Chapter 6
SIX
FIGURING YOUR SHIT OUT
“Do you think it’s wise that we…” I began, turning to Knox before I finished speaking.
Except I didn’t finish.
Taking one look at how his face was frozen, my heart stuttered.
We were in his kitchen, making dinner. I was on salad duty; he was seasoning the hamburgers he was going to put on the grill.
And I knew by that look on his face, now was not the time to shovel shit at him, something we’d both been finding was fun as all hell to do.
Instead, I put down the knife I was wielding, moved to him and slid my hands from his waist, up his back, pressing myself to him as I pressed him to me with my arms up either side of his spine.
“…that maybe we just keep us to ourselves for a while?” I finished quietly.
He didn’t touch me. Just stared down at me, his expression still frozen, his eyes shielded.
“This is just…it’s just…” Me, Luna Nelson, who really didn’t ever have any problem saying what I had to say, in the face of his, well…face, I was having difficulty finding the words. “You see, I like you. A whole lot.”
I felt his body instantly relax against mine.
Okay…
Um…
What was that?
Whatever it was, it was not for now, at least not right now, so I pushed through it. “And I kinda want this, just for a while, to be just us.”
His body relaxed more, and he finally touched me, putting a hand to my waist.
“I was thinkin’ the same thing, baby,” he muttered.
“I don’t want our beginning to be like Raye and Cap’s, with everyone in our biz. Though, at least they can’t hold a pool, betting on when you’ll give me the business like happened to the Rock Chicks, as that task has already been ticked off your to-do list.”
He smirked.
Hot.
“Or Jessie and Eric’s thing that’s happening now…” I continued and smiled. “With everyone in their biz.”
He bent his head so his lips touched my smile and pulled back.
“Definitely. And I’ve read the Rock Chick books,” he told me. “So I know we really don’t want anyone in our biz.”
Whoa.
He’d read those books?
“You read them?” I asked for confirmation.
“Not all of them yet. I’m up to Luke and Ava’s story.”
“What is that? Four in?”
“Book five.”
I liked this.
He was a reader.
I was also a reader.
I had visions dancing in my head of when we weren’t banging, lying in bed, tucked close, both of us with our books.
They were really good visions.
Even so.
“Are they terrifying?” I asked.
“Totally,” he answered.
I busted out laughing.
The Rock Chick books were, inexplicably, the written love stories of the OG Hot Bunch, or the Nightingale Men who came before Cap, Knox, Gabe, Javi, Roam, Landon, Liam, Brady, Shaw, etcetera’s crew (those guys were known as the Hottie Squad).
Those books had been published and everything.
They also had tales of car chases, and explosions, kidnappings (plural), pandemonium in gay bars and foot chases through haunted houses (and that wasn’t the half of it).
Me, and the rest of the Angels (who were, I should note, next gen Rock Chicks) wanted nothing to do with reading them.
When I was down to chortles, I saw Knox smiling at me, all gentle.
Man, he was just beautiful.
“We can come out when…you know…we’re solid,” I said.
His head tipped to the side. “You don’t think we’re solid?”
I grinned big at him. “Honey, we’re two days old.”
“Question still stands.”
I pressed deeper to him, remembering that look that had been on his face just moments before.
Also remembering how his arms tightened around me when I’d asked on our first night together if he thought we were a mistake.
I was further wondering if I should get into this with him.
However, we were young. He’d gotten into the heavy on the first night. But even though we spent last night together too, and obviously tonight, where we were cooking our first meal together, he hadn’t taken it there again.
I hadn’t either.
Maybe it was too soon.
Not to mention, that deep conversation had been about whether we were going to explore this.
We decided we were going to explore this, and we were doing that.
We didn’t have to bare all within seventy-two hours.
We would have time.
Oodles of it.
“We’re solid,” I confirmed. “Though, you do imminently face the grave task of wowing me with your grilling skills.”
His lips curved up.
“Do not take this lightly, my man,” I warned. “Our future depends on it.”
That was when I heard and felt him chuckle.
I also got much more than a lip touch after he bent his head to mine again.
“Finish the salad, beautiful,” he murmured when he was done with my mouth. “I’m hungry and I got a test to best.”
“I’m rooting for you,” I told him.
He shook his head, smiling.
I let him go and went back to the salad.
He returned to the hamburgers.
Spoiler alert: he manned a grill like a master.
I didn’t have any doubts.
* * *
I was at work, behind the bar at The Surf Club, leaning on it, staring across the space toward Byron.
