Page 53 of A Real Good Lie

“Was last night pretend?”

Jace pulled his lips between his teeth and shook his head, avoiding Callahan’s stare.

“Is right now pretend?” Callahan asked.

“I’m me. This is me.” Jace frowned, but looked up. “I’m an open book.”

“Is that an invitation?” He stepped away from the window, a surge of hope blossoming inside of his chest. For what, he wasn’t sure. He didn’t know if he trusted Jace, but he liked the way he felt when Jace smiled and touched him. Maybe that could be enough for now. For the weekend.

“What do you think happens on Sunday?” Jace asked.

“What?”

“When we’re home, and this is done. What happens then?”

“I don’t know,” he answered. “But I don’t want to go back to not knowing you. To not having whatever this is, or what it could be.”

Jace scratched his nose, one of his eyes twitching, just barely. The movement caused his lashes to flutter in a way that had Callahan feeling things he had no business thinking about.

“Alright. Let’s see what happens then.”

Chapter Sixteen

Jace Has an Unexpected Change of Heart

Being with Callahan was like being on a rollercoaster. Climbs and drops, and barrel rolls that had him losing all sense of equilibrium. Jace didn’t know which way was up with Callahan, and he’d given up trying to figure it out. He’d rather have an affectionate and smiling Callahan for the weekend than a cold and brooding socialite anyway.

And the sex was good.

Great, actually.

Really great.

But Jace had peeled himself away from Callahan’s sleeping body hours ago, then taken the spare sheets to the couch and pretended to sleep until it was morning. As soon as the sky turned blue, he’d grabbed his camera and slipped out of the room and into the city. Mornings there weren’t anything like mornings at home, and Jace found himself longing for the quiet of his neighborhood.

Living in Myers Bluff offered him the best of everything, with a bustling downtown if he wanted it, but then a handful of miles away, everything was a little quieter. He worked downtown, and the apartment he shared with Remington was on the far-removed edges of the city. It hadn’t quite been renovated yet, so rent was affordable and the local shops and restaurants were bright and cultural.

Everything here was stark and cold, box-shaped buildings made of smooth concrete stretched up toward the sky, not a single tree in sight. He’d gone out twice, though, trying to find the beauty in a place that felt so foreign to him, while also so familiar. It was like Chicago, only cleaner.

In the end, he’d found flowers blooming between the cracks in the sidewalk below a blinking neon restaurant sign, and he’d snapped a dozen photos before the light shifted behind a building and turned everything back to bland shades of gray. He missed the mountains, an hour outside of Myers Bluff, and he vowed to take a weekend drive out as soon as he got back and could get the time off work.

“What next, then?” Callahan asked, still hovering between the window and the couch where Jace sat, pulling him back to the moment.

“I don’t know.” Jace rubbed his finger down the bridge of his nose.

“Did you shower this morning? Before you left?”

“No.” Jace hadn’t even bothered to put on clean clothes. He’d dressed in his clothes from yesterday because they’d been on the top of his suitcase and he didn’t want to wake Callahan with clattering hangers and zippers.

“Did you want to?” Callahan’s face lit with a soft hopeful glow that Jace found himself hesitant to snuff out.

“Did you mean together?”

“Or not. I mean, that’s what I’d meant, but if you don’t…”

“Callahan.” Jace stood up, his action silencing the other man. “We’ll talk after.”

He left Callahan in front of the window, a little slack jawed in shock. Jace went into the bathroom and closed the door, checking twice to make sure it was locked before he stripped out of his clothes. He folded them into a neat pile that he set on the counter, then turned the shower on as hot as he could tolerate.