Page 72 of Shattered Veil

“This is far from a rug-sweep, Cas,” I replied gently. “You think I want to up and announce that I was in your bed when we haven’t even had a chance to talk about us? Of course not.”

Her shoulders sagged in a quiet relief. “Talk about us later?”

“Talk about us soon,” I corrected.

Cassie gave me a small smile, and it appeared as though she were about to speak once more, but a loud buzz sounded from the side table. Her focus was pulled to her cell, her grin waned, and she told me:

“It’s Liam.”

“His timing is impeccable,” I said in an exhale. I gestured once again to the bathroom. “I’ll take the bathroom; you stay out here?”

She nodded in agreement, picked up her phone, and answered it, “Hey, what’s up?”

Walking the few steps to the bathroom, I rolled the door closed, strained my ears for a beat to ensure that Cassie’s voice was relatively inaudible, and finally re-tapped the button to unmute the call.

As casually as I could, I said, “Good morning, brother.”

“Hey,” he spoke slowly, “bad time?”

“There have been better times for you to have me on speakerphone,” I remarked. “Hi, Claire.”

“Ah—hi, Jay.” Her voice came out in a squeak.

I chuckled, “What’s going on, guys?” My mild amusement at their timid responses immediately fell away when I heard Luke audibly take in a loud breath, and let it out in a ragged sigh. I pressed, “Guys?”

“It’s Colton.”

What felt like an electric shock ran through my body as my brother spoke his name in disdain. My body froze, and I questioned, “What about him?”

He replied bitterly, “He called Claire from an unknown number. He’ll be at Henry’s in an hour.”

“I thought you said that no one was dead, dying, or in danger?” I retorted in a snap. “You let me put you on mute?”

“No one is dead, dying, or in danger,” Claire argued.

“Oh, by all means, take my question literally!” I mocked, my voice coming out in a hiss in an attempt to keep the volume at a minimum. “Ya probably should have led this call with: Colton’s reappearing in broad fucking daylight to a public establishment! You made it sound like everything is fine!”

“This is to plan,” Claire reminded me. “Everything is fine. Broad fucking daylight shouldn’t matter to someone who is keeping up the appearance of having nothing to hide, and that public establishment doesn’t open for another two hours.” She added with gumption, “Luke and I are scheduled to open today, Garrett’s not even on the work calendar until tomorrow, and Henry’s out of town. Colt said he has the laptop. This is a best. Case. Scenario, Jay.” Claire stressed, “No one is dead, dying, or in danger.”

The details of the situation sank in, albeit slowly, due to my disbelief and subsequent hesitant relief, and I quietly responded, “Oh…I…okay. Where—wait—how’d he get out of 2D?”

“He hung up pretty damn quick; he didn’t say.”

Luke noted, “Not out the front door, obviously. Liam’s been watching his camera. He said he didn’t see him on any of the footage.”

“Right, the camera,” I muttered, considering for the briefest moment that Liam—and Zoey, Claire, and Luke, if they had discussed it—had known that I had been home very little as of late.

It didn’t matter. Not now, anyway.

After a short pause, Claire spoke, “Colt’s going to want to pick your brain about whatever he’s involved in.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I sighed. “I’ll be there soon. I don’t really know that much, but my, ah—my friend might. I can give him her number; don’t worry, it’ll be a later thing.”

It was the only workaround I could think of to keep Cassie’s means of work in the dark. Thankfully, both of them murmured their agreements and had no further inquiry. However, I could only assume that they had realized that I was in bed with my friend who works at Gas Lamp. The dots there could only be so hard to connect, after all, and they left me feeling rather torn. The relieved half of me knew that, despite the severity of our current situation, the rumor would spread. Naturally, the entire group would be on my side for arranging to speak with Colton at a later time because bringing another person into the mix with the situation with 2D would be alarmingly dumb. Our two problems—if we were to deem them as something as trivial as that—would remain separate, and Cassie and I could speak with Colton as we saw fit.

It was good. It was a good thing. Really.

But the other half of me—the romantic that was still reeling over the second night that we had spent together—was both disappointed and guilt-ridden. The nature of the way I had fallen right into her was just as I had anticipated it could be—hard and fast—and the intensity of my feelings for her was only snowballing with every kiss. Every sigh of her against me. Every look into her warm, brown eyes. Truthfully, if the timing were right and our lives less chaotic, I would have already been contemplating if we should announce our seeing each other to the group and, more importantly, her brother because I wanted her. I wanted her hand in mine at Henry’s, my fingers toying with hers atop the bar. Double dates with Luke and Claire. Jesus—dinner with Liam and Zoey, even, once the dust settled from the dropped bomb that is our relationship.

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