things.”

“Okay, I hear you,” Chase says. “How sad, though. It’s the end of an era. Kinda wish now we didn’t get these matching tattoos.”

Shrugging, Gil says, “Why? They’re cool. And if everything goes well, we’ll get to keep the name and the matching tattoos still work.”

Startled, Miles asks, “The band has matching tattoos?”

“The lilies,” clarifies Gil.

… What?

“Cal’s is on his hip,” Chase says, snickering. “Don’t pretend you haven’t seen it.”

“The entire band has those!?” Miles blurts out, eyes wide. What the fuck? He thought it was a matching tattoo with only Theo. All this time, he thought he’d have to live with the fact that Calvin has a permanent reminder of that guy.

“Theo has it on his wrist. I have it on my ankle, see?” Chase moves the camera to show off the tattooed lily on said ankle. “Gil has it behind his ear.” Grinning, Gil pulls his hair up a bit and angles the phone to show it off to Miles.

Calvin looks at Miles, confused. “What’s with the reaction?”

“I thought—I… Never mind.”

“What?” he prods.

“Nothing.”

Chase sing-songs, “Tell uuuus.”

Flustered, Miles groans and hides behind his hands. His voice is muffled when he says, “I thought it was a couple tattoo. I had only seen yours and… yeah.”

Gil and Chase wheeze. Then they burst out laughing, Chase clasping his mouth and kicking his feet so hard he almost falls off the stool he’s sitting on.

“That’s why you picked a fight with Theo over the tattoo.” Gil wipes a tear away from his eye.

Miles squeaks, “I didn’t mean to.”

“Why didn’t you notice ours?”

Chase says, “Because he’s only been staring at Cal’s hip all this ti—”

He gets cut off when Calvin abruptly ends the call. Damn it. Miles is so embarrassed. He knocks his forehead against the table.

“You could have asked,” Calvin says.

Miles ignores him and instead changes the subject. With one last sigh, Miles sits up straight and turns to Calvin. “Break, huh? Where are you planning to go?”

“A gorgeous lake town, maybe.”

Oh. Heart radiates through Miles’s chest. “Maybe I’ll join you.”

Calvin looks skeptical. “What about your job?”

“The gallery? They’ll be enthusiastic. As long as I drive back for exhibits, they don’t care where I am.”

“But you can’t paint in Ridgeford.”

Miles holds his gaze and grins. “I can if you’re around.”

Redness blooms across Calvin’s cheeks. Choosing to ignore Miles’s very honest statement, Calvin asks, “I need to head back home and at least see my parents and sisters first. Want to come?”

“Can I?”

“Of course.” Calvin murmurs, smiling. “I’d like that.”

He’d love to meet Calvin’s family—to see the house he grew up in, to spend more time with him, to learn everything he can about him. There’s no holding back now.

“What else do you plan to do?” Miles asks.

“Find an apartment.”

Oh. Right. “You can stay here any time or at the inn. Just so you know.”

“Thanks, but I really should get my own place. Maybe I can set up my own recording studio for fun. Like you have an extra room for your own art.”

If it weren’t so fast, Miles would ask him to move in with him. They can share the second bedroom, make it both a recording and an art studio. Miles shoves a bagel in his mouth before he can bring it up.

“Geez, what are you doing?” Calvin asks.

“N’ffin.” Miles coughs and swallows as much as he can off the bagel, and Calvin raises his eyebrows at him. “Nff… nff-thing.”

Rolling his eyes, Calvin gets up and grabs him some water. Miles downs it and laughs to himself, his throat finally cleared. “Nothing.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Calvin says. “Why’d you do that?”

“I have no idea.”

Calvin smiles. He puts a hand on Miles’s cheek and leans in close, smelling like Miles’s soap, and his breath is minty—Miles’s toothpaste. Miles takes a moment to calm down his breathing, then leans in and kisses him. “Help me find an apartment. I don’t care what where, as long as it’s nice and quiet,” he murmurs against Miles’s lips.

Miles grins. “I happen to know a great, quiet lake town that you might be into.”