Page 135 of Code Word
Luke looked at me and smiled. He slung his arm over my shoulder. “Let them fight.”
Steve made a face. “Well, there’s also talk about paydirt for proof. Photos, that kind of shit.”
I sighed and Luke’s hand went down my back. “Great,” I grumbled.
Maddox groaned a pissed-off sound, earning a look from me. He met my gaze and sighed. “That means people following you, your every move. You’ll probably need some security.”
“Yep,” Jer added.
Steve nodded and I let my head fall back. “Well, we had a good run at normality.”
Luke pressed his forehead to my shoulder, but he never said anything.
Wes and Amy brought Benny up from the beach. “Hey, guys,” Wes said to Maddox and Roscoe.
I put my hands out. “B-b-b-Benny and the Jets.”
She ran straight for me and I picked her up. “Unca Bake make sandcastles?”
Her vocab was much better now, but she still called me Unca Bake and I never wanted that to change. I tickled her tummy. “Best idea ever.”
Wes sighed. “She has no off button, so good luck with that.”
So we made sandcastles while Wes and Amy took a break, and everyone chilled on the patio. Before too long, I heard Luke fire up the grill, and soon afterwards, the smell of grilling meat and seared fruit made me realize the time.
“That smells like dinner,” I said, then held Benny’s hand while she stomped on our castle—the best part of sandcastle building—and Amy took her in for a bath.
I helped Luke at the grill.
And by help, I mean, I stood behind him, kissing the back of his neck while sneaking chunks of mango off the hotplate. I don’t know where he found the recipe or the ability to make the sauce he basted on the fresh mango before he grilled it—spicy, salty, even a little sour, but paired with the sweetest mango on the planet. It was so freaking good.
We ate sitting around the patio table, fairy lights picking up the slack when the sun finally disappeared. It was just like old times, the way we talked shit and laughed.
Benny fell asleep on Wes and he took her in and put her to bed. He came back out with Luke’s guitar, sat down, and strummed a few chords. “We shoulda got some of the good Mexican tequila,” he sang.
Jeremy made a dry retching sound. “Never again. Tequila is banned forever.”
Maddox snorted. “Oh yeah, from that night you drank half a bottle of tequila straight, fell into the pool, cracked your head open, and almost drowned.”
“Don’t remind me,” Steve mumbled.
“Hey,” Jeremy said indignantly. “That was the no-going-back night. The ‘holy shit, I have feelings for a guy’ night. If it wasn’t for the head trauma, I’d never have kissed you the next day.”
Everyone laughed. “Thanks, babe,” Steve said dryly.
“Okay,” Jeremy asked. “Luke, tell us all when you first realized you had a thing for this idiot.”
I waved. “Uh, thisidiotis sitting right here.”
Everyone kinda waited for Luke to answer. In the end, he groaned. “Remember Mrs. Galani’s music class in ninth grade?”
The guys all sort of nodded, but it was Wes who reacted first. He leaned forward, eyes wide. “Ninth grade? You knew back then? You knew you liked Blake since way back then?”
“Jesus,” Jeremy whispered.
“That’s like, the same as me,” Maddox said. Then he made a disgusted face. “When I kinda figured it out. Not that I liked Blake, obviously.”
“Gee, thanks,” I said.
