By the end of the day, it was a minor miracle Niko hadn’t put his fist through the brand-new window or in his best friend’s stupid fucking face. Jamie wasn’t far from violence, either. He’d gone off on an only quasi-necessary Home Depot run, leaving Niko to do the caulking, priming, and painting on his own, but at least one window was done.
Only six more to go.
Hell, even Carys was in a bad mood. She’d been okay that morning, offering both men orange juice and bananas for energy. She’d rushed out of the house around 11:30 somewhat dolled up. Niko wondered idly if she had a lunch date. Wherever she went, it must not have gone well. When she’d come home around 1:00, irritation rolled off her. She’d stomped up the stairs and hadn’t come down since.
Just as Niko was beginning to lament the fact he hadn’t brought his headphones with him, the sound of a car hauling ass down the street caught his attention. He raised his head, automatically scanning the area for kids, and a sedate sedan pulled into Carys’s driveway, screeching to a stop as though the driver thought it was a sports car. A moment later, a man got out.
He looked like an asshole; twenty-something, tall and lanky, dark hair, douchey sunglasses, and a scowl on his face like he thought the world owed him something. He walked up the driveway and into the house as if he owned the place. For all Niko knew, maybe he did own the place. Still, he switched his grip on the caulking gun just in case he needed to use it as a weapon.
The asshole slammed the front door so hard that the new window shook, pushing Niko’s irritation into anger. He opened his mouth, but rather than being able to shout “hey!” the way he wanted to, the only thing that came out was a wracking cough. He put a hand to his throat, wincing at the painful tickle.
Turning in the direction of the noise, the asshole’s pinched, pissed expression faded to surprise. He took his sunglasses off, revealing brown eyes that narrowed in suspicion.
“What the hell was that?”
Both Niko and the asshole looked up as Carys came down the stairs. “Was that an earthquake? Is everyone— Benny?”
Niko turned away, distracted by the burn in his throat. He paid no attention to Carys or the Benny asshole as he reached blindly for his bottle of water. A few minutes later, when his eyes had stopped watering and his abused vocal chords were soothed, Niko finally noticed something was weird.
All the scowling and door-slamming from the asshole would’ve been a natural segue to shouting—Niko had already decided the man was responsible for Carys’s bad mood—but the house was silent.
No. Not quite silent. There was the occasional smacking sound. It wasn’t loud enough to be a blow or a slap, but it sounded agitated somehow. Niko looked toward the foyer to see Carys and her friend were still there. The asshole’s features were indeed twisted, but the noise was coming from both of them. They were gesturing at each other, hands flailing with a kind of violence that would make a smacking sound whenever hand connected with hand.
Caught off guard by the bizarre behavior, Niko didn’t immediately understand what was going on. It took him a full minute to realize the wild gesticulating wasn’t random. They were words. Sign language.
Carys made the same sign several times as the asshole’s fingers moved with lightning quickness. She gave a disgruntled growl and stormed to the light switch. She flicked the lights off and on, but this had no effect on the man. With another grunt, she gave that up and stomped her foot several times.
The asshole huffed, but he put his hands in fists down by his side. They didn’t stay that way for long, though. Carys had only begun to sign before he was back at it. They signed at each other, fast and furious.
Discomfort began to creep along Niko’s spine. This was weird. Eerie. Their faces were bizarrely animated as they signed, like they were screaming at each other silently. She pushed up onto her tiptoes at one point, but the guy was quick to tower over her. His signs still came at a fervent pace and were punctuated by the emphatic smacks.
The asshole thumped his own chest, palm flat, several times, and Carys raised her hands in a stopping motion. The anger drained out of her features, replaced by a pleading look Niko liked even less than the oddity unfolding in front of him.
It pissed him off they were doing this in front of the door so he couldn’t escape the whole awkward scene. While he realized sign language was some people’s only means of communication—it should’ve been his default method of communication—he found it distasteful. It was ridiculous for adults to wave their hands around like that. Weren’t they embarrassed to be hopping around and gesturing like trained monkeys when he was there to witness it?
Carys sighed. She ran a hand through her dark hair and shook her head, shoulders slumped in a universal sign of defeat. She signed at Benny again, her expression more tender as she touched a gentle hand to his cheek. She gestured at him and then motioned toward another part of the house.
They moved off to the kitchen then, and Niko breathed easier. Thoroughly distracted by the bizarre argument, he’d barely caulked a few inches. He tried to settle his mind on his work, but he kept getting sidetracked. Discomfort had him antsy, ready to be out of this house and as far away as possible from Carys’s visitor. The silent argument had raised the hair on Niko’s arms.
Benny left only twenty minutes later. Jamie still wasn’t back, and Niko had moved on to priming. He’d just shaken off the unsettled feeling that had his skin crawling and had gotten into the rhythm of his work again when he became aware Carys was watching him. He looked up and flashed what he hoped was an appropriately welcoming and humble smile before he turned back to his work. He hoped she would take the hint and leave him to it.
No such luck.
“I’m sorry about before,” she said. “That must’ve been awkward for you.”
He looked up again and shrugged. His lips threatened to turn down as she came into the room and flopped down on the couch nearest him.
