Unforgotten (Forgiven)

the bottom. Most of it was neat and tidy, but as luck would have it, there was a junk pile on the patio.
Ignoring Luke, I ventured outside in my socks and pinched a cast-iron tray. The dug-over flowerbed gifted me some litter, and I took the tray back inside to meet Luke’s inscrutable frown. “Don’t start.” I slid the tray and the food bowl under the breakfast bar, and out of the way. “I’ll get a proper one when I next have cash.”
“Do you need some money?”
“No.”
“What are you going to do about work?”
“You’ve already told me what I’m going to do about work.”
“It was a suggestion.”
“Sounded like an order, bro.”
Luke folded his arms across his chest. Good. I was getting on his nerves already, and likely vindicating whatever had driven him to shack me up with Gus rather than in his own spare room. “I offered you a job so you didn’t have to worry about it. It occurred to me after that roofing probably wasn’t the best thing for your shoulder, though, so I’m sorry about that.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my shoulder.”
“You had it rebuilt six months ago. Don’t tell me it’s not still giving you grief, because I know it is. You think I don’t know you didn’t bother with your physiotherapy appointments?”
Grey sauntered back into view, saving me from a subject change I was about as in the mood for as I was a hot poker to the gut. I bent to greet him and guided him towards the litter tray. Being the champ he was, he climbed right in and took a piss, then found a corner of the kitchen to give himself a full body wash.
A ghost of a grin warmed Luke’s face, reminding me what a handsome bastard he was when he wasn’t being a miserable twat. “Think he’s dropping you a hint.”
I straightened up. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. No offence, but you need a fucking shower.”
That, I couldn’t deny.
Luke brought my bag in from the bike, showed me to my room, and where the towels were.
Then he forced some twenty pound notes into my hand and bid me goodbye. “I’ll come by tomorrow,” he said after an awkward silence at the door. “But call me if you need anything before then. And don’t give Gus any grief, okay? He’s too nice for our family bullshit.”
“I know that.”
“Do you? Thought you didn’t know him at all.”
A challenge I couldn’t decipher laced Luke’s words, and I wondered if Gus had told him about our nearly hook-up. The thought rattled me more than I wanted it to. Not because I cared if my burly bro knew I swung both ways, but because for reasons I’d never quite understood, I’d carried that kiss all these years as my most precious thing. I’d never told a soul.
Perhaps because talking about it would mean admitting that despite not setting eyes on Gus Amour for half a decade, I still dreamt of kissing him again.

Chapter Three
Gus
I don’t know what I was expecting to come home to the day Billy Daley moved into my house, but quiet darkness was not it. The Billy I’d once known—if I’d ever known him at all—had been mayhem and colour. Not shadows and silence. If I hadn’t read Luke’s text to say Billy was safely inside, I’d have thought he’d changed his mind and taken himself and his mysterious cat elsewhere.
On cue, a regal-looking feline emerged from the kitchen and stared me down. I’d never felt so unwelcome in my own home, but I was used to cats. My mother had left two behind when she’d died, and they’d despised me so much they’d had to go and live with the old lady up the road.
This one didn’t seem particularly violent, though. Or maybe it was a devil and I was fooled by how pretty it was.
I knelt and held out my hand. The cat inched forward, but at the last moment, shied away and flounced back to the kitchen. I followed it and discovered a drawer from my old tool chest being used as a litter tray. Creative. I liked it. I made a note to dig my mum’s old gear out of the loft. As cute as it was, a cat that spectacular deserved a proper toilet.
The cat settled itself on a pile of clean washing and turned its back on me. I took the hint and left the kitchen in search of my new houseguest.
Damp footprints led me from the bathroom to the bedroom my sister had slept in before she’d moved in with Luke. The door was closed and not a sound could be heard from inside. I raised my hand to knock. Changed my mind, and lowered it. Rinse and repeat until the door flew open and I found myself face to face with Billy Daley for the first time in who-the-hell-knew how long.
Wow. If I’d been holding out hope that he wouldn’t be as hot as he’d been all those years ago, I was fresh out of luck. Sandy hair, damp and mussed from the shower, dark scruff, and piercing blue eyes...he’d aged like fine wine. Skinnier than I remembered, but as gorgeous as he’d ever been, and yet somehow different to the boy I’d tried to forget.
His trademark scowl was undeniable, though. Billy had a way—even more than his cat—of making you feel stupid for breathing, and younger me might’ve taken a step back.
But this was my house and I had two stone of muscle on him these days. Adulthood and lonely hours in the gym had filled me out. I tipped my chin. “Found your room then?”
Billy’s eyes widened a touch, but his glower remained. “Was I not supposed to?”
“Making conversation, mate. And I wasn’t sure if Luke showed you round or dumped you on the doorstep.”
That earned me a slight smirk. “He showed me round. Gave me a towel and some pocket money. Regular daddy, ain’t he?”
“One day, maybe, if he can ever tame my sister. He