Page 4 of A Real Good Lie

“He’s not quite the type of guy you’d normally go for.”

“I don’t normally go foranykind of guy,” he reminded Sebastian.

“Well, true, but if you did, he wouldn’t be it.”

“And you expect that we’ll be able to pretend to be madly in love considering we’re apparently complete opposites?”

This was a horrible idea. The worst idea. Probably definitely worse of an idea than dating Rhys had been in the first place, except now he was a proper adult and he at least knew better.

“I think Jace will have a way,” Sebastian said cryptically.

“What does that even mean?”

“It means trust me. It means have Blanche book another plane ticket and another hotel room.”

“Jace,” he tested the name on his tongue. He had to admit, coming from a social circle filled with men and women burdened with antiquated family names, Jace sounded like a tangy drink of lemonade in the summertime.

“Jace,” Sebastian repeated.

“You don’t even know if he’ll say yes.”

“He said yes,” Sebastian said, his voice proud and haughty as ever. “I texted him before I even brought it up to you. As soon as you called me.”

He groaned, pouring a healthy swallow of cider straight down his throat. He hated having the hindsight, and the foresight, to know this was a horrible idea that he didn’t really want to say no to. He wanted Rhys to feel that stabbing pain in his chest when he saw Callahan with someone smarter and—hopefully—taller, someone who doted on Callahan in ways Rhys never had and never could.

“Fine,” he conceded, “what can you tell me about my new pretend boyfriend?”

Chapter Two

Jace Dare Needs a Suit

“Your boy is hitting the road.”

Jace stretched out on his bed and waggled his eyebrows at his roommate, Remington, who stood in the doorway of his bedroom.

“Finally packing up and letting me rent this place for something worthwhile?”

“Definitely not.” He sat up and tapped his fingers against the cracked screen of his phone. “The deal here can’t be beat.”

“For one of us,” Remington grumbled. “Anyway, what are you talking about?”

“I met this rich guy, Sebastian, and he wants me to go on a fake date with a friend of his. All expenses paid. Hotel. Private car. The works.” Jace shot finger guns across the room.

“You know this makes you sound like a scoundrel, right?” Remington folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the doorframe.

“Scoundrel? What is this? The eighteen hundreds?”

“The word scoundrel has been around since before the sixteen hundreds, if you must know. The origins aren’t fully known. It might be from a pronunciation of the Scottish wordscunner, but might also be Anglo-French,escoundre.” Remington’s cheeks pinked and he physically clapped one of his hands over his mouth, his eyes wide. “I’m sorry. I hate when I do that.”

“I don’t.” Jace jumped off the bed and closed the space between them, prying Remington’s hand away from his mouth.

“Everyone else hates it.”

“You’ll find someone who doesn’t,” he promised. “Your inability to not spout off about the things you know is endearing.”

Remington was Jace’s sister’s roommate’s best friend’s little brother, and the fact that she’d been able to get the two of them in touch when Jace needed a place to crash after dropping out of college had been a lifesaver. Though, that had been six years ago, and Remington hadn’t been able to shake him since. Even when Remington moved across the country to take a new job, he’d let Jace come along because it wasn’t like Jace had anything better going on and he was pretty sure Remington was fond of him, even if he’d never admit it.

For his part, Jace was a college dropout who worked menial coffee shop jobs to support his photography habit, and he and Remington had fallen into a very weird sort of friendly, sometimes snuggly, roommate and friend relationship almost immediately. Jace often thought Remington would make a perfect boyfriend, if it weren’t for the fact that he was far too smart…for ascoundrellike Jace.