Byron and his laptop.
Byron was a regular. As previously mentioned, like, a daily regular.
Like, he had his table across The Surf Club from Tito’s “office,” and no one ever sat there, except Byron.
Tito’s office was also just a table, but it had his books, his journals, and some little potted plants as décor. He was usually sitting there, unless he was out watering Lucia’s herb garden that was behind SC, or further afield, on a bender.
Our three owners/bosses were completely different.
Tex, who manned the coffee cubby, was loud and hilariously obnoxious.
Nancy, his wife, was sweet, and we were all loving it that, now she and Tex had settled themselves in the Valley of the Sun, she came in more often than not and helped out (this also had to do with the fact their house was in the perpetual state of renovation since it hadn’t been touched since it was built in the ’60s, and the Rock Chicks were making it their mission to come down and see to bringing it into the new millennium, one room at a time, so being at SC was an escape).
Last was Tito, who was very quiet, had an eclectic wardrobe, always wore sunglasses, had a mysterious past, and we all adored him.
Byron came in so often, and drank so many dirty chais, I didn’t remember the last time I was there—and I’d worked at SC for six years—when he wasn’t at his table with his caffeinated beverage, and if the hour warranted it, some of Lucia’s food, and his laptop.
Hmm.
His laptop.
“You okay?”
At this question, I turned to my left to see Harlow loitering there.
What I wanted to say was that I’d be okay if everyone stopped asking if I was okay, a question the girls had been asking me since I came out about Knox.
But these were my best babes. I’d told them about Knox, and they were worried about me.
So I needed to chill and let them do what they had to do.
“I’m hanging in there,” I told her.
She smiled, her eyes moving over my face to see if I told any lies.
In order for her not to see I kinda told a lie, I said, “Do you know what Byron does for a living?”
She shook her head, and her gaze wandered Byron’s way. “I’m usually too busy working to chat with him, but that’s no excuse for the fact that I see him every day, I find times to chat with all my girls, and I’ve never asked.”
I hadn’t asked either and felt like a bitch I hadn’t.
I mean, six years?
“You know the Angels have been talking about getting a local computer guru,” I remarked.
I felt Harlow’s attention return to me, but I was still watching Byron when she asked, “You think we should ask Byron?”
I turned to her. “I think our only other choice is Cody, and he’s a Nightingale guy, so he might help, but he’ll also not be able to help if say, we get a mission that the boys don’t want us on.”
“He could be working on spreadsheets or something,” she noted.
“Have you ever seen his screen…as in, ever?” I queried.
“Hmm…” she hummed, her gaze sliding back to Byron.
“What are you guys talking about?” Raye asked after she walked up to us.
“I’m thinking about the Angels talking about asking Byron to be our local computer guru,” I told her. “If he’s got the skills. We’d have to ascertain that.”
It was then Raye’s gaze moved to Byron.
“There is a possibility he’s an internationally wanted computer hacker,” Raye said.
This had been her idea for some time. I’d always laughed it off.
Now I wondered.
Raye came back to us, smiling. “But as you know, that’s just my overactive imagination. That said, he’s on that computer all day, every day. That is, when he’s not sucking back his dirty chai or eating Lucia’s cooking.”
As already noted, this was true.
“Well, I can’t say for certain, but it kinda feels like he hides his screen. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it,” I remarked. “I mean, that’s fishy. Right?”
“I think it’s fishy,” Harlow said.
“Could be fishy,” Raye said. “Could also just be that he does confidential stuff for work and he keeps his screen in a position no one sees it because of that.”
Could be.
Could not be.
I’d never had a job that required computer work. But if most of it was confidential, I would assume a boss wouldn’t want me doing it in a public space.
We all sat with that for a moment.
Raye broke that moment.
“Anyway,” she went on. “I got a text from Clarice. Arthur has the briefing on Knox’s family ready for us. We’re meeting at Headquarters tonight after the girls get off shift. Seven thirty.”
“I can’t,” I said.
“You can’t?” Raye queried.
“I’m having dinner with Brady.”
Raye rolled her eyes. “I thought you two were gonna stop that shit.”
“We are. It’s just friends, as it’s always been just friends.”
Kind of.
Actually, mostly, except the fake flirting/dating part.
“Right,” Raye scoffed.
“I think he just wants to debrief and move on from it,” I said. “Closure.”
“Whatever,” Raye mumbled, then suggested, “Wednesday.”
“No can do on that, too,” I was happy to say.
The longer I delayed, the more time I had to figure out how to get them to stand down.