Page 66 of Hearts of Fairlake

He smirked, still staring up into the sky. "Not on your life or mine. But we're different than those two, and our relationship is different. Maybe Chase's man can get away with that sort of thing because maybe Chase wouldn't be as bothered by a prank like that, where you would be greatly upset. I don't mind teasing you, it's good for you now and then, but a prank like that is too far for you."

It was direct and descriptive but also lacked the characteristic wariness Sylas had shown when speaking to meabout serious things when we first got to know one another. It seemed Felix and I weren't the only ones who’d made some personal progress and learned a few things along the way. I reminded myself to ask Felix later what he thought had changed on Luke's end if anything.

"Uh oh," my brother's voice piped up. "Someone's got that face that means he's either irritated or thinking real hard about something serious."

I glanced over to see Luke was with him. “How can you tell the difference?"

"Depends on what he says next," Felix said. "Or if Sylas tells on him."

"And ruin your guessing game? Absolutely not," Sylas said. "Luke."

"Lazy ass," Luke grunted back with a smirk. Those two had always taunted one another, Luke more so than Sylas. I was that it wasn't uncommon with siblings, which I hadn't believed until Felix and I had reached a point where we could have a conversation that didn't involve treading on each other's feelings.

"Goddamn right," Sylas said with a sigh.

"Language," Louise said, leaning over the stall. "And this...must be Gray."

Curiosity got the better of me, and I leaned forward to see the boy Luke and Felix had taken into their home. I still wasn't great at reading expressions or moods, but there was a definite surliness that looked out of place on someone so young. That was until someone from the crowd shouted unusually loudly, and I watched his head snap toward the noise, taking a small step back.

Ah, not angry, afraid.

Luke's hand slid up to rest lightly on Gray's shoulder, and while that didn't make the boy relax, he didn't pull away either. "This is Gray. We've been going around, seeing whatthere is to see. We've already run into some people we know."

"Exciting," Louise said, still looking down at Gray. "Meet anyone interesting?"

Gray peered back at her for a few heartbeats before slowly shrugging and pulling his eyes away. I couldn't necessarily blame him. Louise could be a bit much if you weren't used to her. I wasn't detecting any real attitude from him, just an awkwardness and a wariness of those he didn't know.

"A few people," Felix said with a shrug of his own. "Just enough to say hi and all that. He did seem to like Julian and Bennett, though, so that's something."

I heard Sylas' chair creak behind me. “A cop and a firefighter? Likes men in uniform, a guy after my own heart."

"He's a little young for all that," I muttered.

Sylas' voice dropped so they couldn't hear him. “For sex, yeah. But I had crushes at his age."

"Sylas," I sighed, speaking louder than I meant, but my nerves were already tight enough with all the noise and confusion of so many people.

Gray perked up. “Goner?"

His voice was almost lost in the noise, but there was enough strength in his surprise for me to hear him. Sylas didn't miss a beat, though, getting to his feet and leaning on the stall counter. “I'm not surprised to hear my last name. I'm just surprised it's taken this long."

"Probably because you look like you just rolled out of bed after a weekend-long bender," Luke said with a snort.

"Hey now, I've had plenty of those in the past, and I didn't look bad," Sylas said with a snort. He squinted down at Gray. “Not going to lie, the stuff I do isn't usually aimed at someone your age."

"I still saw some," Gray said, shrugging again.

The more I watched him, the more I understood whatFelix had been trying to say when we'd talked this morning. There were some strong similarities to us, or more precisely, me. Before I'd grown a little more sure of myself and comfortable in my own skin, I had come off as antisocial and wary of everything around me. That little shrug, as if to say, 'I don't really care right now' but also 'I'm not sure I should be having this conversation' was something I recognized with sickening understanding because I had done the exact same thing.

"Alright," Sylas said, laying his arms on the counter as Louise slid away to talk to someone browsing the collection of bread. "Dare I ask which one you saw...or should I say, which one you liked most?"

Gray again hesitated, his dark blue eyes flicking around to see that he was being watched, although Luke was doing a better job than Felix and I at hiding it. "Uh...Moore Pain."

"Moore Pain?" Sylas asked, and I could practically hear him groaning on the inside.

When we'd first started dating, I had refused to see any of his work. I had never been able to explain why I refused, especially when he was so obvious in his praise and appreciation of what I did. Yet, every time I tried to bring up a movie of his, I found myself flicking it off before I saw even a moment of his acting. It wasn't until I asked Felix if he'd watched any, which sparked Felix to offer to have a movie night while Sylas had been away for a shoot, before I finally saw his movies.

It was odd at first, seeing the man I loved on the screen behaving in a way that was foreign to who he was as a person. Of course, I knew that was the nature of acting, and I had to say Sylas managed it. I honestly didn't know what he’d meant when he said he didn't have the spark for that sort of thing when the only way I could see the man I knew wasfrom the occasional glimpses that flashed from his characters.

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