Brian shrugged. “There’s no secret bisexual way of telling someone you’re into them. You just do it like you normally would. And prepare to have to explain yourself a little, because Noah probably believes you’re straight.”
Jace snorted. He’d believed he was straight, too, so he couldn’t really fault Noah for that. If he was lucky, Noah would just accept it. Or already know, like Brian had. That was the ideal solution.
He could do this. He could talk to Noah. After they’d won the game.
Chapter Seventeen
With his second beer for the evening in hand and Jace sitting quietly beside him, Noah couldn't have been in a better mood. The game had been tough, but they’d won by more than enough to ensure that they had a shot at qualifying for the national competition this year. With just one more game to go for the season, it was starting to look like Jace might not have married him for nothing.
Noah let his head fall against Jace’s shoulder, sighing happily. He pulled out his phone, too tired to engage in any serious conversation, and scrolled through the posts on the team’s Facebook page about the match.
His stomach flipped as he saw a comment from Rafe on a picture of the sign he’d seen at the game.
They’re not really together. It’s an immigration scam.
He passed the phone to Jace without a word. He couldn’t have explained even if he’d wanted to, fear making his throat feel tight and his words fail him.
“What am I looking at?” Jace asked.
“Read the comments.” Noah sat up, swallowing. “I knew we hadn’t heard the last from him.”
“Well, this is easy to fix,” Jace tapped on the screen. Noah snatched the phone back, his heart hammering in his chest. They didn’t need to make it worse.
“No. Nuh-uh. Do not respond to that comment,” he said, holding the phone out of Jace’s reach. “You know better than that. If we get all defensive about it, it gives him power.”
“So you wanna ignore him?”
“People have already seen the comment. The post has been up for hours. And he’ll keep making them, and if we delete it then he’ll start mentioning that they’re being deleted, and then it makes it sound like we’ve got something to hide. Trust me. I know this game. It’s how I ended up having to come out to my parents.”
“Wow.” Jace blinked at him. “I am so sorry.”
Noah shrugged. “They were cool about it. But this is… this isn’t that kind of fight. There’s no good outcome except for it blowing over, here. And there’s no way for us to prove that we’re not faking, short of producing a sex tape.”
“Or we could start with a kiss,” Jace said.
Noah stared at him for several seconds, processing what he was saying. “I don’t follow.”
“Diego said to me that we should start collecting evidence, just in case. A sex tape is a step too far, but…”
“But you want to kiss me, take a photo, and then post it on the internet. That’s what you’re saying?” Noah couldn’t believe what he was hearing. On the one hand, he desperately wanted to kiss Jace. Seeing Joe again had confirmed for him that Jace was what he wanted. He wanted kind, funny, and stable. He wanted someone who tried to play clean, as opposed to deliberately collecting fouls. He wantedJace.
Short of being able to have him, getting to kiss him sounded great. Except he didn’t want to deal with Jace’s reaction. He didn’t need to see Jace wiping his mouth or being distant for days after, even if he thought he was an enlightened straight guy.
Noah had met his share of enlightened straight guys who wanted to experiment. It never ended well.
“Well, when you put it like that… yeah, basically. Which I get sounds dumb, but what if this escalates? We’ve gotta have something to point at and show that our marriage is legit.”
“I hate it when you’re right.” Noah sighed. He couldn’t say no, even if he’d really wanted to. This put them in an awkward position, and Jace’s suggestion was really their best response. They definitely had to respond, even if it wasn’t directly.
“The lighting in here is terrible, but that’s going to work to your advantage,” Noah said, unable to resist teasing Jace even now. He flicked to his camera app and held up the phone.
He paused for a moment, wanting to take this excuse to kiss Jace again. It had been on his mind since the wedding ceremony. It had been so natural to kiss Jace, so comforting, as though Noah was doing exactly the thing he was meant to do with his life.
His stomach clenched as he leaned in. Everything could go wrong with this. He wanted it, but the risk of ruining their friendship by giving too much away was so high.
At the last second, Noah redirected and kissed Jace on the cheek instead.
That was the best possible compromise. They were still showing affection, but it wasn’t remotely sexual. It was also all over in seconds, so neither of them had time to worry. Noah was grateful for that. He couldn’t have brought himself to kiss Jace on the lips, knowing he might never get to do it again. The thought alone made his heart hurt.
