“I’m sorry I was late,” Callahan said quickly.
“Was everything okay at work?”
“Yeah. It was fine. I’ve just been working on some things behind the scenes. I haven’t told you about them, and maybe I should.”
Jace’s brow furrowed, and he looked down at Callahan with worried eyes.
“Nothing bad.” Callahan smoothed the wrinkle on the bridge of Jace’s nose with his fingers, using his thumb to trace the defined line of his eyebrow. “I quit. Kind of. I guess.”
“You what?”
“I’m still on the board, of course, but I’m not involved with the operations anymore.” He shrugged, trying to downplay the weight of the change this would have on his life.
“You quit.”
“Yeah.”
“Did you quit for me?” Jace asked.
“No. No.” Callahan held up his hands and shook his head, wincing as he did. “Not exactly, at least.”
“You’ll need to explain that, I think.”
“I didn’t realize how miserable I was until I met you,” he said. “I mean, I always knew, but I didn’t see the depths of it. I needed to make a change, and if that change benefits you, or us, that’s great, but I did it for me.”
“Callahan,” Jace whispered, rubbing his temples with the tips of his fingers. He closed his eyes and covered his face. “That’s too much.”
“It’s not.” He pulled Jace’s hands away from his face and angled his head so he could see Jace’s eyes. “It’s a small thing. A necessary thing.”
“What are you going to do now?”
Callahan laughed and he turned his attention to the portrait on the wall. “I haven’t thought that far. My to-do list for the day was sign my company away, and be with the man I love.”
“The man you love,” Jace repeated.
“Still.”
“Rhys told me you’d never love me.”
“He what?” Callahan nearly shouted, turning to go after Rhys. Jace reached for him, much like Sebastian had earlier, and his feather-light touch held Callahan in place.
“He said I was beneath you.” Jace tipped Callahan’s chin up with the side of his finger. “And I told him he was right.”
“He’s not,” Callahan protested weakly, hating that Jace agreed with the foul vitriol Rhys spewed.
“But I showed him this picture that I took of you.” Jace leaned down, his words hot against Callahan’s mouth. “And let him know I was very much above you when I took it.”
A laugh bubbled out of Callahan’s mouth, and Jace stole it, kissing him tenderly until the nervous noise had quieted.
“Jace.”
“I don’t like him,” Jace interrupted. “I don’t like a lot of your friends, save Sebastian.”
“I don’t either,” he admitted.
“But,” Jace continued, a small smile edging its way onto his face. “But I’ll learn to live with them because while I may not like them, I do very much love you.”
“You what?”Callahan’s heart lodged in his throat, alongside a breath he most desperately needed.
