Asher would be pissed, but he didn’t have to know. Whatever his issue was with Jay, I couldn’t sort him out. If the tables were turned, he wouldn’t have cared about mixing business and pleasure, and I wouldn’t have stopped him. One thing we never did was interfere with each other’s sex lives.

I opted not to shave, hating how doing so succeeded in removing years off my appearance. Jay was in his thirties. I didn’t have a clue how old his husband was. The last thing I wanted to do was look like jailbait.

I found a tight-fitting, forest-green shirt that made the hints of green in my eyes pop, then I fixed my mop, taming my few flyaway chunks, and added a spritz of body spray I’d borrowed from Aaron last week.

My phone pinged. Figuring it was Jay again, I dropped onto my bed and grabbed it from my bedside table. It was my brother.

Asher: What are your favorite gay porn sites?

“Dude, seriously?”

I laughed and typed a response.

Atticus: I’m gonna start thinking you switched teams. Whatever you do, don’t jump out of the closet wearing silky underwear and waving pompoms. The Santiagos’ basement isn’t big enough for both of us.

I left my phone on the bed and decided to venture upstairs in search of Aaron.

It was after dinner at the Santiago residence. The large family’s routine included a sit-down meal at five thirty every night and quiet family time afterward. Quiet was a relative term.

The TV blared in the front room. A laugh track for some sitcom howled along with a few of the younger kids who were piled on the couch watching. Mr. Santiago sat in a separate chair, laptop open on his lap, glasses balanced precariously on the end of his nose.

Mrs. Santiago was doing dishes in the kitchen. I greeted her, kind as can be, and slinked away to the hallway that led to Aaron and his brother’s shared room. Aaron was the only kid not in the front room watching TV, so I assumed he’d escaped to his bedroom.

I knocked.

The door flew open, and Aaron grinned before scanning my outfit. “Hot stuff. You going out?”

“Yeah. I have a … date. Can I borrow your car? Or can you give me a lift downtown?”

“Sure.” He went to spin around but paused and tipped his head to the side. Reaching out, he pulled the collar of my shirt aside and smiled. “Oh, that looks fresh. Get some predate action this afternoon? Is that where you went?”

I shrugged his hand off and fixed my shirt through a nervous laugh. “Um … yeah.”

Aaron waited for more, but when I remained quiet, he disappeared inside his room and came back with a set of keys.

“So, who’s the guy? Someone from school? Someone I know?”