Chapter 14 #2
It’s a good thing I was kidding rather than expecting real sympathy from my mates, because they just looked amused.
“Hey, isn’t that your cousin Bob?” Kekoa whispered.
Huh?
I looked around, trying to get a clear glimpse of the people who were being led to their tables, but nothing about them looked familiar.
Wait a minute.
“He doesn’t have a cousin Bob. Neither of us do,” Nyx said, but only after he looked around too, a puzzled expression on his face.
“Oh, come on, everyone has a cousin Bob,” Kekoa insisted. “It’s like an unwritten rule.”
“Was he at the fiesta?” I asked.
“I don’t think so, but it sure looks like he’s interested in paying us a visit now and checking out all the food.”
“Paying…” I muttered, because no one was heading our way.
Then it dawned on me that they were looking through the glass window into the bay, not over their shoulder at the rest of the inhabitants in the room.
With underwater lights illuminating the sea life almost as well as when the sun was out, it was easy to see who he’d been referring to.
There, lazily swimming along, was a sea turtle.
“Cousin Bob,” Nyx snickered as he studied the oblivious creature. “That’s a good one.”
“Yeah, you got me there,” I admitted. “I was seriously beginning to question whether or not I had a Cousin Bob.”
“Same,” Nyx replied.
Beautiful cocktails arrived soon after, at least for Kekoa and I.
Nyx, as the designated driver, just sipped pineapple lemonade as we sampled our way through the appetizers before our main courses arrived.
Sharing, sampling off one another’s plates, and a unanimous decision to order a small chocolate cake for dessert just so we could take the leftovers home was the perfect way to round out the meal.
We left full and laughing at the way the lady at the table next to ours had misunderstood the assignment when it came to enjoying the view of the bay. She’d viewed it like the tank at Red Lobster and attempted to choose her fish dish from the ones swimming past the window.
“Oh my god, hashtag fail!” Nyx cackled once we were halfway up the dock that led to the parking lot and well out of earshot of the diner. “Did she actually think they have guys in scuba gear down there ready and waiting to net whatever fish someone picks out?”
“Apparently so,” Kekoa said, snickering as our joined hands swung between us.
“I just can’t,” I sputtered, trying to picture the guys waiting for instructions before chasing after a fish with a net and laughing harder at the image that popped into my head of them rapidly kicking while the fish zigged, zagged, and ultimately got away.
We were still snickering as the soft, almost somber notes of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas drifted across the dock.
Someone was playing it on the saxophone, adding to the magic of the night as Kekoa tugged me against them, Nyx’s arms immediately going around me from behind.
Swaying, we danced to the song, Kekoa never missing a beat, even while kissing me.
Their lips tasted of sour apple and limes from the martinis they’d sipped throughout the meal.
Halfway through, Kekoa spun me into Nyx’s arms so I could dance with him, my mate grinning as Kekoa swept my hair to the side so they could kiss the back of my neck.
Nyx’s lips on mine completed the circle, and I shivered between them when Kekoa’s hands landed on my hips.
“How do I always wind up in the middle?” I asked when we finally came up for air as the final notes of the song faded away.
“Just lucky, I guess,” Nyx replied.
“More like conspiracy,” I replied, grinning up at him.
“If you say so,” Nyx remarked. We walked the rest of the way to the Jeep with Nyx’s arm around my shoulders and Kekoa holding my hand.
“Thank you both for an amazing evening,” I said as we got buckled into the Jeep. This time I rode in the back with Kekoa, our hands joined as we got underway.
“It’s not over yet,” Kekoa said as they gave my hands a squeeze. “I did promise that flattery would get you everywhere, you sweet-talking thing. I’ll have to insist that our mate takes us out more. It really brings out your charming side.”
“What about mine?” Nyx asked as we left the bay and our memorable evening at the restaurant behind us. “What about my charming side?”
“Isn’t the line supposed to be ‘What about me? What about Raven?” Kekoa asked. “Or in this case, what about Nyx, which still has an awesome ring to it.”
“How have I hung out with you almost non-stop for these past few days and not learned you were a wrestling fan?” Nyx asked.
