Chapter 8

The conversation ebbed and flowed as people caught up on what everyone else was doing. Kev fielded some questions of his own, telling anyone who asked that he and Neil were just good friends. Not that everyone believed him from a few of the looks he and Neil garnered. As one man put it, crossing two fingers, “Like verygood friends?”

Neil and Kev laughed, acknowledging they were working in that direction.

“See, I told you this would work,” Kev whispered to Neil at one point. “No one has any doubts that we’re sleeping together, although they’ve been polite enough not to ask that, specifically.”

By that time they had made a stop at the grills set up for the barbecue, filling their plates then finding a place to sit on the grass to eat.

“I take it he’s not here,” Kev said.

Neil scanned the crowd, as he’d been doing since he and Kev had arrived, torn between hoping he’d see Zeke, and praying he wouldn’t. “Not that I’ve seen.”

“Who’s not here?” Greg asked as he and Jan joined them.