Page 23 of Flights and Sights

Tommy laughed once. “Hardly. How’s Cal?”

My cheeks heated and I was sure he clocked it, because he nudged me with his elbow. “He’s good. Family stuff. You know how it goes.”

His eyebrows rose skeptically. “You’ve spent the past two days helping someone you just met mitigate their family drama?”

I shrugged, trying hard to look casual. “I…”

“You’re into him.”

“Fuck you,” I muttered without venom. “How can you even guess that?”

“Please. I’ve known you for most of our lives, and you’ve maybe dated six people in that whole time. I know when you have a crush. It’s easy to tell.”

I rolled my eyes. “How?”

Tommy just shrugged. “Have you kissed him yet?”

The heat in my cheeks intensified. “Fuck off.” I rubbed the back of my neck, which felt unusually warm.

He cackled. The bastard actually cackled. “Exactly.”

Suppressing a sigh, I tapped the point-of-sale tablet we used as a register, pretending to check our sales for the day. “He’s only here for a few weeks. It doesn’t even matter. He’ll be gone before we know it, back to the East Coast, and I’ll never see him again.”

“Didn’t you mention he has family nearby?”

I’d given Tommy a brief—and vague—rundown of the situation when I asked him to cover for me last night. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean anything. He only visits once a year at best.”

Tommy nudged me with his elbow again. “Long-distance relationships are a thing.”

I shook my head and turned to him. “Why are you pushing this?”

“I just want to see you happy. You’re my best friend.”

“Aw, thanks,” I said dryly.

“Fuck off.” He laughed and looked like he was going to say more when a pair of customers entered the taproom.

I looked up and my stomach turned to ice. Jacob and Angie. What the fuck are they doing here? I took a slow, deep breath, and Tommy turned to see what I was looking at. “I’ll explain later,” I said quietly. “You take this one.”

He nodded wordlessly. That was one thing I loved about working with my best friend. He understood that not everything needed to be explained right away, and he would gladly take on a difficult customer for me if needed. He had the lumberjack look, too, so he was able to handle issues that arose from customers getting too rowdy, not that I expected that from Jacob and Angie.

“I’m going to head out,” I said, praying they hadn’t noticed me. “Can you and Matty close up tonight?”

Before I could get away, though, I heard my name being called. “Paxton?”

I turned slowly, tightening my face into a grin that I hoped was at least semi-convincing. “Oh, hi. Jacob, right? And you’re Angie.” Jacob nodded, his grip on Angie’s arm tight. I frowned, not liking the look of it. “Thanks for coming in. Can I get you anything?”

Jacob’s frown deepened. “You work here?”

I cleared my throat. “Owner, actually.”

He exhaled, a sharp little laugh coming from him, and moved his hand from Angie’s arm to her back. “Interesting. I knew Callum was seeing someone working-class, but this… this is not what I was expecting.”

I gritted my teeth, jaw tight, before I spoke again. “Come on in and have a seat. Tommy will be happy to take care of you.” I waited until they sat before I retreated to the back rooms, found a stool near one of the fermenters, and sat down. Forcing myself to take a few calming breaths, I sat with my eyes closed for what felt like a long time, until someone cleared their throat in front of me. I opened my eyes to see Tommy standing there, arms crossed.

“What the fuck was that?”

“Remember how I told you I was pretending to be Cal’s boyfriend to make his family reunion a little easier for him?” He nodded, so I continued. “Well, it was mostly because he wanted to avoid his terrible ex. The terrible ex that happens to be sitting in our taproom right now, enjoying the fruits of our labor.”