Ramsey went easily so he must not have minded either.
“Oh, he’s demon twin-ing again.”
“Demon twin-ing?”
“Don’t tell meyou’vemissed that he and Trevor, his stepbro, have got some real tension between them. Tension of the sexual variety.”
“Oh yes, that,” Ramsey said somewhat dismissively. “Don’t tell me you’re going to get in the middle of that.”
“Trust me, I don’t want to,” Nate said. Then paused. “Wait a minute. Are you—you—seriously suggesting that I shouldn’t be meddling?”
Ramsey just shrugged though, apparently aware of the irony of the situation, but unwilling to shoulder it. “That’s something even I wouldn’t get into the middle of,” he said. “Families and sex. Scary combo.”
Nate couldn’t disagree with that. “You just get here?”
“Oh, no. I’ve been here for hours,” Ramsey said. “There was a supplier issue with the napkins I had to get sorted out.”
Nate paused, repeated in his head what Ramsey had just said. “Wait a minute.”
Then it was Ramsey’s turn to freeze. “Oh.Oh.”
“You didn’t mean to tell me that. You didn’t mean to tell me that you help run this place.”
“Uh, actually,” Ramsey hesitated. “I’m a part owner? Majority owner, in fact?”
The thing was, Nateknewhe didn’t know everything about Ramsey yet. That he was still waiting for Ramsey to unpack some—ormost—of his closely hidden secrets. But this was one that he’d never seen coming.
“Wait.Wait.”Nate was still reeling, but of course Ramsey hadn’t stopped talking.
“I was just going to advise on the gaming room,” Ramsey said, “but then I did the walk-through while they were still putting the interior together and I made a few suggestions.” He shrugged, like investing in a bar wasn’t a big deal. “And then towards the end of the process, someone had to buy out, and I’d just signed that big contract with the Wolves, and I had the money, so I figured why not?”
“Why not,” Nate stated blankly.
Ramsey flushed a little. “I wasn’t going to tell you. The only one who knows is Wes, and that’s only because there was no way to avoid it. But I didn’t really want anyone else to know.”
“Why not?” Nate repeated, but this time he made it a question.
Nate could count on one hand the number of times he had ever seen Ramsey’s mask truly slip. It was slipping now, even as he watched Ramsey try to gather himself. “I really wasn’t going to tell you.”
Nate nudged him. “Is that supposed to make me feel better? Because I gotta tell you, it doesn’t really.”
“Shit, you’re right. Told you I’d be terrible at this.” Ramsey made a face. And for a second, Nate really saw him. Saw all the insecurities and anxieties. All the churning that went on beneath Ramsey’s smooth exterior. And maybe that should have made him like the guy less. Should have made it impossible to love him, but instead, Nate just felt a swelling tenderness. A recognition that Ramsey was human too, even as he tried to convince everyone he was actually superhuman.
“You’re not terrible,” Nate murmured. “But I wanna talk about this.”
Ramsey tensed.
“Not in abadway,” Nate said. “Just . . .you own this place, apparently. Can’t you wave a magic wand and get us into one of the private rooms?”
“I got just the thing,” Ramsey said and took him by the hand, leading him towards one of the narrow hallways and into a room lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
Nate took in all the books and the big wide window seat at the back of the room with its long, gathered velvet drapes.
“The door doesn’t lock, but it’s the library. Nobody comes in here,” he added. “Especially during the nights when the place is overrun with football players.”
“Hey,” Nate retorted instinctively, but Ramsey only grinned.
“Not better when the Leafs come in either,” he admitted.