“What do you mean almost non-stop?” I asked. “When were you separated? I thought you guys had been joined at the hip.”
“All except the time I spent at Cory’s grandma Rae’s place,” Nyx explained.
“Remember, I told you Mom was over at Cory’s when we got there.
She and Cory’s grandma were helping him order new curtains for the house.
Kekoa got in on it too, then Mom mentioned that Cory’s grandmother was having issues with her vacuum, and the next thing I knew, she and I were on the way to her place while Kekoa, Mom, and Cory worked out the best kind of curtain to get that would still allow plenty of light to stream in.
When I left, they were debating the difference between gossamer and lace and which would best create the effect he was going for.
“Which did he choose?” I asked.
“Gossamer,” Kekoa explained. “He wanted something airy and light, so it billowed when the wind was blowing. Lace can be too heavy for that.”
“Right, even thin lace doesn’t have the same kind of flowiness gossamer does,” I said.
“That was our thought too,” Kekoa said. “He was considering silk at one point, then we looked at the gossamer and how many shades were available and shifted our focus over to it completely. It was a great time to buy them too, since the website was having an amazing sale.”
“Really, which site?” I asked. “Maybe we can find a few sets for the patio doors. I’ve seen images of them layered and bunched, and I would love to play with both looks.”
“Shore Life,” Kekoa replied. “I took a few screenshots and had Cory send me the link because I saw more than a few things that I was interested in.”
“Perfect, we can look in the morning,” I said. “I don’t have to be at the office until eleven. That should give us plenty of time to pick out a few things.”
The DJs must have had romance on the mind tonight, because every song that played on the drive home was soft and wistful, which led to Kekoa and me snuggling in the backseat until we pulled under the carport.
Exhaustion was truly beginning to hit me as we stepped inside, which was why my brain struggled to process why there was a massive, couch-shaped pile of tinsel in our living room.
At first glance, it looked like a tangled mess, until it dawned on me that it was wrapped around whatever was beneath it because it couldn’t be our lumpy old couch it was much too big.
“What the hell?” Nyx said, echoing my sentiments.
Unlike me, he headed over to investigate, while I remained leaning against the entryway to the living room, trying to work out how the hell it had gotten in there.
“So, surprise and Merry Christmas,” Kekoa said as Nyx tugged at the first strand of garland to reveal the tan and aqua cloth underneath.
Whoever had wrapped it up had gone above and beyond. Winding garland over and around the huge, sectional couch, Nyx revealed once he’d stumbled upon the best way to unwrap it without wrecking the garland.
Joy flooded me the moment enough of a plush, overstuffed cushion was revealed that I could sit on it and gently bounce. “You got us a couch! A fucking awesome couch too. Oh my god, this is soft. I may never get off it.”
“Even to join us in the bedroom?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I said, grinning over at them. “But how? You were with us all night. You didn’t even get up to go to the bathroom.”
“I had help.”
“No shit,” Nyx said. “This is amazing, Kekoa. It’s big enough for the three of us to sit on together and cuddle.”
“That was the plan.”
“Thank you,” I said, tugging them down to sit on my lap. “I can’t believe you did this.”
“Why?”
“It’s just, talk about unexpected in the best possible way. The old couch was the one thing wrong with the room after you put the lights up. Now it’s perfect, just like you.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” they said. “Or are you forgetting that little visit with the cops?”
“Oh, I doubt any of us will forget that anytime soon,” I said. “But I can still think you’re perfect and the best early Christmas gift I’ve ever received.”
“Dayum, that’s sort of what I was going for with the couch,” Kekoa replied, the little shit.
“It’s a close second,” I said. “Meeting you easily trumps it, though. That was the single best outcome of a barfight I’ve ever been a part of.”
“Single best, huh?” They replied, leaning in to rub noses with me. “Sounds like there are some more wrong-place, misunderstanding stories wrapped up in all that. I can’t wait to hear more about them.”
“You got me,” I admitted.
“I sure do,” they replied. “Snared you both in my tentacles, and I don’t ever plan to let you go.”
“Good, cause if you tried, you’d find out which of us was truly the clingiest.”
“Really?”
“You’re damn right!”