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Maybe I couldn’t tell him in that moment, but the least I could do was make sure he didn’t worry about his little sister.
“Sean, if I’m different, it’s because things are good. Great. Better than usual. The Sparks is crawling toward the black, Grampa’s taking better care of himself and on the right dose of blood pressure meds, and hey, I’m going to meet one of my favorite authors soon. She’s doing a reading here at the bookstore.”
“Wow,” he said, beaming at me. “Okay. I can handle agooddifferent.” He leaned over and kissed my cheeked. “And then there’s Chris.”
“What?”
“You don’t act like you want to claw his eyes out every time you’re in the same room together anymore. You’re even friendly again. One more thing on your good-stuff list, right?”
“Yeah. Yes. One more thing. Of course.” I laughed nervously. “Everything’s great.”
The door chimed, thank God, because I wasn’t doing the greatest job trying to seem casual. I wondered if the word “liar” had broken out in hives across my forehead yet.
Chris walked in, smiling as soon as he saw Sean. “Hey, man. Saw your car out front.”
Sean leaned his elbow against the counter and thanked Chris again for the new venue. He talked about how the wedding planning was going to kill him and made some of the same jokes about it I’d heard him make at least a few times already. Sean needed some new material.
I busied myself at the counter, trying not to listen too closely. But Sean started asking Chris about his mom, and I couldn’t help but pay attention.
The more I listened, the worse I felt.
While I’d been fidgeting and nervous and struggling with what to say to Sean, things that were less an outright lie than a lie of omission, Chris unfurled a story about his mom that I’d have fully believed if I hadn’t already known it was a lie.
He relayed things they’d said to each other. How she’d tried to make small talk, and he knew she just wanted money, so he asked her outright what she needed it for. He gave such a convincinghe said, she saiddetailing of their conversations, I wondered why he was doing construction and not writing fiction.
Chris was a natural. He was as skilled a liar as I’d ever seen.
We were both lying, but I hadn’t expected him to be so damn good at it.
Stop it, Sav. You’re being ridiculous. He’s not lying toyou.
Chris glanced at me after he’d finished his story, and I couldn’t even force myself to smile. “Great to see you, bro,” I said, as I walked around and hugged Sean. “I’ve got to take care of a couple of things in the back.”
I left the room, hoping that by the time I came back to the counter they’d both be gone.
29
CHRIS
Sav didn’t wantto ride together to Sean and Nicole’s bridal party outing. I didn’t think it would seem suspicious if we arrived at the same time, and I wanted to take her home to my bed afterward, but she claimed she had an important meeting first thing in the morning and needed to go to bed early.
Our weekend trip away had been fantastic, but the next day she started acting differently. It was a subtle change, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I’d done something wrong or she had something else bothering her.
She come to my place a couple nights that week, we’d had dinner, made love, and everything seemed fine for a while. But she seemed to talk and joke with me less. And she hadn’t wanted to stay overnight either time.
I’d asked her a few times if something was wrong, but she always said it was just work stress or she was tired.
Then I remembered how she’d acted when I was talking to Sean. With all the wedding activities coming up, and our plan to tell Sean after, I thought maybe her nerves were getting the best of her. I wasn’t looking forward to telling him either, but I was anticipating finally getting it all out in the open and dealing with his feelings, for better or worse. I didn’t want to have to lie to my best friend anymore, and I was sure she was tired of lying to him too.
I shoved my hands into my jeans pockets as I walked down the sidewalk. We were meeting at the only bar in town that resembled a club. It was dark with loud music and flashing lights. I squinted as I glanced around the room, spotting the group in a back corner.
Sav looked gorgeous in a tight black dress and heels.
I approached her first, coming up behind her while she talked to Lucas. I was less bothered by him now, and he nodded when he saw me. I could tell that he knew about me and Sav in the way he left more distance between them when I approached and the look in his eye. I was surprised by this, but Sav knew him better than I did. Maybe she’d told him just to have someone to tell.
Sav glanced over her shoulder at me, then she glanced at Sean standing at the bar.
“Do you need anything?” I asked her.
