It wasn’t Callum, and in fact, I angled to look up at Ares Mallick.
“Little,” he said, a paint cloth on his shoulder. He had his paint bibs on and his signature man-bun tugged tight. He eyed me. “You and the kid home, then? He was supposed to come back today, right? He texted me this morning.”
I panned to see his Hummer parked outside my garage. The garage doors were open. “You just get here?”
Ares had been scarce since that day at the hospital when he’d left abruptly. Actually, he only came by a time or two, and when he did, he’d spent more time playing video games with my brother than talking.
I hadn’t minded it. I was happy Bru had a friend, but I had wondered about that day he’d left.
This was obvious considering the reason why he left.
“Uh, yeah.” He angled around. “Came by to paint. Guess I got good timing running into you.”
I’d say excellent time. We’d just gotten here.
“Saw your guardian leave.” His stance widened. He clasped his long arms. “He mind if I work out here? I can get pretty loud. I’ve been coming here every night to work on the piece and play my music since y’all don’t have neighbors.”
Every night? Really?
I supposed I had given him the code, but he hadn’t mentioned the project since that day.
I braced the door. “Yeah, it’s cool.” I widened the door. “And he doesn’t live here. Doesn’t care what we do. When you passed him, he was leaving town anyway. He’s got to go back to work. I told you he travels.”
“Mmm,” he said, his hand on the doorframe. He shoved a thumb back. “I’m going to get started. I’ll say hi to the kid on my way out. Since he just settled in, I don’t want to bother him.”
That was very considerate of him, and knowing my brother, he’d want to entertain all night.
Ares waltzed back down the steps, but swiveled around when I came up on his heels.
I passed him. “I want to see what you’ve been doing.” I walked backwards. “Got to make sure you didn’t fuck up anything.”
He chuckled, picking up his pace. “Yeah. Definitely don’t need to worry about that.”
He let me go the rest of the way by myself to the garage, and if I saw anything but perfection, I would have handled him good.
His work on the piece didn’t give me the chance.
Midnight blues and dark tones swirled on what used to be a mostly blank canvas, pops of purples and pinks both on the backdrop and the car itself. He’d done a lot of work on them both. So much, in fact, I wasn’t sure how much longer completion would take. This must have taken him hours.
Days.
“I feel like silence is good.”
Ares came up on me, his smirk high, and I shook my head.
“It’s all right,” I said, more than all right. He’d even managed to mimic my style so well. I had no idea what he’d painted versus what I’d painted.
“Thank you.”
I faced him after what he said, and his expression transformed into a full smile. His head lowered. “You said you loved it.”
I hadn’t even heard myself say it.
But it was definitely true.
“It’s great, Ares. Amazing.” I eyed the muscle car blending into the background. The transition was so seamless it stole my
breath. “We’ll finish this thing in no time.”