by Anne Tenino
Light met him at the double doors that opened on the restaurant side, and warmth blasted his face the second he walked in. For some reason, when he wasn’t working he preferred entering this way. Like going in the front door instead of the servants’ entrance.
“Hey, Diana.” He smiled at the assistant manager as he passed the hostess stand. She smiled back and waved before continuing what she’d been saying to the new hostess under training.
He found Lucas at a table in the narrow passage between the bar and dining room areas.
He and Lucas should have been friends in high school. They were in the same grade, were each descended from pioneer families that had settled the area and—most importantly in Seth’s mind back then—they were both gay. They hadn’t been friends though, because Lucas had been a douche.
Except Seth had an inkling that if things had been reversed and Lucas had been the accidentally outed gay boy while Seth had been the closeted one desperately trying to appear straight, he might have avoided Lucas like the plague much the same way Lucas had avoided him.
Even back then, Seth was pretty sure he’d been the more butch one of the two of them. An impression he only confirmed for himself as he watched the dude sipping a fruity drink through a straw while waiting for him. Or maybe not—Lucas jerked his head back from the glass after a sip and grimaced at it, as if it had personally offended him. His expression was still one of distaste when he caught sight of Seth and lifted a hand half-heartedly.
Did no one want to see him tonight? Buck up. Diana had been busy, and Lucas was being, well, Lucas. Not all of the dude’s douchebaggery had been left back in his teen years. The difference was now he apologized if it was pointed out to him, and he seemed truly repentant. It was the only reason Seth socialized with him.
Well, that and the need he seemed to have to make Lucas like him. There was something he wished he’d left back in twelfth grade.
“This is disgusting,” the man in question said once Seth was within hearing range. “I hope when you start tending bar you don’t force shit like this on me.”
“Someone forced you to order an orange drink with a pineapple and a little parasol?” Seth shrugged his jacket off and hung it on the little hook at the end of the booth. As he turned to sit, he found Lucas had stood and was kissing him on the cheek before plopping down again.
Seth snorted as he slid into the booth. “Sometimes you make it really hard to forget you haven’t lived here since you were eighteen.”
“No kissing friends hello, then, huh?” Lucas rolled his eyes before leaning forward to take his straw back into his mouth, biting it and shaking his head with his teeth bared. Apparently that was his opinion of social customs in Bluewater Bay.
“Kiss me if you want.” Seth shrugged. “I’m just saying people don’t see two guys greeting each other that way around here often.”
“Why did I move back again?”
“Gabe,” they both said at the same moment, and Lucas’s dissatisfied expression melted away as he went dreamy-eyed. There was no other word for it. Lucas sighed and sipped his drink, which apparently killed his mood all over again.
“Yuck. Screw this.” He shoved the glass toward the end of the table. “I can’t do it. I’ll have that beer I usually order.” Leave it to him to assume Seth would know what he meant. “The light caramel one, you know? Just a skosh bitter?”
Of course, Seth did know. Lucas ordered it every time he came in, as soon as someone reminded him what it was. “Local Logger Lager.” How hard was that to remember? “How’d you end up with—” he squinted at the pear-shaped cocktail on their table, trying to place it. Got it. “—a zombie, anyway?”
Lucas bobbed his head toward the wall next to them, and the glossy, picture-laden specialty cocktails menu that was posted there. “I couldn’t resist the name. You should come up with some classier mixed drinks.”
“I’m only a lowly bartender, I’m not in charge of that stuff,” Seth reminded him as he flagged down Zoe. “Plus, I technically don’t start the new job until tomorrow.” Ma Cougar’s seemed extra busy tonight, and Zoe looked extra flustered as she headed their way, carrying a fully laden bar tray. “Hey, hi.” He gave her his most winning smile as she lurched to a stop next to their booth.
“You guys want something else?”
“A couple of Local Loggers?” He hated asking her when the place was packed. “Or I could go get them myself.”
“Nah,” she said over her shoulder as she started off again. “Let me, it’s your last night before starting the new job.”
