Page 39 of All the way home

Kieran nods at Zach’s phone. “That the not-girlfriend?”

“The definitely-not-girlfriend.” Zach thumbs up to her contact information to show him Mara’s contact picture. It’s of the two of them at prom last year, arms locked around each other. They’d gone together, which had been a Rather Big Deal for her parents, who thought it was a Zach-and-Mara-Are-Finally-Getting-Together situation instead of a Zach-and-Mara-Have-Limited-Options situation.

“Cute.” Kieran tilts his head.

“She has a girlfriend,” Zach blurts out.

Jesus Christ, way to play all of his cards.

In his head, Mara smirks. You sound desperate, Loren.

He fights the urge to scowl.

“Ah.” Kieran sticks his hands in his pockets. “Well, that’s fine. I wasn’t really talking about her.”

Heat flares in his cheeks as though Kieran just pointed a hair dryer at his face. Stomach lurching, his brain does a full loop-de-loop trying to figure out if Kieran’s saying he thinks Zach’s cute.

As eloquent as he’s ever been, Zach says, “Uh.”

With a visible wince, Kieran puts both hands up. “Warn me now if you’re the ‘stone the gays’ type of straight guy.”

Blinking, Zach’s mouth drops open.

How is he doing such a terrible job of this? Mara’s in his head again, busting up laughing. She’ll just about die when he tells her all this later, but he can’t even start properly thinking about how humiliating that will be before he realizes with a jolt: Kieran does think he’s cute.

Taking in his visible wariness, Zach blurts out, “I’m not a straight guy.”

For a moment, Kieran just stares at him. Then, with a little nod, he clears his throat. “Right. Okay.”

And Zach can’t help the horrible feeling that he’s misconstrued something. A carpet yanked out from under him. Helplessness overtakes everything else. “I mean, it’s like—whatever.”

“Whatever?”

“Mara said I give off straight vibes,” Zach explains quickly. “I don’t know why.”

“Mara’s the definitely-not girlfriend?”

“Yeah. She says”—he thumbs back up their thread for reference—“yeah, she says I look straight like a ‘damaged Victorian.’ Whatever that means.”

Kieran snorts. But at least he’s back to smiling again.

Relief unspools through Zach’s chest in ribbons. Maybe he’s not so hopeless after all.

“And, like, yeah. I am aware I seem like I’ve been recently poisoned. I don’t know why that makes me seem straight, but apparently . . .” He trails off to a stumbling halt, startling when he realizes that he’s been absently staring at the cover of a werewolf romance novel with a flowery script laid over a set of hard cut abs on the cover. And Kieran’s totally caught him too. Cheeks still flaming, Zach drops his gaze, murmuring, “Jesus Christ.”

Kieran laughs brightly. And then says nothing.

Alarmed, Zach’s head snaps up.

But Kieran’s already moved on, shaking his head. “Rena.” With a jerk of his head across the shop and a conspiratorial smile, Kieran says, “I think she’s obsessed with me.”

Sure enough, Rena’s across the shop, watching them with the slightest smile. When she makes eye contact with Zach, she drops her gaze.

“Is she following us?”

“Possibly.” Kieran lifts a shoulder. “But you have to promise you won’t hold it against me that she’s a snoop.”

“Oh, I make no promises,” Zach tells him. Then, because unless he’s totally losing it, Kieran’s definitely been flirting with him, he adds, “I’m sure you can figure out a way to offset the creep factor yourself.”