Page 158 of Body Check

Gavin squeezed his hand.

“Hey!” Wade protested, though amusement lurked at the corners of his mouth. “I’m around when it matters.”

Trevor leaned in, whispering something in his ear, and Wade threw his head back and laughed, pulling Trevor closer. They were an attractive couple, that was for sure.

“Have you guys done the sunset dinner on the deck yet?” Gavin asked.

“No, that’s scheduled for tomorrow.”

“We just finished,” Dakota said, looping his arm through Gavin’s. “It was incredible.”

“How was the salad?” Wade asked, smirking.

“Delicious,” Dakota answered just as Gavin said, “So far, so good.”

Dakota frowned, giving him a puzzled look.

There was obviously an inside joke there, but he had no idea what it was. He did have a vague memory of Gavin saying something about getting food poisoning at an inopportune time once though …

Wade must have noticed his confusion because he winked at Dakota. “Have Gavin tell you all about that story later.”

Gavin shot Wade the finger. Ahh yes, sometimes, Gavin was stillexactlylike the guys on the team.

The four of them made small talk for a few more minutes, then said good night.

“I mean it, text me if Wade can’t make it to any more of your planned excursions,” Dakota told Trevor after they’d exchanged numbers. “I’ll be happy to fill in.”

“Same, man,” Trevor said. “If Gavin pulls that shit on you.”

“You know, it must be nice to have a job that doesn’t require being glued to your damn phone, huh?” Wade joked, slapping Gavin on the shoulder.

“Tell me about it,” Gavin said with a wry twist of his lips.

But the guys hugged goodbye once more and they went their separate ways.

The minute Wade and Trevor were out of earshot, Dakota turned to Gavin. “So, tell me the salad story.”

Gavin sighed heavily. “Well, it happened like this …”

When he was done, Dakota was still laughing, but he managed to say, “Something tells me that would have been a lot of big dick energy in that hotel room anyway. I’m not sure either of you would’ve been flexible enough to make it work.”

Gavin made an offended noise, but Dakota held up a hand. “Now, yes. But not then.”

“Yeah, fair enough,” Gavin conceded.

“I have some ideas about what we could dotonightthough,” Dakota said teasingly as the wind off the ocean lifted the hem ofhis shirt and ruffled his hair. “Assuming the salad doesn’t decide to ruin our evening.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“Well … I’m thinking after our walk on the beach, we could go out in the pool in front of the bungalow and do a little skinny dipping.” That was hardly revolutionary, since they’d done that every night since they arrived, but he continued. “And then … we’ll play it by ear.”

Gavin grinned. “Sounds like a plan.”

Later that night, the sound of Gavin’s buzzing phone pulled him from a deep sleep.

He rolled over, fumbling to silence it before it woke Dakota. When he sat up and turned to check it, he found Dakota sleeping on his side, his expression peaceful. Moonlight spilled in from the window and, for a moment, Gavin felt disoriented.

The moon never came in through his condo windows in Boston …

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