Page 22 of Hell or High Water
Then he was leaving, disappearing out the door, and there was nothing left to do but to walk up to where Nate was hunched over the bar. His shoulders seemed even broader from his perspective, the muscles in them even more prominent, his dark green henley clinging to them.
“Hey,” Ramsey said, sliding into the barstool next to him.
Nate shot him a look full of disbelief and annoyance. “What do you want?”
A more sane man might have led with, “Hey, I’m sorry I wasn’t upfront about myactualjob two months ago and then freaked out when it turned out you were painfully close by association to my best friend.”
But Ramsey had never pretended to be particularly sane. There was always a point to the chaos, and an end goal in mind.
This time he wasn’t surewhatthe end goal was, so that was unusual, but Ramsey didn’t see any reason not to go with his normal shit stirring.
“Remember me?” Ramsey said with an easy grin.
Nate grimaced. “Youliedto me.”
“Actually,” Ramsey said, “I told you the truth. You just didn’t want to believe it.”
“This how it usually goes with your hookups?” Nate demanded.
And okay, he was clearly pissed. Ramsey had known that before he’d come up to him. Honestly, he’d known he was going to be pissed the moment Wes had told him that Nate was coming tonight, just another name on a list of them. But Ramsey had underestimated just how annoyed Nate was going to be about it.
“Sure,” Ramsey said. Thatwasa lie. This was not how they went, at all. First, he never let them get as close to the real him, not like he had that night in June. And on top of that, unless there was something to be gained from the connection, he rarely slept where he ate.
It was just easier to keep things neat and tidy.
The last time he’d made the mistake of hooking up with a guy too close to his actual life, it had been the Evergreens’ equipment manager, and the guy had sent him two years’ worth of sappy, pathetic texts before Ramsey had finally let him down as easily as he could and blocked him. At the time, it had seemed simple enough—the guy had a lot of insider knowledge of the new coach. Info that Ramsey had needed.
But in the end, it hadn’t been worth it. Far too messy.
“I don’t believe you. I don’t believe a word you say,” Nate said bluntly.
“If I remember right, I was the only one who wascompletely, totally honest.” Ramsey shot Nate his most dazzling smile. The smile that had always gotten Ramsey, with a little work and effort, whatever he’d wanted.
But Nate seemed infuriatingly immune to it. “Bullshit.”
“I told you I was a hockey player.”
“You also told me you had a wife you were looking to cheat on. And that you were going to buy a bar.”
And okay, yes, the imaginary wifewasbullshit. But it had been a test, one that Ramsey found worked really well at sorting the assholes from everyone else.
And not only had Nate not gone for it, he’d not believed it.
He hadn’t waited for Ramsey to tell him it was a lie, he’d toldhimit was a lie.
“And you decided I was Willy Nylander’s dog walker,” Ramsey said, using the smile again, more out of habit than the belief that it might actually work on this guy.
Nate actually had the nerve to look disgruntled he’d brought that back up. “It was more believable than what you were telling me.” He glanced down, into his glass. “Never met a hockey player who looked like you.”
“Probably never met another guy who looked like me,” Ramsey offered.
“Is everything for you a joke?”
Not even remotely. Nothing about Ramsey’s life was a fucking joke, especially now. But if he told the truth . . .no. He never told the truth. He’d told Nate already enough of the truth the first time they’d met, and now he was paying for that honesty.
“You seem to have me all figured out,” Ramsey said.
“And you seem way less pissed and inclined to run away than you did in June,” Nate said, frowning.
