“No, that man is in love with you. Trust me.”
“So why are you nervous?” Seth asked, demonstrating the peak of clumsiness when it came to subject changes.
Mark loved him. He was lucky to have that. I just wished heknewit.
“Who says I’m nervous?” I asked between bites of perfectly-crisp bacon.
“You’re overeating, and you overeat when you’re nervous,” Seth said. “What, you think I haven’t noticed?”
“I find having something in my mouth comforting,” I said before I could stop and think about who I was saying it in front of.
Seth didn’t need to say anything. All he needed to do was raise an eyebrow to make me blush to the tips of my ears.
“Sorry I’m late,” Andre interrupted, dropping himself into the empty chair we’d kept for him. “What’d I miss?”
“Wes finds having something in his mouth comforting,” Seth said without missing a beat.
Andre’s eyes lit up.
“Well,” he drawled. “I’m always happy to provide a little southern comfort.”
I’d neverseena man look so pleased with his delivery of a joke. Honestly, I didn’t even mind being the butt of it because of the look on Andre’s face and the way Seth burst into laughter, picking at the crusts of his toast.
“I hate you,” I said, licking the last of the bacon grease off my fingers and sitting back. “But I do owe you brunch.”
“Guard your bacon, he’s nervous,” Seth said.
“I asked if you were gonna eat it.”
“Why nervous?” Andre asked, beaming at Pree, his favorite server, as she came over. He turned the southern charm up to eleven while he ordered, giving her the most ridiculous wink as she walked away and getting an equally ridiculous one in return.
“You know she’s a lesbian, right?” Seth asked, rescuing me from having to comment on my nervousness.
It was stupid, anyway.
I poured another glass of water from the carafe on the table, topping up Seth’s glass and getting a new one for Andre as well.
“A man can dream,” Andre said. “Blake still hasn’t returned a single text since he went back home.”
“Sorry, man.” I sipped my water, heart genuinely hurting for him. I’d always thought he and Blake were the real thing. When they were together, anyone would’ve sworn they were made for each other.
But Blake had missed Louisiana, and Andre really didn’t. Not even a little bit. Whenever anyone asked, he said he could just as easily head down to the creek here and get bitten by a thousand mosquitos if he missed home.
“Why nervous?” he repeated, apparently not about to let that drop and not any more interested in talking abouthisproblems than I was about mine.
“Mr. Lewis’s son’s arriving tonight,” I said.
Seth let out a low whistle as he sipped his mimosa, then his water, then back to the mimosa.Hehadn’t sworn off boys and day drinking for a week, but then he was the only one of us who had a nice, stable relationship.
“How old is he?” Andre asked.
“Our age. Well, my age. He’s exactly two months older than me.”
“Is he hot?” Seth asked.
I blinked. It hadn’t even occurred to me to wonder, which was pretty out of character if I was being honest with myself.
Maybe because he was the boss’s son, which kind of screamedoff limitsin big neon letters.
