Wednesday's Three Word Wednesday

The word prompts over at Three Word Wednesday are deliberate, intervene and nourish.

Boast
The lie he told was perpetuated without explanation or denial.
It was told, deliberate, in a crowded barroom where no one dared question him. They heard it, yes, they heard him, but they all looked around, looked at the floor, looked as if they wouldn’t intervene. Call his bluff, call bullshit.
He did it, said it there at that time and place, to bolster a reputation. It carried with it the desired effect; people talked and the lie would ripple like waves from a pebble dropped in a lake.
All he had to do was sit back, keep his mouth shut.
Fine. He was down with that.
But what he really did with the lie – and he knew it down to the gristle of his soul, the lips-pressed-thin smile – was nourish an identity.
Hide a secret.