The smell of perfectly fried seafood filled his senses and made his stomach growl. That was something he hadn’t expected. He’d taken a seat in the Yankee Pier only because it gave him a clear view of gate one, and he’d ordered only because there were other people waiting for his table. He’d chosen the first thing he saw on the menu and didn’t expect to eat any of it, having polished off a fast-food burger and fries at the Santa Barbara airport before catching his flight to SFO. But now that the food was here, there was no way he was going to leave a speck of it behind. He’d never known you could actually get good food in an airport. If it was going to happen anywhere, he figured, it would happen in San Francisco.

If this turned out to be today’s only surprise, that would have been okay with Shawn. United flight 6396 was already approaching the runway. Five minutes after its wheels touched down the gate doors would open and the Burbank passengers would spill out. He’d sit here and watch them all as they deplaned, and if none of them looked the slightest bit familiar he’d be nothing but happy. He’d already bought a ticket for his return flight just in case, and it would start boarding in half an hour.

But he didn’t expect to be on that plane. Not if Gus had been on this one. Because there was only one reason Gus would have taken the most expensive, least convenient flight he could have found, and that was to hide his trip from his best friend. That was why Shawn hadn’t bothered checking out any of the cheaper or easier flights. If Gus had taken one of them, Shawn would have known not to worry. Sure, it would have been strange that Gus had flown to San Francisco without telling him, but there could have been an innocent explanation for that. The most likely, in fact, was that Gus had told him at one of those moments when Shawn hadn’t been paying attention. Or that Gus had told him and he’d completely forgotten all about it, like he did most things that had no immediate impact on his own life. But for Gus to take this flight was a screaming admission that he was deliberately trying to hide the trip.