“That was Bennet. He’s my baby brother.” She scoffed. “Not so baby anymore. He’s twenty-three, though you wouldn’t know it for how immature he acts. He can be an asshole.”
Somehow, Niko resisted the urge to snort, but it was a near thing. He glanced up at Carys, and she must’ve caught the wry look on his face because she smiled.. “He’s a demanding little shit, but you have to love them, right? Siblings, I mean.”
Love them yes, but Niko didn’t think love was synonymous with letting them run roughshod. Not that it was any of his business.
Cary leaned her head on the arm of the couch and huffed. “I’ve been his interpreter pretty much all his life. I have no problem doing that for him—I really don’t—but he seems to forget I have my own stuff going on. All I’m asking for is a little warning so I can plan my life.”
At a loss for what else to do, Niko nodded. Why was this bizarre woman telling him these things?
She frowned. “It’s selfish of me, isn’t it? I mean, it was a job interview. Benny’s had such a hard time getting back on his feet after…” She shook her head and waved a hand in the air, dismissing that thought. Apparently, there were some things worth keeping private.
“He’s right, too, that I’m usually free. I don’t have that much of a life. It wouldn’t have been a big deal, except I was out with Craig when Benny called.” At this, she looked over at Niko again. “He’s the guy I’ve been seeing for a couple of months now. He’s a looker and smart. So smart. He’s a doctor, so that means he hardly has time to see me as it is. He went out of his way to make time to see me for lunch.
“But does Benny hear any of that? Oh, no. Of course not. He thinks Craig’s an asshole for getting pissed off at me. The job’s important—of course it’s important—and no one understands Benny the way I do, but he didn’t tell me what was going on. He only said he needed me now and left an address. I ditched Craig and the bill, and since I was the one who picked him up, that meant Craig had to figure out how to get back to the hospital on his own. That makes me the asshole, right? I di
dn’t even think twice about it. I thought Benny might be in trouble—it wouldn’t be the first time—so I left without thinking about it.”
She tapped at her lips. The far-off expression told Niko she probably wasn’t even aware he was in the room; just talking to hear herself speak, he expected. Well, wasn’t that special.
Carys sighed. “So because I’m at the beck and call of a pain in the ass who’s six years younger than me, Craig and I are no longer dating. I liked him, too. A lot.”
She worried her lower lip between her teeth and straightened up. “But Benny was right about one thing; he and I are a packaged deal. Maybe it was better things didn’t get very far with Craig. It’s easier to break it off now rather than later if he can’t deal with the idea I’m always going to have to help Benny. He’s my brother, and that’s my job as a big sister.”
Niko had to keep himself from scoffing. He was sure he didn’t have all the details, but it sounded to him as though Carys was getting screwed and not in the good way. Once upon a time, he’d have had some choice words to say on the situation, invited or not.
“Do you have any siblings?”
Niko’s hand faltered in his work.
In his previous life, when he had a voice, his job had depended on him making his clients believe they were the most unfailingly correct people on the planet and interesting to boot. He had years of experience in ignoring his own annoyance, irritation, and discomfort when someone was saying something stupid or infuriating. Given that he was technically working for her, the skill came back to him readily enough.
She’s just a client, and the client gets what she wants.
So even though he thought she was damn rude for trying to engage him in conversation when she knew damn well he couldn’t talk, he answered. He looked to her and nodded. Yes, he had siblings.
“Are they older or younger?”
Niko’s jaw clenched, and he had to look away to keep up the facade. Was she messing with him on purpose?
“Oh.” Her noise of realization made him raise his head again, and when he did, he saw she was smiling. It was a sweet smile, the kind people used with small, scared children and cute but skittish animals. “You can talk to me. You know. Talk.” Her hands moved as she spoke, showing him what she meant. “I’m fluent.”
Though he turned away, he thought he could feel her stare burning a hole into the side of his head.
“You can’t sign?”
His jaw clenched so tightly that it ached. He kept at his work, but his ingrained training wouldn’t let him ignore a client, so he shook his head.
“Okay.” The word was drawn out as though she was turning a nonsensical idea over in her head. “How about this? How many siblings do you have?”
Niko splashed primer on the frame with a little more force than was necessary. What the hell was wrong with this woman?
Client.
He held up three fingers.
“Big family, huh?” Her tone was light, almost distracted. “It’s just me and Bennett. He’s the little brother, like I said before. How many of your siblings are younger?”
He held up two fingers, and she chuckled. “Middle child, then. So you feel my pain. But I guess you also get Benny’s side of things. That must be interesting.”
Niko’s cheek twitched. It didn’t quite work like that, not in his family. He and Delilah were so far apart from Micah and Nia in age that they’d had almost completely different childhoods. But since he couldn’t explain any of that, he smiled at Carys, letting her read into that what she would.
“So, you don’t know sign,” she said after a minute of silence. “Not even the alphabet?”
Christ, the woman was insufferable.
Right after the accident, Niko had gone to a few classes in an attempt to learn sign language. The whole thing had been a waste of time, and he’d quit but not before he learned the alphabet. It had pissed him off, standing there and reciting it physically while the teacher smiled and nodded as if the class were full of kindergarteners instead of adults.
