Page 27 of Peacocks

It became even more true when the man pulled Lane into a quick embrace, complete with a kiss on his cheek like something out of a movie.

Pete’s jaw dropped. “Who isthis?” he whispered to me, but I hadn’t the first clue.

Lane extracted himself from the hug. “Pete. Jay. This is… this is Chad. My ex-boyfriend.”

This?Thiswas Lane’s ex? I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that, but the thought occurred to me that if I found the man’s car in a ditch, I wouldn’t offer him a tow.

Not for free, anyway.

Pete immediately stepped out from behind the desk, inserting himself between Chad and Lane. “Hey. Peter Winchell:vet tech, supply wizard,currently single. Lovely to meet you, Chad.”

Chad’s eyes flicked over Pete with polite interest. “Likewise, I’m sure.”

“Chad…” Behind Pete, Lane shook his head. “What are you doing here?” I liked to think he didn’t sound overjoyed to see the man.

“I was in the area meeting with an old colleague, and I thought I’d stop by and take you to lunch. We have a lot of catching up to do. I heard you’d ended up practicing in a small town but hadn’t quite believed it.” His gaze swept around the front room and then out onto the street, where a couple of people were canoodling under a wisteria bower. “It’s… something, isn’t it?”

Though his smile didn’t slip even a fraction, I could tell he didn’t think that “something” was anything good.

Lane gave me a helpless look I couldn’t interpret, and then his jaw firmed. “Actually, Chad, I already have lunch plans…”

Suddenly, I thought I understood Lane’s look. He wanted me to bow out gracefully so I wouldn’t make him uncomfortable. “Oh! No, Lane. Don’t, uh, don’t worry about me.” I put both hands up. “You two can go ahead. I’ll catch up with you later. At home.”

“Home?” Chad asked curiously, his eyes ping-ponging from Lane to me and back again.

Lane blushed. “Yes. I mean…” His face turned a red so deep it looked painful. “Jay and I… Jay is my…”

He gave me another helpless look, but this time, I caught on faster. “Landlord,” I supplied. “Yep. I’m Jaybird Proud, and I lord Lane’s land. As his landlord.”

Pete, Chad, and Lane gave me identical slack-jawed looks. Lane was the first to recover. “Jay is my friend,” he said firmly,“and the best man I know. He and I have lunch plans at the Steak n’ Bait.”

I had to suck in a breath, partly because the way Lane defended me made my chest squeeze and partly because the Steak n’ Bait… well, I wasn’t sure anyone had ever explained it to Lane, but that restaurant had a particular reputation. It was the Thicket’s number one spot for romance, at least according to the Yelp reviews, and so many proposals had taken place there they kept a running tally on the big sign out front, even though Chuck Gimbal had to climb a ladder once a week to update it.

Unfortunately, Lane ruined the effect of all this after a long moment of awkward silence by telling Chad with grudging politeness, “But you can come with us, if you’d like… I guess?”

Chad smiled like Lane had sent him an engraved invitation. “Perfect!” He gave me a look that made me wish I’d changed my boots for something that didn’t probably have peacock poop stuck to the bottom and that I’d worn a shirt with sleeves. “We can take my Lexus.”

Unfortunately, things only went downhill from there.

Riding in the back seat of Chad’s Lexus was a special kind of hell—one where I worried what kind of stains my boots were leaving on his pristine cream interior while Chad updated Lane on the lives of every single friend they’d ever had in common—and it didn’t improve once we got to the Steak n’ Bait (currently boasting 2,726 YESSES AND COUNTING).

“Doc Lane!” Barbara McNamara gushed the second we opened the door. “How are you? You know, everyone wants our dinner special, but hardly anyone takes advantage of our lunch offerings, and we were all just so tickled when you called to make a reservation for you and… and…” Her eyes took in Chad’s tall form standing between us, and she pressed her lips together. “Oh.” She blinked. “There may have been a mix-up.”

“Story of my life,” Lane muttered. More loudly, he said, “There’ll be three of us for lunch now.”

I’d say he blushed, except he hadn’tstoppedblushing since the moment Chad arrived… which sorta told me everything I needed to know about how Lane felt about Chad, didn’t it? Still, Lane had invited me. Lane had insisted. So… for Lane, I’d stick around.

The place was fairly quiet at lunchtime—ladies in nice dresses chatted over cocktails while folks in business suits brokered billion-dollar deals… or whatever corporate types did at lunch. Barbara guided us past them to a two-person table way in the back that had been set with flowers. She paused awkwardly.

“Uh. Maybe… maybe this one instead.” Barbara spun toward a four-person table and placed our menus down. “I’ll just… um…” She twisted her hands. “I’ll go see where your server is.”

Chad took a seat, and Jay and I followed.

“This place is cute,” Chad decided. “Lane, you remember the time you and me and Mark Levy went out for dinner to that nouveau cuisine restaurant with the fake fireplace?”

“I remember getting food poisoning,” Lane said tightly. “And riding home in the Uber alone.”

“Oh.” Chad frowned. “God, I forgot that part.”

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