Page 28 of Wear It Like a Crown

Well, it was. In part. But also not.

Joshua’s brain was trying to claw a way out of his skull. Time to dig out that list of pros and cons again, then. After a shower, and tea, and checking when he’d be expected at the children’s hospice to christen the new wing.

* **

It was quiet around lunchtime, everyone having gone out, with Nate and Leo the only two left in the office. They’d commandeered the conference room, Leo poring over notes while Nate tapped away on his laptop. Since it was Friday, Nate had decided to go all out on the casual part and shown up in baggy jeans and a snapback, more unbuttoned than Leo had ever seen him before, and that included their standing appointment for pints at a random pub each Saturday. Leo hadn’t bothered holding back his delight at Nate turning into a frat boy.

It was a good change, though—made Nate look younger, less like a stuffy manager and more like a twenty-something who knew how to have a good time. Maybe Leo would even compliment him on it before the day was done.

First, though, he’d have to bring some order into the mess of notes he’d taken during his earlier discussion with James.

“Your boy’s on the telly,” Nate said all of a sudden, and Leo glanced at the muted TV in the corner of the room. He found Joshua beaming back at him and everyone else in the UK who happened to be watching. Joshua’s eyes were tired.

Leo dragged his gaze away and continued reviewing the questions James had fired at him. “Not my boy,” he corrected. Never his boy. Not in this universe.

“He made you breakfast.”

“Only because I refused to take his money for a little advice,” Leo replied, a little more harshly than he’d intended. “Did you forget the part where he’s already got a supermodel for arm candy?”

Nate frowned. “I really don’t think it works like that between them.”

“Uh.” Leo let his pen still on the paper, shooting Nate a pointedly incredulous look. Because seriously? “Aren’t you the one who watched the video? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure that yes, it verymuchworks like that between them.”

“I didn’t watch it.” The tinge of pink to Nate’s cheeks was impossible to miss. “Not the entire thing, I mean. Just enough to… make sure it was what we were looking for.”

Leo gave him a shark-like smile, drawing the word out. “Sure.”

“It’s not what I meant anyway. I just meant they’re not…” Nate lifted a hand and dropped it again. “Romantic. Or exclusive or anything.”

“Why do you even care?”

“I don’t.”

“If you say so,” Leo said flatly. His open disbelief was met with a moment of silence, then Nate sighed.

“Don’t be a dick, okay?” Reaching for the remote control, he turned the volume up just enough to make out some presenter’s voice, infused with professional warmth, something about charity work and donations and the Royal Family. “Why,” Nate began a moment later, “did you refuse to take his money anyway?”

Flicking the telly a quick glance, Leo found Joshua surrounded by kids, kneeling to be on their level, his smile not quite as bright, but kinder, sweeter. “I wouldn’t take money from anyone else asking for advice on this kind of thing. So why take it from him?”

“Because you were spitting expletives the first time you met him?”

Not the first time.

Leo almost,almostlet it slip. He caught himself at the last second, swallowed it back down and gave an indifferent shrug. “I’m open to revising a first impression.”

“Fine, whatever. Don’t feel like you need to explain a damn thing.”

“I don’t.”

For a short beat, they stared at each other. Nate was first to look away, a sad tilt to his mouth. Leo bit the inside of his cheek and focused back on the task at hand. “Care to go through my notes once I put down a few ideas?” he asked, striving for a casual tone. “Tell me whether I’m making sense?”

Nate’s answer came with a small, but noticeable delay. “Yeah, okay.”

“Okay,” Leo echoed.

In the background, Joshua was talking about rare diseases and research and the braveness he’d witnessed in the kids, about one girl in particular who had clearly left an impression. “‘If I’m sad,’” he quoted her, “‘it’ll only make my dad sadder. And I don’t want him sad.’ Isn’t that amazing? She’s eight, and she’s dying, and that’s how she handlesit.” His voice grew quieter. “If I even have half her courage one day, I’ll be proud.”

Leo looked up just in time to see Joshua blink a little too rapidly, smiling through it—always smiling. Then he reached up to ruffle his hair, and a few days ago Leo would have considered it a prattish move, something intended to charm his audience. Now, he recognised it as a tell-tale gesture that revealed insecurity.