Chapter Fifteen #2
On the al fresco five minutes later, she brought him a mug of coffee—black, with one and a half teaspoons of sugar the way he’d always liked. “You want a bickie?”
He shook his head, and Maria disappeared back into the house, returning soon with her own mug and a teapot she put on the low table.
“All right. What’ve you gotten yourself into? Is this about money again?”
“Not this time. It’s…” He needed to just bloody spit it out. “It’s about who I’m seeing.” Was that the right word? He was seeing Lachlan, though that made it sound like they were dating.
Shit. Were they dating?
Which was better? Dating or just fucking his son’s best friend?
“Ohh.” Maria grinned. “Do tell.”
“Lachlan,” he managed.
She waited expectantly. “Okay. Who’s this Lachlan?”
He shifted on the floral patio couch. “Yang.”
It took a second, then her eyes widened. “Lachie?”
He nodded.
Mouth open, she half-laughed. “I did tell you he’d grown up to be very handsome. Didn’t expect you to run with it.”
“It’s not funny, Mimi.”
She nodded with a grimace. “It’s not. Don’t reckon Ryan will be thrilled to learn this.”
“He wasn’t.”
“Ah.”
“You haven’t heard anything from him?”
“I haven’t. Which is a surprise. He’s always loved complaining about you. Maybe he’s really growing up. Frankly, would be about time.”
“He’s had good reason to complain.” The coffee burned his tongue, but Tim gulped it anyway.
“Right. So, you and Lachie.”
“Uh-huh.”
Maria rolled her eyes. “That’s all you’ve got? You need to talk, Bull.”
He groaned. “You and your talking.”
“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? Or you could be having a beer with your mates and grunting occasionally at the footy.”
“It’s a Monday arvo. Though it’s not like I can go round Petey’s any time of the week and tell him I’m screwing a kid.”
“He’s not a kid. He’s turning thirty in July.”
Tim blinked. “How do you know when his birthday is?”
“Because he and Ry were best friends. They had a joint party at the beach that one year on Ryan’s birthday because he was sad Lachie had to celebrate in the winter.”
Tim groaned even louder and rubbed his face. “Christ. I don’t remember that.”
“Your memory’s always been shit, darl. Look, the point is that he’s an adult now. If it wasn’t for his connection to Ryan, there’d be no issue at all.”
“Righto. No issue at all.”
Maria cocked her head and gave him one of her long looks. “What other issue would there be?”
Tim gulped more of his coffee. “You know.”
“Spell it out for me.”
“It’s one thing to be—” He waved a hand. “You know.”
“I do, but you need to get used to saying it.”
He slumped deeper into the love seat and muttered, “Bisexual.”
“Sorry. Didn’t quite catch that.” She cupped her hand to her ear as he groaned again.
“Bisexual,” he said, stretching out the syllables. “I’ve said it a few times. I told Cody and Liam the other night.”
Her face lit up as she poured herself a mug of green tea from the pot. “The queer lifeguards you’re renting from? That’s wonderful! It’ll get easier and easier the more you do it, mark my words.”
“If you say so.” He had to admit she was very probably right. “Anyway, I should leave you to it—”
“Not on your life. I asked you a question.”
He tried to look busy with his coffee mug. “Hmm? Can’t recall. Shit memory and all that.”
“If Lachie wasn’t Ryan’s best mate, what other issue would there be?” Maria pinned him with her gaze. “He’s a lovely man. Smart, handsome, kind. What’s the problem?”
He was tempted to ask for a bickie to eat after all just to have something to do. “It’s one thing to fool around with a bloke. Get off. But this…”
“What’s different about this?”
“Christ, you really missed your calling. People pay good money to be—what’s the word? Cut open and examined.”
“Dissected?”
“That’s the one.”
She sipped her tea. “I’ll take that as a compliment. And you haven’t answered the question.”
“I kissed him. Want to kiss him again. Can’t stop bloody thinking about him. I just feel…” He lifted his hands and let them fall to his lap with a dull slap.
“That’s it right there, isn’t it? You feel. For a bloke. It’s not just about sex.”
“How the fuck did I let this happen?”
“I believe the kids say you ‘caught feelings.’”
“It’s ridiculous! I’ve only known him six weeks! I can’t be—” He couldn’t have these feelings. “But I’m all twisted in knots.”
Really am too old for this shit.
“I seem to recall that when we met, I took you home for a night and you basically never left.” She shrugged. “We just knew, didn’t we? We fit.”
He couldn’t argue with her, so said nothing. He’d fallen for Maria hard and fast. He could not let himself do the same thing now with Lachlan. It wasn’t fucking allowed.
Maria watched him keenly. “How did it happen, though? Any of it.”
“Remember I went to that wedding in Bali? Tony’s girl. Met Lachlan at the hotel bar. Didn’t have a clue who he was.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Seriously?” She seemed to ponder it. “He’s changed a lot now that you say that. And he didn’t know you?”
“Oh, he did. Just didn’t say anything. He reckoned it would be ‘his secret.’ Had a little crush on me way back when. Which makes me feel like a perv even though he’s grown now.”
“He is.” She frowned. “You didn’t do anything wrong. He should’ve told you who he was.”
“Yep.”
“You’re not aggro about it? You didn’t have full consent.”
“I was at first, but…no.”
He thought of drinking the champers on the terrace, then swimming the saltwater lagoon with Lachlan at his side in the dark. Then Lachlan with his mouth on him under the water. Laughing together, and holding him on his lap…
He wouldn’t trade it. And Christ, he wanted more. Not only the sex. He wanted to take Lachlan to dinner and talk to him about life and make him laugh and laugh. He wanted to—good god, he was keen to hold his hand.
Maria arched a brow. “I reckon it was a good night in Bali?”
Tim nodded. “But I sure as hell knew who he was once I met him in the tower with all the lifeguards.”
Maria bit her lip, clearly trying not to smile. “And you couldn’t stay away from each other? Like it or not, that’s pretty romantic.”
“Romance wasn’t the plan! I came back to make good with Ryan. To help an old friend. To be back home. And now I’ve stuffed it all up.” He sat up straighter. “And that’s what’s wrong with it! I’m his boss. I can’t be fucking any of the lifeguards.”
Maria winced. “Shit, there is that. That’s…pretty bad, all things considered.”
“See? I was going to tell Teddy first thing this morning that I have to quit, but Ryan went off. Said Teddy has enough to deal with and I’ll make things worse by leaving him in the lurch.”
She sipped her tea. “He has a point. You’re in a position of power, though. I know you’d never use that power inappropriately, but—”
“How do you know that?”
Maria’s brows met. “Because I know you. It’s not your style, mate. If Lachie knew who you were in Bali, it sounds like he was the one with the power.”
“Yeah, but…” Tim exhaled in relief. “Suppose so. I just hate to think that I might’ve…” Snatches of memories whirled through his head—standing over Lachlan and fucking his mouth, pinning him down, holding his wrists. Then he heard the echo of Lachlan’s whisper.
“I want you to put me on my knees.”
Tim swallowed hard, a bolt of want gripping him, low and powerful and like he needed it to keep on breathing. “No. I didn’t take advantage,” he said.
“’Course you didn’t. Like I said, not your style.”
“I am still his boss.”
“It’s a problem,” Maria agreed. “If this was only about sex, I’d tell you to end it and put it in the past.”
“We have. It’s finished.”
She arched an eyebrow. “And those pesky feelings?”
“They’ll go away. Came on quickly, and they’ll leave just as fast.”
“Easy as.”
“Yep.”
“Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out.”
“I do,” he insisted, and Maria was good enough not to laugh in his face.