Series: Fever Falls Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Frederick and I headed into the club, where Keegan and his friends were already clustered by the bar.
“Ah, Prince Owen’s boyfriend,” Frederick said as he approached Keegan. “Good to see you again.”
They shook hands, and Keegan indicated his friends. “Peter Pan, nice seeing you again. You remember Casey and Steve.”
“Yeah, of course. Good seeing the two of you again.”
As Casey took Frederick’s hand, I could tell by the way he smiled and his cheeks pinkened in the bar light that he was smitten with my friend. Fair enough, since I knew he was a hot guy.
“Sorry I missed your coming out party,” Frederick told Keegan.
“I wish I would have known it was happening. I would have invited you.”
I scanned the club, not really having taken it in during our first visit. A few big-screen TVs were mounted behind the various bars around the place. And it was early enough that there weren’t many people on the dance floor.
“It should pick up in about thirty minutes,” Keegan assured me. “We’re a little early.”
“Nothing wrong with that. Gives us a chance to take everything in.”
We chatted with his friends as Frederick put on his charms, asking Casey and Steve about school and their interests. I assumed he was either saving all his questions for Keegan for our session the next day, or he was trying to get to know these two to decide if we could trust them not to share our secret. Casey didn’t seem to mind Frederick’s interest, though. If anything, he used it as a chance to flirt with my friend, which oddly enough, seemed to agitate Steve, who hooked an arm around Casey like he was sending Frederick some sort of message to back the fuck off.
By this point, Keeg and I had gravitated down the bar some. “Is your friend Steve jealous about Casey talking to Frederick?” I whispered to him. “I thought you said Steve was straight.”
“Oh, he is. He’s just very protective. After Casey came out to his family when we were in high school, his parents kicked him out of the house, and he lived with Steve’s family through senior year.”
“That’s horrible.”
“It worked out for the best. Casey’s parents were assholes, and Steve’s parents are amazing. Now they’re basically close as brothers.”
I glanced back at his friends. Steve still had his arm around Casey and looked between him and Frederick as though he was annoyed with the flirting, especially as Casey started laughing at something Frederick had said.
“And you’re sure there’s nothing between them?”
Keegan looked over his shoulder before shrugging and turning back to me. “Naw. They’ve always been a little weird. They have this game of chicken they play where they like to see how close they can get before the other bails, but neither bail, so they sort of sit there with their faces pressed up against each other, and then they usually kiss just to make it super awkward for everyone…I don’t know. That’s just the kind of friends they are. It’s hard to explain. You have to know them.”
“I guess,” I said, feeling appropriately suspicious of their relationship. I couldn’t really judge, considering Frederick and I had been friends most of our lives and hooked up with women together without ever feeling anything toward one another.
“So speaking of friends, what’s the deal with you and Frederick?”
“Longtime family friends. His father was a lord and a good friend of Mother’s, so we played together plenty growing up. We shared a tutor for some time and went to academy and uni together. And after, when Mother passed, he was there when…well, when I lost it and needed someone to help me find my way back.”
“Rehab?” Keegan asked, and I nodded. “It’s not easy losing a parent.”
“No, it’s not. But you seem to have fared better than I did.”
“It was hard. I was fairly young when it happened, and it definitely put my family through the wringer.”
“You all appear to have come out stronger because of it. Wish I could say the same about mine.”
Keegan’s gaze sank. “Sorry. I thought taking you out tonight would cheer you up. Not dig up all this.”
“It never really goes away, does it?”
Keegan’s eyes teared up, and I could see his pain as he said, “No, it doesn’t, I guess, especially when things get crazy or hectic…or you make big life decisions you wish you could talk to them about.”
Clearly he’d felt the same way I had since everything had begun. “What do you think Crawford would have said about all this?”
“He would have been proud of me. Happy for me. That’s just how he was. What about your mom?”
“I wish I could say the same, but honestly, I’m not all that sure. A part of me thinks she’s looking down, disappointed that I’ve conjured up all this pain for our family and the Crown.”