Zach bit his lip.
Maybe, if she wasn’t planning on staying with them, he could do this. He could find a way to… fake and lie his way through it. Even without Flynn’s help, since the last thing he wanted was to drag him into it.
He’d still have totellFlynn, maybe beg him to make an appearance, but…
Zach didn’t want their whole relationship to be Flynn doing him a series of favors. Flynn had already done more than he could ever repay, and he’d done it without ever thinking of himself, and it would have been too easy to take advantage of him.
Like everyone else had. Flynn deserved better than that.
Zach liked him too much to be like everyone else. If they were going to pursue… whatever it was they were doing right now, he wanted to begoodfor Flynn. Not just another asshole who used him for their own gain.
On the other hand, he couldn’t pull this off without at least alittlecooperation. Dammit.
It was pretty obvious that his grandma had this all thought out, and she sounded sincere when she said she wanted to see him, and…
Well, since he came out, she was all he had. His parents didn’t hate him, exactly, they just didn’t want anything todowith him. They’d refused to come to the wedding.
Violet had taken him in when living with them had been too stressful, and hugged him, and promised him everything would be all right. And ithadbeen, and Zach had spent two years living with her until he went off to college, and they’d been a really good two years.
He missed her, too. Hewantedto see her.
He just didn’t want her to be disappointed in him for lying to her in the first place, and the longer she was around, the more likely they were to get caught.
“You could have stayed with us,” Zach said, confident that she wouldn’t change her mind now. “As long as you didn’t mind the couch.”
He stopped just short of reporting how comfortable it was, since that would probably have sounded suspicious.
“I’m too old to sleep on a couch, honey,” Violet said. “Besides, I’m not planning on being in the way. I just miss you.”
Zach couldn’t really argue with that.
Fine.
Fine, he’d just have to suck it up, and do this, and ask Flynn to help him all over again. Which meant there was every risk that Flynn wouldthinkZach only wanted him to keep lying to his grandma, and not because he was the best person Zach had ever known.
The thought of risking his relationship with Flynn made his stomach knot up, but…
He’d always have his education, if he could hang onto the funding for it. Keeping Flynn forever didn’t seem all that likely. They were having fun now, but Flynn was bound to find someone better. Everyone else he’d dated had.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to meet you at the airport? I don’t have a car, but I know most of the bus routes now.”
“Sweetheart, I’ve travelled before and I’m notold. Not yet, anyway. Let me worry about the details. Just set aside some time for me this weekend, okay? I’m landing Friday afternoon and taking you boys out to dinner.”
There was no saying no to this. He couldn’t claim it was inconvenient, or that he couldn’t do it. She was making it as easy on him as possible.
“Well… if you need anything, just… tell me, okay? I love you, grandma.”
He felt like such an asshole for lying to her. It had seemed like the easy way out at the time, a good way to keep everyone happy, but now…
This would teach him a lesson about dishonesty, he supposed. Not that he was much of a liar. He was still stunned she’d believed it, and that seemed to be mostly down to Flynn being as charming as he was.
It wasn’t hard to believe thatanyonecould fall in love with him.
“I love you too, honey. And I’m excited to see you happy and settled, even if it’s so far away from your poor grandma. I’ll forward you my flight details, okay?”
“Okay,” Zach agreed. “I’m excited to see you too.”
Or at least, he would have been if he wasn’t currently panicking.
“Love you,” Violet said, and then hung up the phone.
Zach set the phone down beside the sink, staring up at his own disheveled reflection in the mirror. He didn’t even have time to talk to Flynn about this now, but the longer he left it, the worse it’d be.
Taking a deep breath, Zach promised himself that his head would be clearer after he’d showered, and he could arrange to meet Flynn for coffee at lunchtime, and they could go from there.
Things would be fine.
They’d have to be.
