Sighing, Gabriel straightened up. “Fine. So why should we care about Tristan’s moodiness? Why should we care if he’s sulking for some reason?”
Jared didn’t answer immediately. “I’m worried it has something to do with Zach.”
“Zach?”
Jared seemed…uncomfortable. A few seconds passed before he replied, “About a month ago, Zach came to me for advice. Well, he didn’t come for that, but I gave him some advice.”
Gabriel’s confusion was only growing. “What sort of advice?”
“He told me he was attracted to Tristan.”
“Attracted to Tristan?!”
“Hush,” Jared said, a faint smile playing on his lips. “Why are you so surprised?”
“Why?” Gabriel looked at him in disbelief. “Zach’s straight! He’s marrying Donna in a month!”
“They’re still in an open relationship,” Jared reminded him. “And well, if anyone could tempt a straight man, it would be Tristan.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed, an ugly, vicious feeling twisting his insides. “Oh yeah?”
Jared laughed, shaking his head. “Silly,” he said, his thumb brushing Gabriel’s wrist. “You’re so silly.”
Gabriel blushed, embarrassed by his outburst of jealousy but unable to do anything about it. Of course he was being silly; he knew that. He knew Jared loved him. He knew he was Jared’s world as much as Jared was his. But the fear of losing Jared wasn’t something he could rationalize away.
“What advice did you give him?” he asked, curling his fingers around Jared’s biceps. Screw it; he didn’t care if anyone decided it was too gay.
“I told him Donna deserved his full attention and he should get Tristan out of his system before the wedding. In other words, I told him to fuck Tristan and get over it.”
“Ew,” Gabriel said. “I really, really didn’t need that mental image. But anyway, what’s the problem?”
Jared’s expression was grim. “They’re both adults, but Tristan is my patient—well, not now, but he is. I feel a bit guilty that I didn’t think about Tristan’s feelings when I gave Zach that advice.”
Gabriel laughed. “Feelings? He doesn’t have feelings. Come on, do you think Tristan got emotionally attached after a fuck?”
“That’s the thing,” Jared said, not sharing his amusement. “It wasn’t just a fuck. When Tristan came for his medical, he was covered in hickeys.”
Okay, now that was something he really didn’t need to know.
“Gross,” he said. “So why is that a problem, exactly?”
Jared had a pinched look on his face. “I gave Zach that advice a month ago, Gabe. I thought it would be just a fuck, to scratch the itch. I didn’t think it would last so long. When people fuck for weeks, it’s hard to keep things no strings attached.” Guilt flashed through his blue eyes. “Like Oscar did and then he got hurt when he realized it would always be you for me.” Jared pressed his lips together. “That wasn’t what I had in mind when I gave Zach that advice.”
“How do you know it was Zach who gave him the hickeys? Maybe Tristan slept around later.”
“I know it was Zach. I observed them together. Their body language said it all. I don’t think they looked away from each other for more than a few seconds.” Jared smiled crookedly. “It was a little awkward to be in the room with them.”
Gabriel returned his gaze to his brother. “You really think Tristan got attached?” The mere idea of it seemed ridiculous. Tristan didn’t get attached to people.
“I hope not,” Jared said. “But—well, look at him.”
“Maybe it’s totally unrelated to Zach.” Gabriel scoffed. “Tristan has an icicle instead of a heart. Last year, when you were—when you were gone, he made fun of me, told me my moping was pathetic. He wouldn’t recognize an emotion if it hit him in the face.”
“Maybe that’s the problem,” Jared said thoughtfully.
Gabe sighed. He could see how much it was bothering Jared that he might have inadvertently hurt one of his patients. Jared was too damn nice to people who didn’t deserve it and paid them too much attention (In Gabe’s opinion, he was the only person who should have Jared’s attention, but it was neither here nor there).
“All right,” he said, touching Jared’s shoulder. “If you really feel guilty about it, I’ll go talk to him and find out what’s bothering him, mhm?”
Jared’s proud look made him feel about ten feet tall.
Turning away to hide his blush of embarrassment, Gabe strode toward his brother.
“Hey.”
Tristan completely ignored him, his gaze on the ball at his feet.
Gabriel studied him in silence. When they were teenagers, he used to envy Tristan’s flawless skin and grace. Even now, with the dark scowl marring his features, Tristan looked pretty much flawless. Still, he had trouble imagining Tristan and Zach together. Zach was the last person he had expected to be fooled by Tristan’s exterior.
At last, Tristan shot him a look. “What do you want?”
Gabriel decided to cut to the chase. He didn’t want to be talking to Tristan longer than necessary. “I want you to tell me you don’t have a thing for Zach.”