Page 54 of Set Fire to This Cardhouse

Toby picks up his glass of water and pours a few drops on the red tablecloth, then sets the glass back down and shoots Liu a smirk. Delaying the inevitable: Toby 1, Liu 0. He’s still not sure how much he wants to share.

“Very funny.” Liu sprawls on the bench and, very deliberately, looks at Toby’s arm. Toby stops itching his elbow.

“This is an ambush,” he informs Liu. “At our sacred lunch, no less.”

Liu makes a considering noise. “Okay, let’s make it fair: tit for tat. I’ll match you answer for answer.”

They’re not supposed to do that, of course. But they’re also not supposed to have private lunches together every two weeks, and yet Liu has made it a point to maintain the routine, hierarchy be damned.

He’s a friend, first and foremost.

Toby drags his fingers through the puddle of water on the table, then nods. “Deal.”

“What’s up with you and Mike?”

Okay then: skip the warmup, go right for the jugular.

“It’s complicated.”

“Try me.” Liu does deadpan better than anyone Toby knows. His eyes are warm, though.

Toby hesitates because he has words, will always have words, but somehow the right ones are hard to find when it comes to Mike. When in doubt, start with the facts.

“He met Haley.”

“Already?” Liu raises a brow. “Took you three years to introduce me. I feel a little unloved here, man.”

Banter Toby can do. Banter is easy. “You’ve yet to introduce me to that illustrious cousin of yours. Until you do, any complaints about me failing you in the friendship department will fall on deaf ears.”

Liu’s second brow rises to join the first. “I was under the impression that you have, in fact, met Jesy. Don’t you have a squash date coming up?”

“Jesy?” Oh. It makes all the sense in the world—Liu’s soft expression whenever he looks at her, the same glint of mischief when they grin. “How did I miss that?”

“Good question.” Liu’s grin is broad, just an edge of smugness to it, and yes, the resemblance is so there. “Very good question. I wonder if distraction in the form of one Agent Redding played a role?”

“You know nothing,” Toby tells him.

“Jesy and I talk.”

Of course they do. And Jesy was there a couple of days ago when Mike barreled straight past them, but more importantly, she walked in on the tail-end of that one squash standoff and definitely saw too much.

“Talk.” Toby draws the word out. “Is that what you do?” Seriously though: Jesy and Liu. Their kids would have cheekbones sharp enough to cut glass. On that note... “Second cousins, right? Isn’t that what you keep saying?”

“I think it’s my turn,” Liu drawls, “but yes. We’re a widespread family. Although” —he shifts, wraps one hand around his glass of water— “apropos of nothing, I’d like to point out that even first-cousin relationships would be perfectly legal both here and in Hawaii.”

“Hawaii?”

“She grew up there. Her family moved to the mainland when she was sixteen, which is when she and I met.”

What’s up with Hawaii spitting out beautiful people that complicate Toby’s life, in different and varied ways? Something must show on Toby’s face, because Liu gives him a look from beneath lowered lids, seeming half-awake, except Toby’s seen him go from faux drowsiness to guns blazing in a matter of seconds. He’s not fooled.

“You got a problem with Hawaii?” Liu asks.

“Not as such. It’s making my life more complicated, is all.” Toby flattens his hands on the table. “Mike’s from Hawaii, too.”

“Ah.” Liu lets it hang for a moment. “He tell you that?”

“Yes. And some other things I shouldn’t know.”

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