Page 120 of All the way home

As Kieran watches Lucas carefully, a muscle works in his cheek. Then he sweeps the cards into a messy pile, fingers jittery.

So, game over, apparently.

Zach follows Kieran’s gaze as it jumps toward Lucas every few seconds.

“You okay?” Zach asks quietly.

“Ah, I’m good.” Kieran waves him off, rolling his shoulders. “Just feel like another walk.”

“Okay,” Zach says. “Let’s walk. Unless—if you meant by yourself, then—”

“I definitely did not.” Kieran heaves himself to his feet. Then he holds out a hand to Zach, who takes it, and hauls him up too so they’re face-to-face.

Kieran has a strong grip, but Zach stops thinking about that a split second later, because for just a moment, they are agonizingly close.

Then Kieran steps back, but not before Zach catches his eyes dropping down and then up again.

Every one of Zach’s internal organs turn molten.

“We’ll be back in a bit,” Kieran tells Lucas, slinging his coat over his shoulders. Subtly, he picks up Rena’s coffee cup, holding it just out of view.

“I guess I’ll just watch the bags, then?” Lucas asks, with a note of sarcasm.

Kieran pauses, frowning at him. “Do you want us to stay?”

“I really don’t,” Lucas says, worn out, and waves them on.

So, this whole situation is giving Mount Vesuvius, but it’s still not Zach’s business, so he stays quiet and follows Kieran as he walks away.

The lights in the terminal have dimmed all the way, and with them, the volume, like everyone understands that it’s late, and that late means quiet. The muffled sounds of the airport are almost soothing now, the low croon of Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” only just audible in the background. The song choice feels like cruel and unusual irony, but the ambience is kind of nice.

They walk back down the terminal in silence. Kieran dumps the coffee in a garbage bin without a word.

“What’s . . . going on with him?” Zach asks.

After it’s been long enough that he starts to wonder, Kieran shakes his head, as though ridding his ears of water. “Lucas is upset with me.”

“Oh?”

“Not for anything I didn’t do,” Kieran says, light and soft, and then snatches for his phone as it buzzes.

Zach swallows hard as he watches Kieran read whatever he sees on his screen, lips twitching up at the corners. When Kieran looks up and catches him, he flushes.

“What?”

Nodding at the phone, praying Kieran will remember what he’s referencing, he asks, “Girlfriend?”

Kieran laughs outright, tapping out a reply and pocketing his phone. “No.”

Steeling himself, Zach asks, “ . . . Boyfriend?”

Mouth dropping open in—hopefully mostly—faux outrage, Kieran puts a hand over his heart. “Zach Loren. I wouldn’t be gallivanting around an airport with you if there was someone else in the picture.”

Face hot, Zach shrugs. “Figured it was worth finally asking.”

“Unlike you and Seth with a heart, I’ve never actually been in a real relationship.”

“Really?”