Zane cocked his head to one side. “Do tell.”
Cameron edged away from Zane and reached down to pick up the second tray of food they’d been waiting for. “How do you two know so much about killer animals, anyway? I know you don’t watch Discovery Channel, Julian.”
Julian licked his lips, sharing a look with Ty that was oddly familiar, as if they shared a secret. “Studying the way animals stalk is an effective way to… sell antiques.”
“Yeah,” Cameron drew out, keeping his eyes on Julian and shaking his head.
Zane groaned and rubbed his eyes.
“C’mon, Simba, go buy me some lemonade while I find a table,” Cameron said, hooking his arm through Julian’s.
Ty and Zane remained behind them for only the briefest of moments, glaring at each other, before Ty broke away to trail behind them. Cameron got the very distinct feeling that they were communicating silently and that they would be discussing elephants the next time they were alone.
When Ty joined Cameron at the table, it was just the two of them. Zane had gone off to find a restroom, and Julian was waiting in line for a lemonade.
Cameron sat in the metal chair with his club sandwich as he watched Julian. It was always interesting to observe him interacting with strangers, whether he was a lion or a shark or a teddy bear. He was much the same as when Cameron had met him: mostly silent, otherwise soft-spoken and succinct. It had made for a challenge when Cameron served as his waiter at Tuesdays, the gourmet restaurant where they’d met. It still made him smile, thinking about how he’d been so sure Julian hadn’t even known he existed.
Ty thumped down beside him and huffed, breaking his reverie. “You know how you can tell when someone’s really in love?” Ty asked him out of the blue, his tone casual. He glanced sideways at Cameron, one eyebrow raised. “You’re sitting here, watching him do something completely mundane, and you’re grinning like an idiot.”
“And what’s wrong with that?” Cameron asked with a light laugh.
“Whatever, you make my teeth hurt,” Ty grumbled, though Cameron could see the barest hint of something beneath the gruff exterior, perhaps amusement.
“I think you’re just as sentimental as I am. You hide it better,” Cameron claimed, remembering Ty’s snappy response about being away from his loved ones. “I just don’t have to hide it at all. It’s really freeing.”
“I bet,” Ty murmured. Though his eyes still followed Julian’s movements, they seemed to be staring off into the distance as well, as if he was seeing someone or something else. Cameron wondered, as he looked at Ty, what sort of person a man like him would love. Ty shook it off and glanced down, then looked away as if he sensed Cameron’s eyes still on him.
Cameron took a bite of his sandwich. “Don’t you get tired of it?” he asked. “This tough guy image?”
Ty didn’t look at him, but Cameron could see his eyes gaining distance again. “It’s all I’ve ever known,” he answered, voice matter-of-fact and melancholy.
A glance showed Cameron that Julian was accepting the cups from the lady at the counter. Ty would totally clam up once Julian walked over. “It doesn’t have to be that way. Julian was able to adapt,” Cameron offered, hoping Ty might be able to see it could be done. “You just have to love the right person.”
“What makes you think I don’t?” Ty asked in an oddly distant voice.
Cameron was brought up short, staring at him with narrowed eyes. “I have a finely tuned macho bullshit detector, and it’s shrieking,” he said.
“You get a lot of macho bullshit from your boyfriend over there?” Ty asked in what seemed to be sincere curiosity. But with Ty, it was hard to tell what was said in seriousness and what wasn’t.
Cameron shifted uncomfortably. “It doesn’t bother you?” he asked, watching Ty.
“What? Bullshit? I work for the government, man.” Ty laughed and shook his head.
Cameron repressed a smile. “No. That Julian and I are lovers.”
Ty was already shaking his head, as if he’d known all along that was what Cameron had been referring to. “Now who’s making generalizations? Just because I wear flannel doesn’t mean I’m an ass**le.” His knee was no longer bouncing, and he seemed to have finally relaxed a little as he sat there. “Guy’s willing to charge into a room full of guns to protect you and then drag you across the country in handcuffs to keep you with him. Seems like a keeper to me.”
“Yes. He’s a keeper,” Cameron agreed, even though Ty’s words were sarcastic. He cleared his throat. “And Julian is indeed a master of macho bullshit.”
“Yeah, he seems the type.”
“So do you.”
“Oh, I know it,” Ty said. He didn’t seem to take it as an insult, or anything else, really. Just a fact. That alone intrigued Cameron. The more Cameron got to know Ty, the more he realized that the guy seemed to have absolutely no shame.
“So you met him at a restaurant,” Ty said almost to himself.
Cameron nodded. “Tuesdays is a very nice restaurant.”
“Tuesdays,” Ty repeated. He mulled over the name for a while and then nodded. “I can see why that name would draw a man like that. Wait, wait, let me guess,” he said in amusement as he held out his hand to Cameron. “Man that named it was a friend of his.”
“What makes you say that?” Cameron asked in shock, his hand straying to rub at his throat, where the necklace Julian had given him used to hang before it was lost. He still missed its reassuring weight, if not the symbolism of it.
“European criminals. They love their mythology. Tuesday was Mars, the god of war. That restaurant is like a beacon to anyone wanting to deal.”
Cameron almost laughed. He’d had to Google the information when neither Julian nor Blake would tell him. “You know more than I did.”
“Well, that’s what a federal agent does when he’s not watching other people,” Ty told him with a smirk.
“Read up on European mythology?”
“That too.”
Cameron shook his head, amused that he was constantly being surprised by both Ty and Zane. They were anything but what they appeared on the surface.
Ty didn’t speak again. He didn’t even move, not a twitch of a muscle or bat of an eye. Cameron frowned and tipped his head, then tried to follow Ty’s line of sight. But it didn’t seem that he was looking at anything but the blank terminal walls over by the restrooms. Cameron sat back and took another bite of sandwich, turning his chin to offer Julian a smile as he joined them at the tiny table.