Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
Carol giggled, held up a finger, and became a pageant contestant vying for world peace to her peers.
A fitting image considering her first statement.
“I won the Arbor Bay Little Miss Pageant three times. I have a sun hat for every day of the week. I have been to France.”
Marcus immediately snorted.
Jack had no fucking idea which one was the lie. To him, all three sounded like a Carol Robertson special. Benny kept quiet too.
Ruby spoke before Marcus could answer.
“The lie is that you have a sun hat for every day of the week!”
That was surprising.
Marcus shook his head and leveled a severe look at Jack. “She has a sun hat for every day of most months. I know this because when we went to France after graduation, I had to make my carry-on one of the hat bags just in case they lost our checked bags that had all the others.”
Jack laughed at how ridiculous that was.
Carol waved off her brother and shrugged.
“Keeping my face protected from the sun and being fashionable at the same time is a skill I'm not ashamed to have.” She ran her finger across part of the brim of the giant blue thing currently on her head before pointing to the person to her right. “Your turn, Felicity!”
Felicity ran her hand through her hair and furrowed her brow in thought. Her engagement ring caught the light just right for a glare to skitter across the boat.
Jack found himself wondering how Golden Boy had proposed.
“Okay,” she said, wiggling in her seat like Carol had done. “One, I have a bachelor of arts degree in design. Two, I don't watch network TV. Three, my dog's middle name is Borg.”
The players weren't as quick to answer this time.
Marcus tried first.
“Your dog's middle name is Borg? He doesn't have a middle name?”
Benny backed him up. “Or maybe he has one, but it isn't Borg?”
“You don't watch network TV has to be the lie,” Carol decided.
Ruby agreed with her favorite person.
“Yeah, because who doesn't at least watch The Bachelor nowadays?”
Felicity smiled a little. They were all wrong.
Jack didn’t like her winning.
“You have a bachelor of arts degree in design is the lie,” he answered.
And that’s what it was.
The real answer.
Felicity's little smile turned into a frown.
“Dangit, Jack. I almost had that one.”
The Robertson twins' eyebrows rose in sync.
“I thought you had a design degree?” Marcus asked.
Jack shrugged.
“She does but it's a bachelor of science, not art. For whatever reason. Something I never really understood.”
Marcus didn't look like he did, either.
The difference segued the conversation into the men wondering aloud about the distinction between the two before Queen Carol decided to bring them back to the game. This time she was looking at the next person in their circle.
Marcus.
Unlike the other two, he wasted no time jumping in.
“I broke my arm trying to get a cat out of a tree. I can read Spanish but not speak it. I flashed Madonna.”
A chorus of laughter broke out.
Jack, Felicity, Carol, and Ruby all said the last choice.
Benny, however, disagreed.
Jack was surprised by the grin that was pulling up the corner of his lips.
“You can read Spanish but not speak it,” he answered, confidence unmistakable.
Marcus grinned right on back.
“Man, I was worried you would remember!”
They burst into laughter together.
Annoyance expanded like a breath of air in Jack’s chest.
The Robertsons might have been rich, but there was no way Golden Boy had given Madonna a peek.
Carol also didn't seem amused.
“You flashed Madonna? I think that's something you’d share with your twin at the very least.”
Marcus nodded to Benny.
“Care to explain?”
Benny's cheeks went a shade darker, but he didn't look away from Marcus as he answered.
“We had a substitute teacher senior year who told our class to call her Madonna. Someone made the joke about the cone bra she wore to a concert and Marcus, Mark Welch, and Trevon Daily decided to try and make cone bras out of paper when she stepped out of the room. When she came back, they jumped up to do a little dance wearing them, but not everyone was crafty enough with the tape.”
He started laughing, so Marcus finished the story.
“The cones fell off before I even stood, so I was just motor-boating the air when she walked back in. Worst part was I could see my reflection in the giant cross she wore around her neck.”
“I’m assuming you got into trouble?” Felicity asked.
Jack weirdly wanted the man to say he had, but Marcus shook his head.
“She was a good sport about it. She actually critiqued us and said the Madonna wouldn’t let us on stage like we were.”
“She did give you specifically some tips about your hip movements,” Benny added.
Marcus nodded, turning thoughtful.
“Which now I feel was one of those you-had-to-be-there moments because this doesn’t sound as funny as it was in the moment, I guess.”
Jack agreed with that.
He also felt another breath of annoyance when Benny laughed again.
What was it about Marcus that made everyone just auto-laugh?
You’re jealous.
The thought bubbled up only long enough for Jack to pop it.
He didn’t want to be with Felicity anymore. Why would he be jealous?
No.
He just didn’t like losing. Especially not to a Robertson.
Jack turned to the other Robertson, hoping to move past the current couple of gigglers.
She caught his eye quick.
She didn’t disappoint.
“All right. Two truths, one lie, Mr. Bartender.”
Jack pulled his arm from around Benny and rattled off his three.
“I once got locked in the bathroom at Cassidy's and had to break down the door to get out. I heckled a man doing stand-up and he threw a fork at me. I once shaved a man's eyebrow off when he fell asleep at the bar.”
No one immediately answered.
But Jack clocked two things quickly.
Felicity knew the answer.
