Page 37 of All the way home

As a rule, Rena doesn’t pry in business that’s not her own. However, it’s also common sense that conversations conducted at top volume in public are fair game.

Besides, she’s had all summer to practice eavesdropping on discussions just like this one. Rena tucks her book under her arm, blindly selects a magazine, and starts thumbing through it without registering the contents of the brightly colored glossy pages.

“Gil, you promised.” The woman—Katherine, apparently—sounds on the verge of tears. “I asked you twice, and you promised you wouldn’t lie.”

“I haven’t lied to you!” He throws his hands up in the air. “I have never lied to you, not once.”

“But you didn’t tell me either, did you!”

“That’s not the same as lying! You can’t make me the bad guy for this, Katherine. We weren’t even exclusive yet.”

“Okay, but when I specifically asked you if anything had happened between you two, did you think I secretly wanted you to have slept with her?” Katherine smacks his arm, eyes flashing. “She’s my cousin, you animal.”

“Well, I didn’t know that at the time, did I?”

“You’re a pig.”

“I didn’t lie,” he protests, like he thinks that’s the thing she’s upset about.

“Withholding the truth is just as bad!”

All the amusement drains out of Rena at once. She drops the magazine back onto the rack, blinking rapidly.

The pretty girl at the register eyes her but doesn’t say a word while she checks Rena out, as though she can smell her mood from across the counter.

That string of words.

Withholding the truth is just as bad.

It’s almost word-for-word what she’d said to Kieran. She’d said it in the heat of the moment, days after their lives had changed forever, unused to fighting with him, blissfully unaware that it was only the first fight of many. It had been a tactless thing to say, and she’d known it the moment it was out, the moment his face crumpled and locked.

But she hadn’t been able to take it back.

And in the end, she was a hypocrite for saying it, because she’d forgotten to tell Lucas what happened at all.

Chapter Twelve

Zach

It would seem—from some not-so-casual observation on Zach’s part—that Kieran is not aware of the effect he has on people.

Trailing behind Kieran into the shop, Zach can’t help thinking it’s nearly comical. A group of teenage girls titter next to the sweatshirts and then fall completely silent as Kieran passes by.

“Heading home for the holidays?” The girl behind the counter runs her fingers along the side of her hijab, not so subtly tracking Kieran’s approach.

“I mean, hopefully.” With a distracted smile shot her way, Kieran continues past her, and it’s like he doesn’t even notice any of it.

Instead, he makes a beeline straight for the back of the shop, to a shelf of mugs with the Calgary skyline or i 🖤 canada stamped across them.

Helpless to do anything else, Zach follows.

Everywhere he turns, there’s more to see, more colors, more lights, more details, dazzling, bright, overwhelming. The rack of magazines next to the checkout begs for his consideration, block letters promising secrets and miracles in bold type. A television in the corner reels through sports highlights. Cases of jewelry glitter above rows of brightly-colored candy. Somehow, everything in here feels shinier, designed to grab his attention and keep it.

And yet, just as it had been out in the terminal, Kieran is what keeps catching his eye.

Zach’s studied art pieces like this before. Cleverly arranged to direct the gaze a certain way. Kieran seems to have this figured out, somehow, inserting himself effortlessly into every space and becoming the point of convergence with all the confidence of a person designed to be looked at.

It’s a marvel, actually. He has total mastery of the one thing Zach can never manage: he carries himself like it doesn’t matter if people are watching.