Lucas spent the first half hour catching Seth up on his life. It was mostly about some gallery show Lucas was making a lot of work for, and everything Gabe had been doing regarding his tree farm. To hear Lucas tell it, it sounded as if Savage Tree Farm was quickly turning into a marijuana operation. Seth didn’t need all the updates—his regular customers kept him current on just about everything and everyone in Bluewater Bay—but he took a sip every time Lucas said his boyfriend’s name. He’d finished his first beer and nodded at Zoe for another before Lucas asked, “So, what’s up with you?”
“Nothing, really.” He shrugged. “You already know about my promotion, and otherwise it’s same old, same old.” Mentally debating whether it was a good idea to tell Lucas about sprucing up Grandma’s house to sell, he busied himself with spinning a beer coaster on its side.
Until Lucas slapped it flat, killing all motion. “So no one new?” he asked pleasantly, in complete contrast to how aggressive his coaster offense had been. “Seeing anyone regularly?”
Seth raised his brow and pointedly eyed Lucas’s hand, still palm down on the table in front of him.
“Sorry,” Lucas sighed, withdrawing his arm. He grimaced apologetically and picked up his beer—still nearly full—sipping it while he watched Seth over the rim.
Ever since Lucas Wilder and Gabe Savage had gotten together, Lucas had been cajoling Seth into finding a “one true love.” In keeping with his preferred lack of making an effort, Lucas did so by asking a lot of questions about who Seth had been messing around with, and what kind of “future” they might have as a couple.
The guy was motivated by his own guilt, and his desire to get rid of it. Guilt over being a dick to Seth in high school and over “stealing” Gabe. Probably mostly over the stealing of Gabe, which was all in the dude’s head. Seth and Gabe had been fuck buddies and friends, nothing more. He still had half of that, and it wasn’t very difficult to find someone to hook up with in this town, not since Wolf’s Landing had started filming here.
Right now, talking about Grandma’s house seemed like a better topic, even if he was trying to keep gossip from getting around until after the rest of the family had agreed to the sale. Lucas wasn’t likely to tell anyone, anyway. He wasn’t likely to remember it past tonight. The guy gave new meaning to “self-absorbed.”
Maybe I still have issues with him . . . Whatever.
Seth’s thinking silence had consequences. “I haven’t seen you around much, lately,” Lucas continued as he set his beer down. “I thought maybe you and—”
“I’m helping Grandma get her house ready to sell.” He wasn’t throwing her under the bus by telling. Not really. “She wants to move into the Bluewater Bay Senior Estates.”
“Oooh!” Lucas’s eyes lit up, which seemed a pretty damned odd reaction. “Gramma—Gabe’s grandmother—would move there in half a second if she thought she could.”
Crazy. Even talk of Gabe’s family affected the dude. Or he really liked Gabe’s grandmother. Not impossible to believe—Seth really liked his grandmother. “That so? Huh.”
“I think she wants to be closer to the gossip.” Lucas squinted. “And her friends.”
“Why doesn’t she move?”
Lucas shrugged. “She feels like she needs to stay with her family. Gabe’s mom would be all alone in the house if she left. I mean, Jane tells her it would be fine, but Gramma doesn’t believe it, I guess.”
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Jane was Ms. Savage’s first name? He’d never known that. Lucas must be pretty close to Gabe’s family. Of course, the couple lived in an apartment that Gabe had built years ago in the horse barn, while Gabe’s grandmother and mother lived in the “big house.” It was a lot like Seth’s own situation, minus his mother and a live-in partner. Oh, and his apartment was much smaller.
“Listen, don’t tell anyone about the house, we’re trying to keep it secret. Although she might already have a buyer—Charley Sykes and his wife want to turn it into a B&B.” They were locals, about ten years older than Seth and Lucas were, but their kids were already off to college. People started young in small towns. Some people.
He could tell by the way Lucas squinted and stared at the ceiling that he had no clue who that was. Lucas didn’t ask though. “So once your grandma sells the house, are you leaving Bluewater Bay?”
The question startled Seth so much he could only blink for a second. But Lucas didn’t jump in and continue, instead he waited with what looked like true interest. “Um, I wasn’t planning on leaving, no.” Not that he’d made a plan to stay. Or any plans at all. Why had this whole issue only occurred to him tonight?
