Rising (Otter Bay #5)

Chapter 1

FELIX

“Felix, all I’m saying is, you’ve gotta get back on the horse. Piotr being a dick doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ride one ever again.”

“Thank you for phrasing it exactly like that,” I said, holding my phone up with my shoulder while I locked my temporary apartment door and stepped into the first of the spring sunshine, breathing in a lungful of crisp morning air with a hint of salt on it.

“I can always count on you to lower the tone of a conversation.”

“You love me,” Avery said. “So how’s… Muskrat Falls or whatever?”

“Otter Bay,” I corrected for what felt like the seven hundredth time.

Avery was just screwing with me at this point, and I knew it.

They wouldn’t have been my best friend if they couldn’t get me to lighten up every now and again.

“It’s… quiet. I mean, quiet quiet. I think I heard actual crickets last night. ”

“In March?” Avery asked.

“Okay, well, maybe not crickets. I don’t know how bugs work. It’s not New York, anyway.”

“Nowhere’s New York except New York, babe,” Avery said, letting their thick Brooklyn accent come through loud and clear. “But it’s not the same without you.”

“It’s only been two days. You miss me?”

“Like a limb. What’re you doing up this early? Isn’t this meant to be, like, a vacation for you?” Avery asked.

“I have class,” I said, holding my phone out to glance at the time. I needed to be there in ten, but I could see the dance studio from where I was standing. “Ballet for over 65s is first thing Monday mornings. Amelia wants me to sit in on it so I know what I’m doing later today.”

“She’s got you teaching on your first day?”

I snorted at their indignant tone. “She’s always been a hard taskmaster, you know that.”

“Is she still insanely hot?” Avery asked. “I bet she is.”

“You’re asking the wrong man,” I said. “She looks, uh. Relaxed? Soft, I guess. Not in performance shape, which makes me think I might actually be able to do this.”

“Yeah?” Avery asked as I side-stepped a woman walking a tiny little dog in what I was fairly sure was a hand-knit sweater. When I looked up again, something caught my eye.

Coffee.

“How’s your pain today?”

“Uh,” I said, distracted by the promise of caffeine. It was across the street, but it was technically on my way to the studio. It was good manners to come bearing gifts, right? Amelia had framed this whole thing as a favor I was doing her, but it was really a favor she was doing me.

Also. Coffee.

I could be in and out and still show up to the dance studio on time, as long as there wasn’t much of a line.

“Like a four?” I answered belatedly, already looking both ways to cross the street, which was equally deserted in either direction. At a little before eight, it was just me, the dog walker, and a woman in front of the florist down the street setting out flowers.

“So at least a six,” Avery said.

“I’m fine,” I said, and I was fine. Pain was just pain. It wasn’t as though it was going anywhere.

I was fine.

“Mmhmm. Okay. Tell me about Beaver Canyon or whatever.”

“Otter Bay,” I said automatically. “You’d like it here, actually. There was a huge sign on the way into town advertising Big Dick’s.”

“Wait, for real?”

I chuckled. “Local mechanic. It’s… a very small town.”

Small town or not, the coffee shop—Grinding, the sign told me—was bustling, although the line still looked manageable in the seven and half minutes I estimated having left. The studio was only two doors down across the street.

“Do you think he lives up to his name?” Avery asked.

I weaved my way around a woman with a stroller and narrowly avoided tripping on what I thought was a chocolate Labrador as I fell into place behind a man a head shorter than me in a sheer, oversized constellation-print shirt.

He glanced back at me and obviously registered that I was new in town but didn’t say anything.

“Who?”

“The local mechanic,” Avery said. “God, keep up, I’m being lecherous here.”

“I’m not likely to find out,” I said.

“You should. I mean, you should try to see a dick, while you’re there.

Have a little no-strings fling with one of the locals.

You could post pictures of someone tall, dark, and handsome and make it very clear they were railing you to within an inch of your life and then Piotr would know you’d moved on and he’d fume. ”

“Isn’t Kieran sniffing around already?” I asked. I knew now that Piotr didn’t care about me. Never had, never would.

“You’re hotter,” Avery said.

“I’m getting old.”

“Felix, you’re twenty-nine. I think they’ll hold off on shipping you to the retirement home for another few years.”

“Hang on, I need to order,” I said as I approached the head of the queue.

“Get me something fun,” Avery responded as I held the phone against my chest. Some part of me wished I could just order them whatever sounded the most ridiculous. That we were about to meet up and walk to the theatre together like we always used to. That the last six months hadn’t happened.

But they had. And I’d never walk to the theatre again. And that was that.

“New face!” the barista enthused, beaming at me. No nametag. There probably wasn’t a need in a town this small. “What can I get you?”

