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iron hidden in a tree branch caught his eye. “You missed one,” he called out.
“Missed one?” Ryan said, his voice right beside Dar.
Dar leapt. “Geez, you scared—me.” Dar’s mouth went dry as his gaze transferred from coffee table to the man next to him. “Oh, God.”
Ryan Pierce shifted his weight uneasily. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Dar’s voice squeaked high and mousy.
“Hi.”
Dar shouldn’t be staring, but it was as if his body had frozen. All their phone conversations came swirling back to mind. Every laugh. Every joke. Every tease about Ryan being gay. About Ryan sharing the name of the actor on the set.
Every single instance when Dar admitted how sexy he thought Ryan Pierce was.
“You must think I’m a complete moron,” Dar choked after a minute.
Ryan’s brows drew together in confusion. He shook his head slightly, knocking dark tendrils of hair off his shoulder to fall forward. “Why would I think that?”
“Ryan Fenmore, oh your name is the same as that actor-guy,” Dar loosely repeated.
Ryan smiled, his lips twitching a little nervously it seemed. “You caught me off guard. I didn’t expect you to know that.”
“God, I feel like an idiot.”
“Please don’t.” Ryan shifted again. He motioned to the magazine on the table. “Which one did I forget?”
Dar blinked, glanced down. “Oh,” he said. “The iron in the tree branch.”
“I looked for that thing for ten minutes last night after we talked. Couldn’t concentrate for shit.”
Ryan cocked his head to the side and studied Dar’s profile. Dar could feel it and he reluctantly faced him again.
“I was nervous about meeting you. Afraid you’d be disappointed or pissed,” Ryan told him.
“To be honest, I’m not sure what I’m feeling. Disappointment isn’t it, and I’m not pissed.”
“That’s good.”
“Maybe.” The embarrassment part isn’t good though .
“Can I get you a drink?”
“Sure.”
Ryan went to the kitchenette. For lack of anything better to do, and still not able to sit still, Dar followed him. Ryan opened the mini fridge.
“I’ve got Coke, Mountain Dew, Sprite.”
“You could have stopped me,” Dar grumbled.
Ryan stood, door to the fridge still open. “What do you mean?”
“Every time I made a fool out of myself by talking about the great Ryan Pierce, you could have stopped me.”
Ryan grinned. “What would be the fun in that?”
“The fun was at my expense.”
Ryan picked up two Cokes. “This okay?”
When Dar nodded, Ryan popped the tops and closed the distance between them. Dar took the drink, but Ryan didn’t move away.
“I’m sorry,” Ryan said. “It’s not often you hear someone’s real opinion of you. I hear a lot of biased stuff, some good, some bad. But you told me what you really thought and even if it had been unflattering, I wouldn’t have stopped you from saying it.”
“Then this ,” Dar said gesturing with his Coke can. “Would be really awkward right now.”
Ryan laughed. “Because it’s not yet.” He took a sip from the can.
Dar laughed, too. “Not in the least.”
“I’m glad you came,” Ryan murmured. “Really glad. If you aren’t comfortable and want to leave, I’d understand.”

CHAPTER 6
This isn’t going well, Ryan thought. He’s looking a little pale.
    Dar put his Coke on the countertop. “Turnabout is fair play,” he said cryptically.
“I guess,” Ryan hedged.
“Tell me what you genuinely think of me.”
“Uh.”
Dar smiled suddenly, his eyes twinkled. “The blush is a nice touch. Keep going.”
Geez, I am blushing . It had been a long time since someone had made him blush.
Dar leisurely sipped his can of soda, his smile growing wider and more amused by the second. “Don’t leave anything out, stud.”
“I like you. I like talking to you and you make me laugh. You take me out of myself by reminding me that there’s more than the glitz of Hollywood in the world. Talking to you is like going back to what’s real, what’s solid, that I lost