“Hello?”
“Hey, man.”
“Rory? Who’s number is this?”
“Oh, this is the landline at our new house.”
“Okay. What’s up?” Justice asked. His friend definitely sounded…off.
“So, I thought it over, like you said. But I’m not going to have a best man if it’s not you.”
Ouch. Justice rubbed at the worry line that formed between his brows. So much for the post-orgasmic bliss from his date yesterday. “Rory…”
“I’m not doing this to guilt-trip you, I promise. It’s just that…I mean, you can’t do it, and I understand. I won’t try and make you. But I can’t stand the idea of having someone in your place. You’re my person.”
Justice snorted and rolled his eyes. “How very
Grey’s Anatomy
of you.” He heard a shaky laugh in return. “If that’s what you want, I’ll support you on it. And I’ll be there, just not, you know,
there
there.”
“I hear ya. Thanks, man.”
“Hang in there,” Justice said, because the guy sounded just a bit too fragile. “See you at the dinner thing tonight?”
“Sure thing. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Justice stared at the phone for a moment after the call ended. Again, he wondered what was going on with his best friend. Was it just wedding jitters? Or something worse?
Suddenly Lara burst into his room without knocking, uncaring that he was in nothing but his briefs. Lucky for her, he’d actually decided to wear some that day. She looked him up and down, raising her eyebrows at his bruised knees.
“Jesus, get some knee pads next time, Princess! Who the hell were you blowing?”
“Nic Valentine,” Justice muttered as he refolded some of the clothes in his drawers. As soon as he realized what he said, his entire body went still; he just froze. He wanted to call it a Freudian slip, but if he was honest with himself, he really wanted at least one person to talk to about this stuff, besides the guy he was actually sleeping with.
“What did you say?” she asked quietly.
Justice raised his head and met her astonished gaze head on. No turning back now. “I said, Nic Valentine.”
“Nic Valentine, as in Captain Nic from the
boat
?”
“That’s correct.”
“Oh, my damn…Are you fucking kidding me right now?”
Clearly, she expected him to elaborate in some way, but Justice had been hiding too long for the words to come easy. Except with Nic. He just leveled his stare and waited her out.
“So what,
you’re
gay now? Since when?”
“Since always, Lara.”
“Holy shitballs,” she said, close to hyperventilating as she sank down on his bed. “I need a fucking drink.”
“Christ, you and me both.” Justice sat down beside her and nudged her with his shoulder. “You mad?”
“Oh, of course I’m mad, you idiot. Once again, I’m the last to know.”
Justice laughed, and the sound was hollow and brittle. “Sweetheart, you’re the first to know —besides the guys I’ve hooked up with. Obviously. And my parents, but we don’t talk anymore.”
“So Rory…?”
Justice shook his head sadly. He wasn’t ready to tell her about the whole disaster with his parents, so she would just have to trust that he had his reasons.
“You can’t think that it would matter to him.”
“I just couldn’t take that risk. Without Rory having my back, I’m just some poor, sad closet case with a few friends I can’t be bothered to keep in touch with.
She looked at him as someone would a slow child. “But Sweetie,
I’m
gay, and Rory knows that. He’s always been cool. You’re not giving him enough credit.”
Justice was shaking his head before she finished speaking. “Forgive me for the double standard here, hon, but a straight guy’s perception of a lesbian is entirely different than his perception of another guy being gay. With girls hooking up, he’s thinking it’s hot; slumber parties, pillow fights, experimental kisses…The straight porn version of lesbians.
“A straight guy who suddenly finds out his best friend and
roommate
, someone who lived with him for four straight years, saw him frequently in his underwear, and sometimes even naked, has liked other dudes all along. Well he’s gonna react
vastly
different. I want to believe Rory wouldn’t be that way, but I’m so afraid of finding out.”
Lara wrapped her thin arm around his shoulders and gave him a little squeeze. “Okay, I hear ya. I still think you should give him a chance, but you shouldn’t come out for anyone else but yourself.”
“Thanks, babe,” Justice said, kissing the top of her head. He was so relieved that he finally had someone to talk to about it. He closed his eyes tight and groaned when he remembered the part he hadn’t told her yet.
“What is it?” she asked, concerned.
“For one blissful moment, I forgot. Someone else knows.”
“Who?”
“That fucking prick, Rich. He saw me and Nic at Neighbors.”
“What the fuck was he doing there?”
“That’s what I said. But anyway, he’s blackmailing me. He said he’d out me to everyone, including Rory, if I didn’t step down as best man. So I had to.”
“What a douchebag! I knew something was up; you wouldn’t just leave Rory high and dry like that.”
Justice winced at the reminder of letting his friend down. He was secretly glad that Rory wouldn’t be taking Rich on as his replacement best man. Served the asshole right.
“I don’t even know what his deal is. Seems like so much trouble to go to just to be someone’s best man.”
“There’s got to be more to it,” she said, a thoughtful gleam appearing in her eyes. “I’m going to put my ear to the ground, see what I can find out about him.”
“Oh, God, fine…just be discreet, and leave me out of it.”
“Will do, Sugar,” she answered, patting him hard on the cheek. “Now go get ready for your hot date.”
He was, in fact, meeting Nic downtown for lunch at Pike Place, but he had no idea how in the hell she knew that.
“How…just, how?”
“Manscaping,” she said with a wink, before disappearing into the hall.
“Oh, hell.” Justice looked down at his perfectly trimmed happy trail that led the way to his perfectly trimmed equipment.
* * * *
Nic was in a foul mood. He’d had a run in with Colin, which made him late arriving at the Pike Place Fish Market, where he’d arranged to meet Justice. Colin had shown up at the marina, ranting about some expensive watch that he’d lost, assuming Nic had taken it when he moved out.
