“Play for me. Let me see your music, Gav. I already see you.”

Damned if he didn’t know Mason did see him. Probably more than anyone had. Hell, maybe it didn’t make sense. Maybe it was too soon, or the fact that they both had so much going on in their lives, but all he knew was that Mason saw him, and he wanted it that way.

Gavin let his fingers pluck one of the strings. The sound came out wrong to his ears, so he twisted one of the pegs and played again. He continued, working the guitar to get the sound right for a good minute. “I’m tuning.”

Mason chuckled. “Thanks for he heads up, but I can see that.”

“I thought maybe you didn’t know how since you never do it.”

“Always trying to bust my balls, funny man. Maybe that was my ploy. Feign guitar ignorance to hook a sexy music man.”

It had worked.

Gavin knew he had it right when his heart came alive at the sound of the notes. That’s what music did for him. Brought him alive.

So, he kept it going. Let his fingers dance up and down the frets as he played the soft melody. It was the same song from the show. He’d been working on it since, and figured this was the right time to play it for Mason.

He glanced up and could see the recognition in his lover’s green eyes. Damned if he didn’t feel like he saw something else, too—respect? Awe? Passion? Maybe a mixture of all of them, but it made his pulse beat harder and his fingers more nimble. It was as though they had a mind of their own, emotions of their own, as though they thought that at this moment, he was introducing music to Mason for the first time.

His music? He didn’t know.

Gavin’s throat was scratchy, the urge to open his mouth and let the words fall hitting him, but he swallowed them down. He didn’t sing in front of people. Hell, it wasn’t something he did often at all, but only in a closed room during the times he’d be alone with his music.

The bed shifted and he looked up to see Mason move closer to him. Their legs touched as they both sat cross-legged in the middle of the comforter. He closed his eyes and felt the music vibrating around them. The heat from Mason’s body. The hairs on his legs against Gavin’s. The air smelled like sex, and Mason, and he realized maybe that was living, having things that meant the world to you and enjoying them.

He didn’t need anything more than this.

“You bare your soul when you’re playing…”

He opened his eyes at Mason’s words. Looked and his lover as he continued to speak. “That’s really the only time. Not even when you’re talking or fucking do you open yourself up the way you do when you play.” Mason shrugged. “This is the real Gavin. The person I’m seeing right now. I’m a selfish bastard because I want to be the only one to see him, but I can’t do that. This is who you need to show to the world.”

Gavin didn’t know how to respond to that, so he didn’t. He just continued to play.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

“We need to talk.” Isaac slammed the door and then went straight for the office. Mason didn’t have much choice but to follow him. He’d come off a great few days with Gavin to get an urgent call from his ex. Those never went well, and he had no doubt this would be the same.

Since their argument, they hadn’t talked at all unless it was work-related. By the hard set of Isaac’s body, Mason could tell that though this had to do with Alexander’s, the tension was still there.

Isaac collapsed in one of the chairs and Mason the other one. “What happened?” Mason asked, his body feeling set in cement. It wasn’t as if they all didn’t already have too much shit on their plates. The last thing they needed was another pile added on. Isaac didn’t make a big deal out of things. He saw everything as easy, like when it came to buying a new restaurant. Timing didn’t matter because he felt invincible. Regardless of what was going on, he let it roll off his shoulders because he thought he could handle anything.

One look at Isaac, and Mason knew whatever he had to say would seriously fuck things up for them all.

“We have major problems in Durango. The numbers are all wrong. We’re missing a shit ton of revenue—gone, unaccounted for. Oh, and Bryce is MIA.”

Mason went rigid. He knew it, fucking knew they had too much going on to pay attention the way they should. “What do you mean, MIA? How do we lose a manager?”

“He decides not to open the restaurant one day and no one has seen him since. I got a call this morning. I’d just pulled out the numbers you gave me and started to go over them. I could tell something major was wrong, and then I got a call from employees who were waiting outside the restaurant. The doors were locked and Bryce is nowhere to be found.”