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Carter wiped the corner of his mouth—distracting. “It had an effect.”

Jeff snorted and tried to muster the energy to put his dick away. “Evidently.”

But Carter shook his head. “Not just sexually. It’s wild to see you out there doing your thing, you know? In your element.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know if I can explain it right. It was one thing to watch you do it from the stands as a fan, even as someone who’d known you before. It’s something else to be there for sound check, to watch you put songs together from scratch, to know what happens on the fly. What’s the phrase—‘born to the stage’?”

He seemed so earnest about it that Jeff would’ve blushed if his system could’ve coaxed any blood to his cheeks. “You think so?”

“Jeff.” Carter tilted his head. “You are a literal rock star with multiple platinum albums. But even if you didn’t have those, something special happens when you go onstage. It’s just different, seeing it from this side.”

Jeff didn’t know how he was supposed to keep his heart in his chest. It was a lost cause anyway; it had belonged to Carter since the day they met. “You’re too good for my ego.” He leaned his head on Carter’s shoulder.

“Pretty sure there are multiple Top 100 songs about how much you want my dick,” Carter said, warm rather than wry, “so, same, I guess.”

Jeff muffled his laugh in Carter’s sleeve.

LIKE ALLgood things, their time in BC had to come to an end. Two days later they packed up their things and did one last check of the hotel suite.

“All good?”

Carter was frowning slightly when he came out from checking the bathroom, but he said, “Yeah.”

They both got distracted by the view again, and Jeff found himself gravitating to Carter’s side to take it in one last time. “We’ll come back,” he promised. “I’ve got most of the summer off. Pick a couple days you don’t have to work once you’re free of the plastic menace and I’ll let you take me hiking.”

Carter looked down. “You will, huh?”

Jeff squeezed his hand. “I’m generous like that.”

They had an hour or so together at the airport, which they spent in the first-class lounge because people kept trying to take pictures; they had in fact made the front page of the internet, and that always meant more attention. Carter pretended not to notice as they each grabbed a paperback to read on the plane, but Jeff didn’t miss the way he kept ducking his head, then looking over his shoulder every other minute.

So the first-class lounge refuge it was.

Twenty minutes before Carter had to leave for his flight, he started digging through the pockets of his carry-on. Jeff stopped scrolling through Twitter. “What’s up?”

Carter frowned. “I can’t find my painkillers.”

Jeff blinked. Carter hadn’t mentioned being in any pain over the past few days. But when he opened his mouth to ask, Carter cut him off with a shake of the head. “I’m fine now,” he clarified. “But when I called him before I flew to meet you in Toronto, my doctor said the flight might cause some discomfort. He wasn’t wrong. He wrote me a prescription for something to take before takeoff, but now I can’t find them.”

“I have some Advil,” Jeff offered. “Better than nothing.”

“Thanks.”

They had another few minutes before Carter had to leave for his flight, but Jeff couldn’t think of what to say. The irony was not lost on him.

“So, I guess you should—” Jeff started, at the same time Carter said,

“Have you booked your flight—”

They both stopped. Carter quirked up one corner of his mouth. “How are we so good at being together, and so bad at hello and goodbye?”

Jeff rubbed his palm on his thigh. “I don’t know, lack of practice?” he suggested. “We were joined at the hip for almost ten years, and then nothing. It kinda makes sense.”

Shaking his head, Carter pushed himself to his feet. “We should practice sometime we’re not in an airport, maybe.”

Jeff stood too and glanced around the first-class lounge. Its only other occupants had plenty to distract them—phones and laptops and headphones. No one was paying them any attention. “No time like the present,” he said, and he stood on tiptoe to press a quick kiss to Carter’s mouth.

Or he meant it to be quick, at least, but Carter didn’t let him go right away. He caught Jeff by the waist and kept him pulled close in a deep, thorough kiss that had him swooning. When he pulled away, he rubbed his nose along the length of Jeff’s in a gentle caress.

Jeff was so in love with him it was stupid.