Fuck that. Nic didn’t want anything that reminded him of that man. But it had taken him a solid twenty minutes to convince Colin of that fact, and to get him the hell off Nic’s boat.
Nic searched the crowd that had gathered to watch the fishmongers do their thing, for that mop of unruly brown curls. When he found it, he felt the tension bleed from his body, and he finally relaxed. Well, that was interesting.
It was curious how quickly his little airplane boy had gotten under his skin, and he found himself wishing that this was more than just a vacation fling for Justice. That was ridiculous, of course; just because he was a serial monogamist didn’t mean he could project his type of lifestyle onto Justice. The man was closeted, albeit for understandable reasons, and he
literally
lived on the other side of the country. There was no way it could work.
But Nic had a hard time convincing his heart of that, especially when it gave a little stutter as Justice turned that thousand watt smile on him. Nic returned the smile with a wave, absently rubbing at the spot on his chest just over his heart, and he began weaving his way through the crowd.
When Nic made it over to him, Justice immediately linked their fingers together and smiled. Nic’s brows rose to his hairline; he couldn’t help it.
Justice just laughed and patted their joined hands with his other one. “What? I’m having a good day.” He turned back with wide eyes to watch the fish fly. He laughed as the crowd ooh’d and aah’d at the fishmongers’ antics.
Nic only had eyes for Justice. He had such an animated face when he was entirely anxiety-free, and he looked so much younger. God, he was so stunning, he made Nic’s heart ache.
Justice glanced back, caught him staring, and smirked. Nic decided to distract him with conversation.
“What happened today that was so good?” he asked, brushing away an errant curl that had fallen into those luminous green eyes.
“I told my friend Lara about us. You remember her, the only girl in the bachelor party group?”
“Yeah, sure. Wow, that’s great!”
“It just kind of slipped out, sort of accidentally but not really. I guess I just really needed someone else to know, someone on my side. I mean, I’m still not telling the rest of them, but it’s a start.”
“Absolutely. I’m sure it will help you to have one more person you don’t have to hide it from.” He lifted their linked hands and kissed the back of Justice’s. “Proud of you.”
Justice practically radiated from the praise, and Nic found himself trying to think up ways to keep that look on his man’s face. Yep, his man. If only for a two week vacation, Nic was claiming him.
Justice’s laugh pulled his attention back to the moment. Justice had turned back to the fish and he was pointing at the burly men.
“Omigod, I would totally drop those. How do they even do that? Fish are so…slimy.”
Nic laughed at his continuous commentary on the fish market action. Justice nudged his shoulder.
“Hey, look at him. He’s cute. I was thinking they’d all be like, the Gorton’s Fisherman.”
Nic was pretty sure he growled at that. Okay, he was jealous, so the fuck what? Justice turned back to him, eyes suddenly full of heat. Nic licked his dry lips while he stared at Justice’s. They probably shouldn’t start making out in the middle of the fish market tourist crowd.
He pulled on Justice’s hand to indicate that they should start moving. “Come on,” he said, rather gruffly. “Let’s go get something to eat.”
Justice gave him a knowing smile before following him back to the less crowded sidewalk. “Sounds good,” he said with a wink.
Nic’s favorite bar, Seatown Seabar, was just three blocks away, so he decided to take Justice there. They could get good food and have a couple of drinks in the same place.
The building was small and inside, it was basically all bar. They each took a seat on a barstool and gave one another shy smiles as they waited for the waitress. Justice caught sight of her and poked his lower lip out.
“Aw, bless her heart.”
Nic laughed at the cute Southern colloquialism. “What?”
Justice nodded at the harried waitress-slash-barmaid who was trying, rather unsuccessfully, to pull off the same rockabilly look that Samara wore so well.
“She’s not as cute as she thinks she is.”
Nic barked out a laugh, startled by the snarky remark that was so out of character from what he’d seen from Justice so far. Although, he had noticed that the guy didn’t have much of a filter.
“Why, Mr. Crawford, how very catty of you.”
Justice just shrugged and looked down at the menu, but Nic didn’t miss the subtle quirk of his lips. “What can I say? Bitch has claws.”
Before he could say anything else, Miss Trying-too-hard herself grudgingly made it over to their area of the bar. “Are you ready to order?” she asked, as if she didn’t have enough time in her day to deal with them.
Justice gave her a smile that could cut glass, before handing her his menu. “I’ll have the seafood chowder.”
Nic gave him a dubious glance and asked, “Are you sure?”
“’Course! Clam chowder is my favorite back home.”
Nic snorted, because west coast chowder was
so
not the same thing, but he decided to let Justice figure it out on his own. It’d be funnier that way.
The waitress turned to him and raised her badly drawn eyebrow at him. Guess that meant it was his turn. “I’ll have a meatball sub.”
Justice laughed, and Nic couldn’t help the warmth that flowed through his body as the rich timbre of the sound punched him in the gut.
“You take me to a seabar and order a meatball sub?”
Nic shrugged, still too entranced by Justice to give an intelligent answer. “Like ‘em,” he grunted. He finally cleared his head long enough to get a good sense of Justice’s mood. He wasn’t throwing off a lot of nervous energy as he usually was. Nic decided to take it as a good sign.
Justice stole a quick look at Nic from under his lashes. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“Before…before we, you know…you —”
“Before I fucked you into the mattress.”
Justice’s whisper came out choked. “Yeah. That.” He cleared his throat and tried again. “You said you didn’t mess with closeted guys. There’s a story behind that, isn’t there?”
Nic sighed and raked a hand through his loose blond hair. He should have seen this coming. Justice wasn’t stupid. Of course, he would eventually ask about past lovers, even if he didn’t know that’s what he was doing.