A Younger Man Read Online Free Page A

him and he slumped against the torn seat covering. “Yeah. I am.”
    “Okay.” Silently, Noah ticked back through Zane’s cacophony of rapid information and sorted out the basic information from the mania. “Correct me if didn’t process everything, but I recall that you were kicked out of your apartment two days ago, you weren’t given a chance to get any of your things, you have a brother and a sister, and that after tonight you won’t be able to afford a place to stay.” With that, Noah nodded and added, “Does that about cover it?”
    Zane’s lips thinned to an even paler line. “Yeah.”
    “Is there a relative you can call?”
    Zane immediately went tauter than a drum. “That’s not an option.”
    “All right.” There’s a story living in that response. Questions, dozens of questions that didn’t make sense and Noah had no right to ask punched at his throat to get out. Instead, he measured his tone, and continued to tread carefully. “Do you have steady work?”
    “Not full time,” Zane replied. “I lost my job a few months back when the business I was working for finally went under.” The more he spoke, the more color returned to his skin. “The last two checks they gave me before that wouldn’t clear the bank. I have a part-time job now, but it doesn’t pay enough, and it doesn’t offer nearly enough hours or benefits to take care of my brother and sister.”
    Noah muttered, “Shit.”
    With a chuckle, something that sounded ridiculously sweet and genuine, Zane said, “Agreed.”
    Grinning a bit in return, Noah pushed to his feet and let the wheels start spinning in his mind. He churned and spit out ideas, certain that a solution sat right on the tip of his brain, if only he could grab it. While tossing out a few ideas that weren’t realistic at all, or were far too presumptuous, Noah grabbed his tool kit and belt from the bed of his truck. Cans of paint—and why he had them—sent a rush of adrenaline through his system.
    Yes. That could work.
    “Okay,” Noah turned to Zane and crouched down next to him again, suddenly full of adrenaline, “so here’s what we’re going to do. While you wait for Terrell to let you in to get your clothes, I’m going to go in and take a look at the leaky showerhead in one of these units, because apparently maintenance doesn’t stay on top of their job in this place.”
    “They don’t.”
    Noah flashed another smile. “Right. So I’ll take care of that, and then I’m going to show you a cabin. It’s just outside of town, up the mountain a bit, and right now it’s empty. I live up there too, and in my spare time I’m fixing this other cabin for the owner. Once you see it, you can decide if you want to stay there with your brother and sister, at least until you can get back on your feet.” Looking up at the guy from his kneeling position, Noah raised a brow. “How does that sound for a temporary solution?”
    A long stretch of silence filled the air between them. During that time, Zane kept his head down, studying the series of scrapes and scratches on his forearm. He picked at a particularly nasty piece of peeled skin, but then suddenly lifted his gaze and blurted, “Why would you do that for me?”
    Swirls of too many very readable emotions—uncertainty, fear, suspicion, and good Christ, hints of what looked like desperate hope—created layers and layers of unmatched color in Zane’s stare, exposing a very human vulnerability he probably didn’t understand showed so clearly in his eyes.
    “Why—” Huskiness suddenly coated Noah’s voice, a thickness of empathy he hadn’t felt build in him so quickly in years. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Why wouldn’t I?”
    Furrow lines appeared between Zane’s brows. “Won’t you get in trouble for letting strangers stay at this cabin?”
    An overwhelming desire to see this man laugh and feel free and full of ease washed over Noah in a powerful wave. “You let me worry about