“Butsomeonewas concerned about licensing and legal driving age and what his parents might say.”
“Someonewas concerned your little legs couldn’t reach the pedals.” Carter glanced at him sideways, an up-down glance that Jeff was not going to categorize as a once-over.
“God, you’re so rude.”
“Is that any way to talk to your chauffeur?”
Jeff’s lips twitched as fifteen years of silence fell away. “Sorry. God, you’re so rude,Jeeves.”
Carter flipped him off and backed out of the carport.
JEFF FIGUREDit wasn’t just going to be curtains, and he was right; it turned out to be curtains, and a new set of linens for Carter’s guest bath, and a mat for his front hallway, at which point Jeff made a comment about Carter using him for his interior decorating sense and Carter clapped back that he didn’t know what he’d been thinking because Jeff didn’t have sense of any kind.
He’d forgotten how easily they clicked. A few hours together and all the intervening years seemed to fall away.
Shopping turned into lunch at the fish-and-chips place that had just opened for the season, and by the time Jeff’s phone chirped with a reminder that he had a phone conference in half an hour, he was basically fifteen again.
“Ah, shit,” he said when the alarm went off.
Carter raised an eyebrow. “Some kind of rock-star Bat-Signal?”
Jeff flicked a rolled-up bit of napkin at him. “Conference call in half an hour, finalizing details for the show.”
Carter’s beer bottle clunked gently as he set it back on the table. “It’s incredible how you make that sound likeroot canal.”
“That’s my gifted and expressive vocal range for you.”
Carter rolled his eyes. “When’s the concert?”
Damn.Jeff thought he’d have more time to work around this particular revelation. “The twentieth.” Watching Carter’s face fall made him feel like garbage, so he sucked it up and said, “I don’t have to be in Toronto ’til four. Booked an air taxi for two thirty.”
“What?” Carter’s brow furrowed. “When?”
“When you were driving to the outlet.” Jeff shrugged. “Why’d you think I made you drive?”
“That’s—Jeff, that’s so expensive.”
Jeff put on his patented Media Face. He absolutely hated using it on Carter. It feltdirty. “Good thing I’m rich, then.”
It worked. Carter made a noise of disgust. “Ugh, okay. Sorry. And thank you.”
He let the false expression fall away. “It’s nothing, Carter, seriously. I want to be there. Not just for you.” Though Carter would’ve been more than reason enough.
He held up his hands. “I believe you.”
“Okay.”Good. Great.Could Jeff get a subject change?
“So should I take you back to the cabin? Do you need, like, total isolation for this root canal slash conference call?”
“It’s more like a lobotomy,” Jeff mused. “I should probably get back, yeah, so I can make notes and whatever.” He almost saidGod knows I don’t trust Max and Trix unsupervised, but he bit his tongue. Joe would be there, and Jeff trusted Joe, and Carter didn’t need to be party to the band’s dirty laundry. Jeff loved them. He didn’t want to talk shit about them, even though they drove him up the wall. Max had been his protector all through high school, even gone so far as to be his fake boyfriend to Jeff’s dad’s second wedding. He never cared if anyone thought he was gay as long as Jeff didn’t have to feel alone.
Jeff didn’t know how it had come to this.
He shook himself and reached across the table. “Here, give me your phone.”
Carter unlocked it and slid it over. It was older than Jeff’s by a couple models and the Otterbox case had taken a serious beating.
“I can feel you judging me.”
