“Long run?” he asked mildly.
“Uh. Indeed. I mean—yeah.” Liam bobbed his head like an idiot. “Didn’t sleep, so I figured I’d, uh, run it out. Or something.”
Jacob sipped his coffee. “Right.”
That was it. No judgment, no follow-up, just that slow, neutral stare that made Liam feel like he was standing in front of a lie detector.
“You’re up early,” Liam blurted.
Jacob nodded once. “Crew call is in thirty.”
“Right. Of course.” Liam cleared his throat. “Smart. Quiet before chaos and all that.”
One of Jacob’s eyebrows lifted.
Liam shifted, sidled closer, tried to lean like a normal human being, wound up too close, jerked back too far, and slammed his elbow against the post with a thud so awkward it felt like an echo of his entire personality.
Jacob was still staring at him. “You good?”
“Yep. Totally. Just—” Liam stared at the trees like salvation lived out there. “Thinking about today’s scene.”
Jacob made a low sound. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. It’s… heavy, right?”
Jacob tilted his head. “Because of the subtext?”
Liam blinked at him, startled. “You think there’s subtext?”
Jacob looked like the question was absurd. “Don’t you?”
“I—uh. Sure. Yeah. I just didn’t think you’d… say it.”
“Why not?”
Because then it’s real.
Liam rubbed the back of his neck and tried to laugh it off. “I don’t know. I guess I thought we were all pretending it wasn’t there.”
Something like amusement flickered in Jacob’s eyes. “Some of us are worse at pretending than others.”
Liam’s ears went hot.
“I’m not pretending,” he blurted. Froze. “I mean—I’m not not pretending. I just—fuck, I don’t know what I’m saying.”
Jacob’s mouth twitched, almost a smirk. “You’re being weird this morning.”
“I’m not—!” Liam groaned and dropped his head against the railing. “Okay, maybe a little.”
“Fidgety,” Jacob said, studying him. “Jumpier than usual. And your face is doing a thing.”
“What thing?”
“The thing where you look like you’re hiding a body in your trunk.”
“I am not—” Liam cut himself off with a strangled noise. “You’re impossible.”
“You’re the one who walked over,” Jacob said evenly.
