Carter lowered himself onto the cushion next to Jeff. “I guess they do sunsets okay out here too.”
“You still want to go out for dinner?”
Jeff’s stomach rumbled. Apparently their light lunch on the flight wasn’t enough to satisfy. “Yeah, but it might be a little tougher to get a reservation now. Let me just….” He shook out the pins and needles from his arm and picked up his phone.
Then—“On second thought,” he said, and he got up and used the hotel phone to have the concierge make a reservation instead.
“Wow,” Carter said again when he wheeled into the lobby at the upscale restaurant the concierge recommended. “Probably a good thing you took me shopping.”
Jeff had been mentally high-fiving himself since Carter stepped out of the hotel bathroom in fitted blue slacks that strained across his thighs, a plain white henley, and a gray sweater with a snap collar and detail at the shoulders that drew attention to just how broad they were. It was almost like Jeff had been paying attention all along to the things his stylist told him.
“You definitely look like a snack,” Jeff agreed, borderline lascivious.
Before he could say anything more scandalous, the maître d’ arrived to take them to their seats. Carter folded the handle on the scooter so it fit under the table and looked around. “You trying to impress me or something?” But he smiled like it didn’t bother him in the least that Jeff was about to drop several hundred dollars on a dinner Carter would’ve struggled to afford.
In response, Jeff batted his eyelashes. “Is it working?”
Carter laughed softly. “I don’t know. I’ve seen you pick gum out of a five-year-old’s hair. What’sthisgoing to prove?”
He probably had a point, but whatever. They still had to eat. “That I care about sustainably sourced local salmon?”
Another huffed laugh, accompanied by a look so tender that Jeff, who made his living baring his soul in public, felt uncomfortably naked.
Dinner was nice. Carter was enraptured by the food and Jeff and seemed oblivious to the world beyond their table. Jeff made him try the fancy wine just because, then grinned when he wrinkled his nose and ordered him a beer instead.
As far as dates went, Jeff thought it was going well—until he’d paid the bill and they stepped outside to find a handful of paparazzi waiting for them.
Carter, who had been wheeling over the threshold when the first flashbulb went off, faltered and lost his balance, cursing when his booted foot hit the pavement. Jeff reflexively grabbed the handle of the scooter before it could roll off.
Shit.
“Carter?”
Carter had taken a step backward into the vestibule of the restaurant. Cursing mentally, Jeff backed up too, until the doors closed and they had a semblance of privacy.
For someone who was one of the calmest, most impossible to ruffle people Jeff had ever met, Carter looked positivelybothered. His skin paled under his early summer tan, his mouth went tight, and his eyes took on a hunted expression.
“Are you okay?” Jeff reoriented the scooter so Carter could use it. “You didn’t hurt yourself, did you?”
Carter shook his head, some of his color returning. “No, uh, it turns out the shop assistant was right about how jarring it is when you hit something unexpectedly and fall off, but no damage, I don’t think. Just an adrenaline spike.”
Thank God. “Sorry about this.” Jeff nodded at the sharks outside. “It happens sometimes.” More so on tours than at home, where people were more or less used to seeing him, and usually only if someone tipped them off; Jeff wasn’tthatrecognizable. “I should’ve warned you.”
“It’s not like you knew they were there,” Carter pointed out.
“No, but….” He might as well rip off the Band-Aid. “Between the Twitter thing and this—it’s going to be obvious now that we’re together, so you’re going to get to deal with all the fun of being a rock star’s boyfriend. Sorry about that.”
As suddenly as his composure had left him, though, it returned. Carter propped his knee back on the scooter and shrugged. “It was bound to happen eventually.” Then he added wryly, “On the plus side, no one will be assuming I’m straight for a while.”
The glass is always half full, Jeff thought. “Okay. So do you want to go out together, or do you want me to get in the car and come back for you? Or we can ask if there’s a back exit.” It wouldn’t be the first time he’d sneaked out of a restaurant. At least this time it didn’t involve Max being high out of his mind.
Carter deliberated. “You don’t have a preference?”
Maybe with someone else. Maybe once upon a time. But—“Unfortunately, when it comes to your mom knowing I wrote seriously dirty lyrics about you when I was practically a teenager, the cat’s already out of the bag. After that, the rest of the world isn’t so scary.”
Carter’s easy laugh was born of surprise. It was no less addictive now than it had been when Jeff was a high school freshman. “It’s my brothers you should’ve worried about.”
Oh Lord. Jeff was an only child technically, but he remembered what Brady and Dave were like growing up. Best to focus on something else for now. “How do you want to do this? If you didn’t have the scooter, I’d just hold your hand.”
