They worked together in companionable silence, Asher at the cutting board while Cameron assembled the sandwiches. When they’d finished, Cameron looked up at him and sighed.
“Do you think it’s been long enough?”
“Maybe.” He tilted his head, straining to hear anything from the upper floor. “I don’t—”
“Yeah, well, back at you, buddy!”Luke bellowed from the direction of the foyer. There was a long pause, then,“Because you’re an idiot, that’s why! So, you can take your apology and fuck right off with it.”
Another pregnant silence. A grunt. A curse. Then, bare feet slapped against the tiled floor as Luke thundered into the kitchen.
“What?” he demanded when he found them staring at him.
His glasses were a little lopsided. His hair was disheveled, and not in the purposeful way it had been when he’d entered the library. Even more telling, his lips had taken on a pinker hue than usual, and they appeared slightly swollen.
Luke’s eyes narrowed, as if he knew exactly what Asher was thinking, and he was daring him to say something.
Being a fairly intelligent human being with fully intact survival instincts, Asher held up a plate instead and asked, “Hungry?”
“Yes,” Luke growled, marching over and snatching the plate out of his hand. “Thank you.” He sounded no less aggressive. “Talon said you can come back to the library when you’re ready.”
Cameron moved to stand beside Asher, his expression a mixture of confusion and concern. “Luke, is everything okay?”
“Fine.” He bit into his sandwich and chewed savagely.
“Um, do you want to talk about it?”
Luke glared. “No.”
Then, he turned on his heels and stormed out of the room, leaving Asher and Cameron staring after him.
Chapter Five
Normally, Cameron loved Mondaymornings. He liked the fresh start to a new week, the clean slate. There was always so much to do, and he enjoyed the busyness of it.
This wasn’t a typical Monday.
For starters, he should have been at work, perched behind his desk in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the north side of the city. He should have been working on security updates for the Neiman account while nursing his second cup of coffee. He should have been pouring over tasks that had accumulated during the weekend and planning department meetings for after lunch.
Instead, he was draped across his boyfriend’s couch in a pair of boxers and a T-shirt, eating leftover Chinese takeout and hiding.
He’d naively assumed that the reporters would lose interest after the first couple of days, but they were a stubborn lot. Granted, there weren’t as many as there had been over the weekend, and when he’d last checked, there hadn’t been a single news van on the street. This led him to think that most of the people camped at the front gate were probably from gossip blogs and magazines.
According to Talon Andrews, this was a good thing.
When he and Asher had returned to the library after their hostile encounter with Luke, Cameron hadn’t been sure what they would find. With Luke being in such a foul mood, he wouldn’t have been surprised if Talon had been in a similarly agitated state. Yet, he had been as composed as ever, sipping his lukewarm coffee as he stared into the fireplace with a slightly bemused expression.
They’d talked a little more about things that would probably come up in the news, although there had been nothing else to mention about Cameron’s past. Talon had seemed pleased by this. Asher had just smirked and shook his head as if he’d found the lack of skeletons in Cameron’s closet amusing rather than relieving.
After that, they had discussed topics Landon Dwyer was likely to cover on his web series, then brainstormed ideas to get Asher’s side of the story to the public in an “organic” way. It had been exhausting.
Stabbing at the reheated beef and broccoli with his chopsticks, Cameron glowered down into the box. He didn’t know how he felt about the plan Talon and Asher had concocted, especially the role he would be required to play in it. Oh, he thought it was a brilliant idea, and he could definitely see how it would benefit Asher. He was just having a hard time getting excited about having cameras and microphones shoved into his face.
On the bright side, Talon had agreed that the book signing at the Mission Grove Public Library was a good way to get a sense of where Asher’s readers stood on the issue of him coming out. Then, after a bit of back and forth, they had all decided that any proceeds from sales should be donated back to the library for repairs and renovations.
Once that had been settled, Cameron had been put in charge of finalizing the details with the caveat that Talon had final approval over any press they intended to invite. Cameron had conceded at once, just relieved to have something else to focus on other than how quickly his life was spiraling out of control.
When the topic of public statements had come up again, Talon had remained steadfastly in favor of a single, exclusive interview with a reputable source. He wouldn’t say which source he had in mind, only that he’d reach out to his contacts and get back to them before the end of the week. Cameron understood, and for the most part, he agreed, but waiting while Landon and Kyle spewed their noxious lies was slowly driving him insane.
Setting aside the takeout box, he reached for his cell phone, figuring he might as well get started on plans for the book signing. His fingers had just brushed against the case when his phone began to vibrate loudly over the tabletop, startling him and making him snatch his hand back as if it might bite him.