“Really?” Lucas screwed up his brows. “If it wasn’t for Gabe, I wouldn’t stay here.”
As if Seth didn’t know Lucas was only here now because Gabe was tied to his family’s tree farm? Oh, cool it. Getting prickly with Lucas because of his own questions about what he was going to do and why he was even still here in this town was stupid.
Still, he didn’t feel like revealing any of his internal quandary to Lucas, no matter how civilized the dude had become. “Why would I want to leave? This is the farthest north you can go in the continental United States and still regularly bang TV stars.”
Lucas laughed, and Zoe came by just then, giving them a work-mode smile that Seth knew well. “So, are you guys planning on ordering any food, tonight? Because—”
“We can move to the bar, no problem.” Seth was already scooting to the edge of the booth and grabbing his jacket. When he reached back for his beer, he caught Lucas’s frown. Darn it, was the guy going to cause problems? Did he think his butt was too important to make room for a more lucrative customer’s?
“I didn’t even think of that,” was all Lucas said, though. “It is really crowded in here, huh?”
“It’s Prime Rib night,” Seth explained, then tried to decide the fastest way to get Lucas to cooperate.
Except he didn’t need to because Lucas had already stood and taken his own glass, contradicting all Seth’s assumptions about the guy’s self-centeredness.
Shit, he really was still holding a few grudges about Lucas, wasn’t he?
With the chaos of the party swirling around their corner table, Nate had to almost shout so Jack and Levi could hear him. “See what I mean? We’ll only have to deal with this little section . . .” He scribbled a few final notes under his sketch and passed the paper to Jack. “It’ll be easy to replace for each performance.”
Jack nodded, a smile finally dawning on his face after a solid hour of scowling into his beer. “Yeah. Yeah, that’ll be a snap.”
“This is outstanding.” Levi threw back his head and laughed, causing everyone in the bar to look their way—Levi wasn’t normally a gut-laugh kind of guy. “I owe you. Big time.”
“The least I could do. Besides, design is the easy part. Jack has the tough job—he’ll have to prep the new sections and rebuild the lab table in a week.”
Levi slapped Jack on the shoulder. “No fear there. This guy can work miracles. Sometimes I think he actually lives in an alternate dimension where time runs at a different pace.”
For a dour guy, Jack blushed like a teenager. “It’s nothing. Just doing my job.” He stood up. “Thanks for the drink, Levi. And Nate? These designs—well, I hope I do them justice.” He lifted a hand and threaded his way through the crowd of Wolf’s Landing cast and crew, stopping near the door to exchange a couple of words with Carter.
Levi’s gaze lingered on his husband for a moment before returning to Nate. “Seriously, I can’t thank you enough.”
“No thanks necessary, man. After you went to bat for me—”
“No hardship there—in fact, Anna practically genuflects to me every time you pull off another effect that supports her anti-CGI position. And if you keep the actors safe . . .” His gaze wandered again, to where Carter was chatting with C.J. and Ginsberg.
Yeah, it’s not “actors” in general that he’s protective of. But Nate didn’t begrudge them their happiness—much. Well, begrudge wasn’t the word precisely. Envy. Yearn. Crave. Those were words he could get behind, when he was honest with himself, because it was obvious how connected the two men were, regardless of what went on in the bedroom.
That was what he missed, what he had little hope of finding again—someone who knew him so well that they’d meet his eyes across a room and their smile would be enough to ground him at the same time it lifted him up. A promise that no matter what crap life threw at the two of them, they were in it together.
A movement beyond Carter’s shoulder caught his eye. Over at the bar, a blond guy with a neat jawline beard stood up, turning a knockout smile on the waitress.
That’s the kind of smile I wish was waiting for me at the end of every day. But how likely was that? Given how few people understood the nuances of his orientation, the odds were astronomical. He’d beaten the odds twice—for a little while at least—but he’d given up on hitting the kind of jackpot Levi had with Carter. And given how gutted he’d been when both his previous relationships had ended, he was better off not gambling on another one, not with his lousy luck.
