Page 61 of Unwanted

“No!” I shout it and then follow it quickly with a vehement shake of my head. “No.”

“You know he still loves you, right?”

I knew he did; he’d said as much. But something about everyone else knowing and seeing it too made me feel less like a madman who was holding on to someone who had already let him go.

I resume my typing, handing the cell over when I’m done.

It doesn’t mean I can or should move in.

Lennox looks at me quizzically. “Why don’t you seem surprised that he still loves you?”

I can’t stop the humorless laugh that leaves my mouth. Arlo and I were a match made in heaven on paper, we’d just pit stopped in hell first.

Lennox tilts his head. “You still love him, don’t you?”

Half a smile is my only answer.

“Then move in,” he insists.

Let me think about it, I type.It’s too big of a decision to make on a whim.

“Do you want us to move out together?” Lennox asks. And his question has me pausing and caught off guard.

Gobsmacked, I type out my question, desperate for his answer.

You want to move out of the house?

Lennox shrugs. “I’m just saying, if you’re staying in LA, I would move out with you.”

When he says it out loud, I want it more than anything; a life out here, close to my brother. Being there for him, being more than just the guy who provides him with only financial support.

I write a follow up message.

And what about Clem and Remy?

“They’ll understand.” He rocks on the heels of his feet and I see the question formulating in his brain. It was the unanswered question of the day.

“So, are you actually staying?” The words are laced with apprehension and reservations, like he’s a little too scared to give life to the idea. “Would you really move back?”

Knowing we’re only speaking in truths today, I say mine, clearly, so he can read the words as they form on my lips. “I want to.”

20

ARLO

Lennox: Can Frankie move in with us?

In the last hour, I’d read and reread the text maybe a million times. The answer was undoubtedly yes. No matter what, Frankie always had a home with us.

But why was Lennox asking me?

Did Frankie ask him to?

Just as I’m debating on whether I want to respond to Lennox, or wait for Frankie to bring it up to me, there’s a knock on my office door.

I check the time and am not surprised to see a smiling Frankie waltzing inside.

My gaze travels up and down his body as he walks toward me, still mesmerized by the fact that he’s here, in the flesh, with me.