“Um. What?”
I glanced over at Monroe, whose eyebrows were trying their best to disappear into his hairline. We had an hour before we opened, so we were just hanging out up at the front. “Just curious,” I said.
“Sorry, did this happen to you, or…?” He scratched his jaw. “I never know what’s gonna come out of your mouth.”
It was kind of cute how perplexed he was. Monroe usually acted so unaffected by everything around him that to elicit anything other than apathy or annoyance was a win.
“No, not me,” I hedged. Which wasn’t a lie, but my next words were. “I think I saw some comment online…anyway, I was just wondering.”
“Right. A truly bizarre and random question.”
“Well—”
“What’s up, beautiful people!”
Monroe and I turned toward the door, where Riley had just come crashing through.
Oh, shit.
“Ri, have you ever fainted from an orgasm?” Monroe called out.
Riley didn’t miss a beat. “Nope, but sometimes it feels like I might. Why?”
“Lea wants to know,” he said.
Oh lord, what had I gotten myself into?
Riley had a huge grin on his face—when did he not?—as he slid onto a barstool. He was enormous, and he made the stool look tiny under his hefty mass. He rested his elbows back against the bar, pecs popping and biceps bulging, every muscle on show thanks to his tight black tank top. “What kind of kinky stuff are you getting into?”
I covered my face and groaned. “Ugh.Nothing. It was just a question!”
Riley laughed and pulled a lollipop out of his pocket, yanked off the wrapper, and stuck it in his mouth. “Dang. Claws out already and it’s not even noon.”
“Don’t you have a job you need to be doing?” I grumped.
“Yeah. In a little bit. Thought I’d come see my two favorite dudes,” Riley said, scrolling through his phone. “Maybe convince you to save me some chicken poppers for later tonight.”
“If there’s any left by the time you get here, sure,” said Monroe.
Ah, speaking of tonight. “I’m gonna have to leave around five again unless you absolutely need me to be here, I’m doing something with Beau,” I told Monroe.
“You’ve been spending a lot of time with him lately,” he remarked.
I glanced sidelong at Riley, hoping he wasn’t listening.
“Yeah, I’ve been teaching him how to swim,” I told him. Among other things.
“Damn, he doesn’t know how to swim?” Riley piped in.
My heart thumped hard as I prayed he didn’t suspect anything.
But when Riley slid his gaze to me with a knowing little grin, I knew I was fucked.
I could play it off. Monroe still didn’t know, right?
But once I started talking about Beau, I couldn’t stop and there was no playing off anything. “No, he never learned how. He’s getting pretty good, actually. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who loves the ocean as much as he does. Maybe it’s because he never got to see it until he came here? Oh, god, you should have seen the look on his face the first time we went down there. It was so sweet.He’sso sweet,” I gushed, staring down at my hands.
I was smiling, I realized. And when I noticed how quiet it was, that no one was saying anything, I glanced up at Monroe.