“He’s really your date? The one you thought stood you up?”
“Yeah,” Nate said. Despite the fact that it was the reaction he wanted his “relationship” to elicit, he felt a vague defensiveness. “Not his fault. He got called out.”
Max gave him a familiar eye roll. That was usually Nate’s expression when Max made excuses for his latest romantic screwup. On balance it was more fun from the other side.
“So what?” Max asked. “A hot, twentysomething groomsman isn’t good enough for you, but the island’s washed-up mechanic is your dream guy? What is it? You’re hot for the smell of Deep Heat?”
Nate gave him a skeptical look. “He’s five years older than me.”
“Hard years,” Max muttered. He subsided under Nate’s scowl and switched to a different line of complaint. “I heard he had a wife and kid back on the mainland. Total closet case.”
It wasn’t like Nate could argue that point. Nobody knew much about what Flynn had gotten up to after he left the island. His dad hadn’t been a man to boast or complain about his kid. Flynn was even less inclined to talk about himself. Still—Nate licked his lips absently and tasted the kiss—it obviously wasn’t a problem anymore.
“Ugh,” Max interrupted his brief reverie. He wrinkled his upper lip at Nate. “Stop looking so smug. I’ll puke. Come on, Nate. A couple of days ago you were all ‘respect mah celibacy,’ and now you’re datinghim.What’s going on?”
“I’d been trying to convince him to rent out the lighthouse. He won’t, but then he called up and asked me out. And, I mean, you and Mum have been at me to get off the sofa and go on a date. So I said yes.”
Max slung an arm around Nate’s shoulders and pulled him into a rough, conciliatory hug. “You poor, stupid bastard.” He ruffled Nate’s hair with one hand. “You can do better. Let me hook you up. You know I can. The groomsman might have been a mistake, but I thought you just needed to, ah, drain the swamp.”
“I hooked myself up, and I like him. So give over.” Nate shoved an elbow into Max’s ribs and squirmed out of the hug. “I don’t judge who you date.”
Max leaned back and screwed his face up skeptically.
“Really?”
“Not until after,” Nate said. His stomach hurt. It was either the lying or Max’s pushiness. Either way, he still stuck his hand out to his friend. Sometimes Max sucked, but so did Nate sometimes—less often, in his opinion, but still. “Come on. It’s not like I’ve invited him to Christmas dinner.”
“You better not. I’ve told you, my dad is between girlfriends. There’s every chance him and Ally will hook up.”
Max grabbed Nate’s hand and hauled him up off the wall.
“Are we not a bit old for thisParent Trapshit?” Nate asked.
“Depends. Lindsey Lohan version, or Hayley Mills?”
“And you say Flynn is old?”
Max laughed and then looked as though he resented it. He sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose.
“Ugh. Does he smoke?” he asked. “I smell cigarettes.”
Nate cleared his throat guiltily. “Do you? I don’t, umm… smell it.” He shrugged. “I suppose he might.”
“I guess there’s no need to worry about this being long-term then, since he’s going to die young. Relatively young.” Max shook his head in disgust as he waved his hands in wide, frustrated gestures. “Does he know how dangerous smoking is? For him, and for everyone around him. And around you, after Ally’s cancer.”
“I guess some people just can’t kick their bad habits,” Nate said.
“Yeah, well,” Max muttered as he headed back into the bar, “some people should try.”
Nate rubbed his earlobe miserably and tried not to think about how much he wanted another cigarette as he followed Max inside. Like he said, they took it in turns to suck a bit.
MAX MADEpeace with a wide grin and an offering of two bottles of beer. A drunken thistle decorated the label, and it boasted notes of raisin and, for some god-awful reason, rubber.
“Sorry about before.” He set the bottles down in front of Flynn. “I guess it was just a surprise. I didn’t know that Nate was into… well, you.”
Flynn leaned back on his stool with his elbow braced behind him. He shrugged and tossed a peanut in his mouth. “I am a hot piece of ass.”
“Yeah, that’s probably the Deep Heat,” Max said. He stopped and glanced at Nate, his mouth twisted in a quick, apologetic grimace. “I’ll leave you two to enjoy your date.”
