Only You by Willa Okati

outside. No, he hadn’t been mistaken. He nodded at the window to direct Barrett’s focus. “Just curious.”
    “You think Daniel’s off?” Barrett asked in Nick’s ear, no projecting his voice this time.
    “Maybe. I’ll never know unless I ask.”
    “Nosy.”
    “Concerned,” Nick said in mild protest. “And a friend. I won’t know the answer unless I ask the question.”
    Barrett pretended to cluck his tongue at Nick, but let him go. “Give him my best, too, if he really is heading out.”
    Going to see was a thing easier said than done, as crowded as the small cottage was at the moment. Nick had to wind a path around through the kitchen to exit through the back door. He bumped shoulders with Abram as he went. Abram beamed at him, which gave Nick the oddest feeling that if the big man hadn’t been wrist-deep in haphazardly if enthusiastically chopped peppers, he’d have grabbed him up in a bear hug.
    “What’s that grin for?” he asked, pretending skepticism.
    “It makes me happy to see my friends happy,” Abram said. He pretended to look down his nose at Nick, but spoiled the effect with a wink. “Well done. Nice watch, by the way.”
    Which would answer that question, wouldn’t it? Well, so be it. Nick didn’t mind. He raised his watch face-out at Abram in a sort of response. Abram waved him off—thankfully, not with the hand holding a chef’s knife—and turned back to his conversation with Robbie’s youngest brother Nathaniel, who hung back and watched the chaos with wide eyes and a tiny, cute smile.
    Nick glanced back over his shoulder at the pair of them. Huh. If he hadn’t known for absolute sure Abram was a widower, he’d have wondered about how close they stood…
    Nah.
    Good thing he’d started when he did. Nick crunched over the new growth of grass in their yard to his side of the stone wall and made his goal just in time. Daniel nearly had his truck packed, and he carried a duffel over one shoulder as he locked his front door. “Leaving without saying goodbye?”
    Daniel didn’t flinch, but he did cut Nick a sharp look that softened sheepishly. He gave his doorknob a tug to double-check he’d finished locking up. “You looked busy. I didn’t want to interrupt.”
    “It’s not interrupting when you know you’d have been welcome,” Nick said. He should have asked, but Daniel had kept his distance over the past couple of weeks. He and Barrett had let it happen. Barrett had told him enough to fill him in, and God, but his heart went out to the guy. “Still not too late. We haven’t started eating yet.”
    Daniel nipped thoughtfully at his lower lip, then shook his head. “I’ve got a lead on a job in Folly’s Bow not far from where he…well. Where he must have made a home for himself. If I drive all night, I’ll make it there in time to put down temporary stakes tomorrow morning.”
    “Fair enough.” Nick tucked his hands into his pockets to keep them warm. He no longer had the urge to rub and fret at his soulmark, but times like this reminded him a little too clearly still. “Does he know you’re—?”
    “No,” Daniel said, cutting him off. “I need to get a read on things first. He might have a reason for not wanting to get in touch.”
    “And if he does?”
    Daniel tossed his duffel through the passenger-side window of his truck and rolled his shoulder to stretch the muscle. Must have been heavy, but that was very like Daniel. Always picking up the heavy loads.
    “Then I’ll deal with that when it comes,” Daniel said. He scratched lightly at the side of his wrist. “At least I’ll know. It’s always better to know.”
    No denying that . “He’d better appreciate you when you find him,” Nick said. “Or I’ll have to have some words with him.”
    Daniel gave one of his rare chuckles, crisp and clean. “That’d be interesting, wouldn’t it?”
    “And then some.” Nick held out one hand, glad when Daniel took it and gave it a shake. “Take care