The idea of reciting it for Carys’s benefit didn’t irk him any less. Resigned, he raised his right hand and hoped she wouldn’t get it into her head he could spell out the answers to all her questions letter by letter.
Y-e-s, he signed.
She brightened at that. “Great. What’s your older sibling’s name?”
Though he couldn’t imagine why she was interested, Niko made every effort to control his temper. Yes, he knew the ASL alphabet, but he was hardly comfortable with it. Still, he recognized she was asking questions with one-word answers.
He tried to get away with just signing D-e-l, but Carys looked confused. “Gel?”
He tried again, this time spelling out his sister’s full name, hoping his face wasn’t as hot as it felt. Talking with his hands? The idea was so stupid. How many ways to hold your fingers could there possibly be? He was probably signing something inappropriate by holding his fingers just a little off kilter.
“Delilah.” Carys grinned in triumph when she deciphered what he was trying to sign.
She got up from the couch and went to him, taking his hand. Niko was surprised at the touch, but he didn’t pull back. He let her work his fingers as he stared. “The most important thing is to make your signs clear. No chicken scratch.” She flexed his index finger up. “A ‘D’ stands up tall and proud.”
Niko had to stop himself from leering. Well, who didn’t have a penchant for “That’s what she said” jokes? He must not have been successful at keeping the smirk off his face because he saw Carys’s lips quirk and her cheeks tinge pink.
“Okay, perv.” Her tone was teasing, and she smacked his hand lightly, a surprisingly intimate gesture seeing as they were almost complete strangers. “Pay attention. Your lazy ‘D’ looked more like a ‘G,’ which lies down like this. A ‘D’ looks like exactly what it is.” She demonstrated the difference several times. “Go on. Try again.”
He huffed but complied. This game he’d mastered in grade school. The faster he showed improvement, the quicker she’d leave him alone again.
“Better. Almost.” She worked three of her fingers between his. It looked like she was holding his hand, and that was very distracting.
Her eyes were a pretty brown—light brown, almost the same color as her hair, and flecked with gold.
Carys cleared her throat as though she too had been affected by the touch. She moved her hand to his wrist and held it up. “See? It looks like a real ‘D’ now.”
He couldn’t help it. His lip curled up at one corner.
“You’re horrible. What are you? Twelve?” She blushed furiously, but she was still smiling.
Making an effort at seriousness, Niko presented his best ‘D’ for her approval. Carys nodded. “That’s a very straight and proud ‘D’ you have there.” Her cheeks glowed scarlet, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, my god. Now you have me doing it.”
That only made it worse. Niko pressed his lips together and tried not to laugh. He hated his new laugh, but the horrified expression on her face at her continued accidental double entendre was too much.
If Carys was surprised at the sound, or lack thereof, of his laugh, she didn’t show it. His shoulders shook, and air left his mouth in short puffs without the accompanying chuckle. She didn’t react to the sound at all, too busy fighting the smile and laugh that bubbled over despite her best efforts.
For the second time that day, Jamie snuck up on Niko. He and Carys jumped apart as the front door opened and his friend appeared. Niko turned back to the window, and Carys retreated to the couch.
Apparently oblivious, Jamie greeted Carys and launched into an explanation of where he’d been and why, leading her into a commiseration about parts that didn’t fit and calculations that were just that much off.
“It’ll drive you crazy,” he said.
What was driving Niko crazy was the strange sensation he’d been doing something wrong when Jamie walked in. Why h
e should feel like that, he didn’t know. It wasn’t as though anything had happened. He thought his friend would question why Carys was suddenly hanging out and watching them work when she hadn’t done it all day, but he supposed it was a natural enough thing.
Shake it off, jackass.
Still making small chat over his shoulder, Jamie wandered over to inspect Niko’s work. He ran a finger down the straight, neat line of white, giving a whistle of appreciation. “Dude, nice caulk job.”
His friend looked bewildered when Carys laughed so hard that she had to leave the room.
“Here’s where I get confused. She’s got this room covered floor to ceiling with instruments, and then there’s this thing.” Jamie lifted a long, slim tube of wood carved with ornate patterns. “It looks like I’m supposed to beat someone with it.” He swung the thing hard at Niko, bringing it to a stop just short of his head.
Niko knew damn well what it was. He rolled his eyes with much more emphasis than necessary—how else would he tell his friend he was being an idiot?—and turned back to the window. Jamie, apparently not in the mood to work, put the instrument down and moved on to another.
“This is what happens when you make a guitar while high on acid,” he said, plucking at what might’ve been a guitar except it held a triangular shape instead of the more rounded shape he was used to.
“That isn’t a guitar. It’s called a balalaika.”
Both men swung around to find Carys in the doorway, her arms crossed, the look on her face bemused. She entered the room and set the first instrument Jamie had been playing with back on the wall. “And this is a didgeridoo.”
“Listen, you can’t just make up your own words.” Jamie wagged his finger in mock admonition and put down the balalaika, contrite. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have touched it.”
“Eh.” Carys waved a hand.
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