Two weeks later Giorgio sat halfway down the stairs to the attic while Damian sat two steps down. They were both watching Linc through the open door to his room. They were leery of being any closer because of Linc’s seeming ability to hear them even when they were invisible.
“He’s a recluse,” Damian asserted, frowning. “Almost never goes anywhere, never does anything but write and eat and sleep. It’s a wonder he isn’t fifty pounds overweight.”
“Well we don’t know what he does when he does leave the house. Maybe he,” Giorgio shrugged, “goes to the gym or something?”
Damian gave a short, sharp nod. “Possible.”
“What does it matter anyway? He seems happy enough.”
“He’s not, he’s alone. No one should be alone.”
Giorgio looked shocked. “Whoa up, since when did you care about…romance I guess. That’s my thing. You’re always saying ‘leave well enough alone’.”
“It just worries me. He should be out getting to know people.”
“Damian…” Giorgio was frowning now as he said tautly, “Don’t tell me you have a thing for him.”
“Good gods no! It’s just, well after reading the story he’s writing, I can feel the pain and longing in him which I bet he doesn’t even see. He is ‘Alfie’ and even with all the horror in the story that character is afraid to trust the man who’s trying to help him, as much as he wants to. He’s terrified of being hurt. Well the character, but maybe, probably, Linc as well. It’s all there, between the lines.”
“Assuming that’s so, and I’m not so sure it is, just how could we help him? Because I know that’s what you’re thinking.”
Damian shook his head. “I don’t know. We probably can’t. It’s not like men come flocking to the house. There isn’t even the classic ‘tall, dark, handsome and macho gardener’ he could fall for.”
Giorgio snorted. “Baby, have you been reading those books his mother has?”
“Well…” If ghosts could blush Damian might have. “I did sort of delve into a couple she has that Linc wrote. They were hot. Not like the one he’s working on now.”
“With a sexy gardener in one?”
“Yes. But that’s not the point. He needs to meet someone and that’s not happening if he spends all his time in there.” Damian pointed to the bedroom.
“Then we have to have a talk with him.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
Giorgio shrugged. “He can hear us, so why not appear to him too. I don’t mean just show up suddenly in the middle of his room. He’s probably faint dead away. But if we talked to him first and then appeared…”
After a long pause Damian nodded slowly. “That just might work. But what would we say to him?”
“We’ll have to figure that out, at least the outline, and then wing it I suppose. So…tonight?”
“Yes, before we loose our nerve,” Damian agreed.
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