That was an excellent question. I hadn’t bought Amelia coffee in a while. Last time I had, it’d been… cold drip, with a splash of oat milk, I thought.

Nothing, I’d learned recently, lasted forever, though.

“I don’t suppose you know what Amelia from the dance studio across the street usually orders?”

Small town. Couldn’t hurt to ask, right?

The barista’s face lit up. “Ooh, you’re Felix! We’ve heard all about you. Welcome to Otter Bay. First coffee’s on the house for a friend of a friend, and I’ll throw hers in, too. And a couple of the dirty chai blondies my incredible husband just put on our menu. She’s had three this week already.”

I raised an eyebrow. But then, Amelia was retired now. I supposed she could have three blondies a week.

The phrase incredible husband also caught my attention. At least I wasn’t the only gay man in town.

“I’ll get started on hers. You look like a black coffee kinda guy? Three shots?”

“You’re good,” I said, surprised.

“I am,” he replied, getting started on the drinks as promised. “Iggy, by the way. And that’s Theo,” he added, nodding to the dog sniffing politely at my shoes. “If he’s bothering you, I’ll ask him to leave you alone.”

“He’s fine,” I said. “Can I…?”

“Pet him?” Iggy lit up. “Absolutely, but he’ll be your friend for life.”

I stepped out of the way and crouched down, stifling a hiss at the movement.

My phone rang. I swore under my breath and swiped to answer it.

“You hung up on me again,” Avery said. “How do you still not know how to use your phone?”

I opened my mouth to say sorry, and Theo picked that moment to lick my face.

“Is that a dog?” Avery asked. “Oh my God, are you petting a dog without me? What kind of best friend are you?”

I paused to take a photo to send them later, checking the time in the corner of the screen. Four minutes left. Still plenty of time, and no where are you? text from Amelia just yet.

“His name’s Theo.”

“Hey, Theo,” Avery crooned through the speakers. Theo’s ears perked up. “I bet you’re such a good boy. Bring him home for me.”

“I’m not stealing a dog for you,” I said, scratching behind Theo’s ears. My thigh was still protesting, but I wasn’t giving in that easy.

“You’d give me a kidney if I needed it,” Avery said.

“Well, yeah,” I agreed. “The kidney’s mine to give.”

“Order’s up,” Iggy called over the counter, sliding two coffees—both hot, so things had changed—and a paper bag across to me. I stood, biting back another pained sound, and tucked the blondies into my dance bag so I’d have both hands free for coffee. “Tell Amelia I said hi!”

“Are you sure you don’t want money for these?” I asked. Were all small towns like this? It’d been a long time since I’d last been in one.

“Positive. I know you’ll be back once you’ve tried those.” Iggy grinned at me.

“Gotta go,” I said to Avery, hanging up—I hoped—one-handed and dropping my phone into my dance bag as well. Two and a half minutes, still on schedule. I grabbed both coffees and headed straight for the door.

A poster for an open mic night partially hidden behind an overgrown fern in a hanging basket caught my eye just as I was approaching the door.

The single broadest chest I’d ever seen in my life came through the door while I was distracted and forced me to step back at the last second. My thigh, already mad at me for crouching without a warmup, seized up so painfully it brought tears to my eyes.

I stumbled forward and crashed directly into the owner of the enormous chest. Coffee-first.

Blood rushed in my ears, heart racing. I froze.

“Whoa, hey, are you okay?” a voice asked.

The voice of a man I’d just thrown two hot coffees over. He was holding my arms, holding me steady. Just as well, because I wasn’t sure my knees were working.

“I am so sorry,” I said, nearly deafened by the pounding in my ears. The adrenaline rush made me weak enough to tremble. The last time I’d had an accident, the last time… “I didn’t see you, and then—”

“Hey, I know, it’s fine,” the man said. Voice calm.

I took a breath, breathing in motor oil and masculine sweat and clean cotton.

My eyes fell on the name badge sewn to his overalls. Cooper.

And the logo above it. Big Dick’s Lube and Service.

“Are you okay?” Cooper asked again.

“Fine,” I said. “Fine, as long as you’re…”

“I’m fine,” he said. I managed to look up, then, and met warm brown eyes. Kind. Crinkling at the edges. “I was just coming in here to get a coffee to throw on myself anyway,” he added. “Can I replace yours?”

I blinked at him, then glanced across the street to the dance studio. My two minutes had to be up by now, and Amelia was waiting for me, and I didn’t want to fuck this up on my first day.

“Uh, no, I… I have to… I’m sorry,” I said, squeezing past Cooper to escape from the coffee shop I was definitely never going back to. “Send me the cleaning bill,” I called out as I hobbled across the street, thigh burning as hot as my face was, and slipped into the safety of the dance studio.