And Benny knew she knew the answer.
She was smiling like the cat that got the canary.
Benny?
He wasn’t smiling at all.
Those dark, whiskey eyes slid to Jack’s with an easy-to-see hurt.
That's when it finally dawned on Jack.
Carol hadn't done damage with the stupid little game.
He had.
He'd jeopardized their cover by showing that Benny, the guy who had been in love with Guy for years, hadn't had a clue about which was the truth.
And Jack bet Benny was about to stress about it.
He didn't like that.
No. Not one bit.
But he couldn’t stop the round.
“I wouldn't be excited about any of those truths,” Carol decided after a moment. “But I hope the shaved eyebrow one is the lie.”
Ruby agreed with her.
Marcus took a different approach.
“I'm going with getting locked in the bathroom and then busting down the door. I don't remember a story like that floating around town and I feel like someone would have talked about it.”
Felicity was waiting to answer. Benny must have known it. He answered with an air of defeat around his guess.
“I'm going with the eyebrow shaving. Seems like something more people would have heard about had it happened.”
He cut his gaze to Felicity and circumvented Jack's altogether.
Felicity was all smiles.
“No one ever threw a fork at you for heckling. Stanley threw a butter knife at you, and honestly, you deserved it.”
Jack had to nod.
“Wait, wait, wait.” Marcus waved his hands through the air. “You shaved someone's eyebrow at the bar?”
Felicity laughed.
“I told him not to do that too but, by God, he did it anyway!”
“In my defense, it was Dixon,” Jack had to clarify. “And, again in my defense, it was only after he stuck wax hair removal strips to my legs while I was sleeping. The only way to get them off was to yank them off. After that, I was swimmer smooth and hurting for some revenge.”
Everyone laughed, including Carol.
The humor didn’t last.
It was Benny's turn to play now.
And, with one look down at the dark-haired man, Jack knew he was one breath away from jumping ship.
* * *
It was a simple game with simple rules.
Two truths and a lie.
Easy peasy, lemon squeasy.
Benny felt like he was staring down the barrel of his first public speaking exam from college. All eyes were on him.
And he was naked.
His palms turned slick, flutters filled his chest, he noted all the exits—which was a body of water and not at all helpful—and before he opened his mouth to speak, he actively prayed his voice didn't wobble.
“And try to use something that you didn't post on the internet,” Carol said, pouncing first.
There was no doubt in his mind now that she had picked this specific game to torture him specifically.
Feeling awkward, exposed, and panicked all at once, Benny repeated the name of the game.
“Two truths and a lie.”
He could do this.
Out of his periphery, Jack gave him a smile.
He wanted to smack the man.
Their cover was on the line and Jack had been happy to know more about Felicity than anyone else had.
He’d been so confident.
Confidence like that was sexy.
Sometimes.
Sitting across from your fake boyfriend's very real long-time ex-girlfriend?
Not sexy.
Not even a little.
There had to still be some feelings there, right?
In contrast, Benny had nothing but hesitation for Jack’s answer.
And it weirdly hurt that he’d only had a one in three chance of getting it right and, still, he’d picked the wrong one.
Felicity, however, hadn’t.
None of it should have been surprising and none of it should have made his chest squeeze just a little.
But it had and it did.
Now Benny had a feeling that no one on the boat was going to get his answer right.
Which was fine because it was just a game…
But he still hated it.
In the middle of his spiral, Benny heard a woman’s laughter.
It tied to a memory that was achingly old.
“Some people like ice cream only when it’s ice and some only like it when it’s cream. But at the end of the day it is and was both, so who cares?”
Stella De Carlo had been trying to explain to her sons—using her favorite food—how to not take life so seriously.
Callum had called her cheesy for the sentiment and Benny had laughed at the eye roll she’d given him.
Their father had yelled from the other room that no self-respecting person went to get ice cream only to drink the cream part.
A throwaway quote from their mother.
However, years later, and that’s all Benny could hear.
At least, the last part.
At the end of the day, it’s all ice cream so who cares?
Benny straightened his back, rolled his shoulders, and ignored his rising adrenaline.
Who cared if he was the only one who really knew himself?
It wasn’t like he had been beside them every step of his life?
Wouldn’t it be weirder if they had known him that well?
Benny was tired of his internal questions.
So, he played the game while forcing some courage into his veins.
“One, I once catered a wedding where I caught the groom cheating with the bride's sister and they still got married. Two, Ethan and I have matching Beetlejuice tattoos hidden very well on our bodies.”
Benny finally looked at Jack.
The bartender’s eyebrow quirked up.
One day, they’d all be dust.
Screw feeling awkward on a boat.
“And three, I'm about to jump in the water because hot damn it's humid out here.”
Jack, in all of his attractive glory, finally showed that smirk of his.
He was quick.
“Well, I know which one of those I hope is true,” he said.
But Benny was quicker.
He stood, stripped off his tank top, and walked past everyone to the edge of the boat. He gave his audience a sweeping look, but the only person he managed to focus on was already taking his shirt off.
They might not have known the weird details or the old stories but, in that moment, Benny knew exactly what the bartender was about to do.
He laughed as he jumped out into the dark blue water.
Before he could surface, Jack made a splash right behind him.