Much safer that way. Lonely, but safer. Although—he couldn’t help stealing another glance at the smiling blond—it would sure be nice to beat the odds for good.
The bar was unusually crowded for a Sunday—sometimes that happened for no rhyme or reason—so Seth led the way from the booth toward the barstools, which were probably their best shot at getting an actual seat. The very moment he stepped out of the dining room proper, the air grew staticky. Maybe it was because the area was so crowded—at least a third of the patrons were standing, unable to find seats. Maybe occupancy in excess of the fire marshal’s limit created electricity.
“Guy!”
Did Lucas feel that strange atmosphere too? Seth screwed his head around to catch a glimpse of Lucas out of the corner of his eye. “What guy?”
He turned back the way he was going just in time to avoid walking into another pillar. Except this pillar was a person.
Oh, Guy. “Hey there.” Seth smiled at Guy automatically. He was good people. “Come have a drink with us?”
A sharp, shoe-sized object kicked him in the ankle from behind. Lucas doesn’t like Guy? The dude was a total geek, even in his thirties, but perfectly agreeable. Maybe a bit overly eager to be accepted, but he’d always been that way.
Be nice, it’s good for you, he thought at Lucas while nodding Guy toward the bar area. “Behave,” he hissed over his shoulder once Guy turned to lead the way to a stool that was opening up at that moment.
Guy reached it, then waved Lucas’s butt onto it as if he were landing Air Force One, ignoring the other plane lined up to land. Namely, Seth. He’d just managed to drape his jacket on the stool’s backrest before Lucas had completely claimed it.
Okay, that might be annoying. But it was Lucas’s bad luck to be one of those people that others were desperate to have like him. Seth couldn’t claim he had a lot of sympathy.
After five minutes of experiencing Guy in “schmooze” mode, he had all the sympathy. Guy was downright obsequious toward Lucas. First he insisted on buying them drinks, even though theirs were nearly full, then he peppered Lucas with inane questions about his work and his life before Lucas had moved back to Bluewater Bay, with heavy emphasis on what kind of “presence” he intended to create in the community.
Well, you had to give Guy p
oints for caring about the town.
Regardless of Seth’s attempts to find this side of Guy tolerable, Guy didn’t ask him a damned thing. Which was sort of expected—Seth saw Guy frequently, usually as his waiter, and Elle, Guy’s wife, was the one who usually chatted with him—but he couldn’t say he liked being ignored in favor of someone deemed more important.
“So, you’re flying solo tonight?” he asked once Guy had taken a break from flinging questions at Lucas.
“Um.” Guy finally looked away from Lucas. “No.”
“I meant,” Seth said, as Guy continued to frown at him, “Is Elle with you?” Then he’d have someone to talk to.
“Oh, got it.” The parts of Guy Seth actually liked shone through at mention of his wife. He perched his elbow on the bar top and leaned his weight on it, smiling less maniacally than before but much more believably. “No, she didn’t come. She had to go home after rehearsal to finish prepping for tomorrow. She’s a teacher, you know.” He directed the last part at Lucas. “I came with some of the theater crowd. You know, from the Bluewater Bay Playhouse. Used to be the Theater Company, but we’re rebranding.” His eyes lit up as he leaned closer to Seth to stage-whisper, “Levi Pritchard invited me. Hey,” he continued in a normal voice, gaze flicking between them. “You guys want to meet him?”
“Who’s Levi Pritchard?” Lucas asked guilelessly. But the split second of side-eye he shared with Seth showed the lie—Lucas knew who the actor was.
Predictably though, Guy bought it, deflating instantly. “You don’t watch Wolf’s Landing? I thought everyone did.”
Perhaps sensing that he was about to be forced to listen to Guy’s explanation of the show and the relative importance of everyone in it, Lucas waved a careless hand. “Oh, that Levi Pritchard. I’ve met him.”
He couldn’t have disappointed Guy any more if they’d stolen his pocket abacus. But the man didn’t stay down for long. He turned eager eyes on Seth. “Have you met him?”
“Um, well, I mean, he and Carter come in to the restaurant sometimes, so I know them.” That had to qualify. “I haven’t been formally introduced, per se.”