Page 30 of A Real Good Lie

“You kissed him at the airport,” Sebastian said.

Callahan’s cheeks warmed at the memory, and he pressed his condensation covered glass against his skin to cool himself.

“Rhys was there,” he tried to explain.

“Oh, I know. He’s the one who told me about it, remember? You and Jace sent him into quite a tizzy.”

Callahan rolled his glass across his forehead before lowering it to his mouth and taking another drink. He wanted to be pleased that Rhys was upset. That had been his goal with Sebastian’s ridiculous plan in the first place, but if he thought about that, then he thought about Jace’s mouth, and when that happened…

He shifted in his seat and polished off the rest of his drink.

“Oh, shit,” Sebastian whispered and Callahan gave him a weary look.

“What?”

“Youdolike him.”

“No,” he answered quickly. “No. I don’t like him. I don’t know him.”

“You want to.”

“Even if I did, it doesn’t matter.” Callahan pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.

“You need to relax,” Sebastian said, flagging down the waitress and getting himself another drink. “Do you want another?”

“Water,” Callahan answered, pushing his empty vodka glass toward the waitress.

“It’s not a bad thing to like someone,” Sebastian told him, and not for the first time. “Not everyone is like my brother.”

“Or Derrick.”

“Or Derrick.” Sebastian smirked. “You had a type, but maybe you’re ready to break the cycle now.”

“Not with a barista.”

“Do you have any idea how spoiled you sound?” Sebastian pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped away at the screen, then passed the phone to Callahan.

“What am I looking at?”

“Scroll.” Sebastian waved him off and accepted his drink from the waitress.

Callahan focused on the website Sebastian had showed him. It looked to be a photography show at one of those hip little coffee shops that had old velvet couches and dark wood tables that didn’t match.

The pictures weren’t printed on canvas like he’d have expected at a proper gallery showing; some were on matte paper and some on gloss, some framed, some not. The pictures were good, though, mostly landscapes, a few silhouetted profiles and body shots done tastefully enough to obscure the identity of the model.

“What is this?” he asked again, even though he had a feeling already. One more left swipe and he had his answer, a smiling Jace in a rumpled shirt that looked about a size too big, with his arm around a man a little bit taller and broader than him. They both smiled and a flare of jealousy roiled in his gut.

He had no place to be jealous. He had no place to have any feelings at all about Jace looking so comfortable with another man. Even if Jace didn’t strongly dislike him, this whole weekend was only an act. It wasn’t even like they were at the start of a relationship, that tentative time when a person learned about ex-partners and favorite movies. Any enlightenment that happened between him and Jace would solely be intended for the purposes of deceit.

“Shit,” he muttered.

“What?” Sebastian sounded smug, and Callahan swiped back to the first blog post. The pictures were all from six months ago, a coffee shop in Chicago somewhere.

“You said he didn’t have social media.”

“This is a website,” Sebastian said.

Begrudgingly, Callahan dropped Sebastian’s phone back onto the table. “He’s good.”