Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
Benny was less hot now. His legs hurt less too.
Blushing? Didn’t need to do that in the privacy of his own bedroom, no matter how much stewing he’d been doing since the movie’s credits had started rolling.
The sunburn was, however, annoying.
Every time he thought he found a comfortable way to starfish on the bed, his quilt scraped, his skin radiated with heat, and the urge to fall asleep all but fled into the night.
He sighed once, twice, five times.
In between some of those he glanced at his cell phone next to his pillow.
It was flipped over and on silent.
The urge to check it had been a harder fight than letting go of the idea of sleeping.
Benny had once posted a blog about the time he’d clogged the toilet at a date’s house and, instead of handling it like an adult, he’d escaped through the bathroom window.
And yet one single picture uploaded to the internet, courtesy of Carol Robertson, had offended him more.
“He’s looking at his moon and stars. His boyfriend just happens to be there too.”
That specific comment left by a rando person on the internet of Jack smiling at Felicity had been cheesy.
And effective.
Benny continued to stew between his quilt and fitted sheet.
Not only had he canceled his and Jack’s non-date date and tried—ineffectively—to come up with a plan to calm down the online masses, Benny had had his feelings hurt.
It felt pathetic.
It was pathetic.
For the first time since coming to Arbor Bay, Benny wished he was back in his crappy little apartment in Nashville. It might have been small and had a weird smell that never seemed to leave no matter how many candles he lit or sprays he spritzed, but by God there was no Carol Robertson there.
No Felicity.
No Marcus.
No Ruby.
No hot bartender who said and did one thing but then looked like that at his ex.
At least in his crappy little apartment there was a separation from it all.
A place to hide.
A place to—
The sound of faint knocking halted his self-pitying spiral.
He looked at the door with an eyebrow raised high.
It had to be at least two in the morning. Wasn’t Callum asleep already?
Benny threw the covers off and winced lightly as he walked to his bedroom door. Before he reached the doorknob, the knocking sounded again.
But it wasn’t against the door.
He turned on his heel and stared at the window opposite.
Was it Ethan?
Benny hurried to the window and pulled the curtains to each side, almost sure his best friend had opted for their old method of sneaking around in high school.
The person on the other side of the glass, backlit by the moon, that apparently wasn’t his nerdy best friend, stood carrying a shopping bag and a glare.
It was Jack.
And he was clearly frustrated.
He pointed to the window lock.
Benny’s surprise had his fingers opening it and the window without further questions.
Jack didn’t hesitate.
Benny stepped back as the bartender spilled over the windowsill and into his room. Before he could even stand tall again, a grumble came out.
“I know you own a phone. Not only have I seen you use it, I’ve been on the other side of the line from it before.”
He had changed from earlier that day and now was dressed down for obvious comfort. Dark green athletic shorts and a black band tee, both well-worn, fit him…well.
Benny’s eyes dropped to the section of the shorts where an outline of something could probably be seen if he was more focused.
Then that stare went to the plastic bag Benny realized Jack was holding.
Jack caught his gaze.
He shook the bag.
“I had to run out to grab something for Dixon and saw this and figured you might need it.” Jack pulled out a green bottle of aloe. He pointed to Benny’s legs. “Unless you already got some?”
Benny was immediately moved.
He immediately decided not to be moved.
Which meant physically moving away from the dressed-down bartender.
“Callum had some, but it was a few years old,” he said, not-so-casually stepping back to the bed to get his phone. “Plus, it’s not that bad of a burn now. You didn’t have to do any of this.”
Jack followed every step Benny took backwards.
He held the bag out and shook it.
“Then it was good I got this. Here, sit down.”
Benny blinked and Jack had his hands on him.
He directed him to the side of the bed but paused.
“Actually, you might want to lie down instead.”
He grabbed Benny’s pillows, adjusted them, and with one sweeping hand and arm had Benny half-lying and propped up on top of the covers.
Legs red, boxer-briefs visible, upper body bare.
Benny tried to shy away deeper into the bed.
Jack didn’t seem to care.
“I’m fine, Jack, really,” Benny attempted. “I don’t need this.”
Jack waved him off and perched on the side of the bed. He pulled the aloe out and started to work on the safety film beneath the cap. There was an easy-to-detect snark to his words.
“It’s after two in the morning and you’re still awake,” he said. “I’m assuming you can’t sleep because you roasted earlier.”
“Or I’m not asleep because the local bartender was banging on my window.”
Jack’s profile was angled enough to where Benny could see his eyeroll with ease.
“I didn’t bang,” he defended. “I did call and text.”
Benny snorted.
“So did half of the internet. I don’t know if you heard, but over the last few hours I’ve become mighty interesting again.”
Benny didn’t mean the comment to come out bitchy.
But it did.
Jack finally got the safety barrier off of the aloe. He threw it into the plastic grocery bag. Both suddenly seemed more interesting than the mostly-naked man behind him.
“I don’t get why people have to yap so much about things they’re not even a part of,” he said. “Especially when they don’t even know what they’re yapping about.”
Benny didn’t respond.
He didn’t think Jack wanted one until the man turned, aloe lotion in his hand.
“I wasn’t smiling at Felicity, you know. I mean, I was, but the smile wasn’t because of her.”
Benny forced a shrug.
“Jack, we’re not actually dating, you know,” he pointed out. “You don’t have to explain when you smile at your ex or smile at anyone. It isn’t my business. And I’m fine with that.”
Jack’s response was simple.
“But you cancelled our dinner tomorrow.”
Benny was ready this time.
“Since I have plans with Ethan, I didn’t think it made sense to meet up when we can just do the same thing over the phone. Or even text. We don’t have to keep cornering ourselves in these awkward situations in public and private. It just isn’t worth the trouble.”
“You cancelled because everyone is saying I’m still head over heels for Felicity and you’re effectively a stand-in with a dick.”
It was so matter-of-fact that Benny couldn’t help but be a bit impressed.
Especially since he was right.
He didn’t bother lying.
“That’s probably one of the nicer comments I saw before I put my phone down, yeah.”
Jack angled himself around more, knees, chest, and gaze now facing Benny.
His hand still had a glob of gel on it, but he made no move to use it.
He narrowed his eyes.
“I’m not head over heels for Felicity,” he said. “And you’re not trouble. I’m also not cornering myself anywhere.” Jack pointed to the window. “I, in fact, climbed in to this situation.”
Benny didn’t know what to say. Mostly, because he didn’t believe him.
The image of his smile directed at the beautiful woman on the boat was seared into his mind.
“You don’t believe me,” Jack deadpanned. “You think that one second caught on camera laughing means more than what I’m telling you now.”
Benny didn’t say anything again.
Jack seemed to give up. Or at least, push through with the reason he’d come.
He muttered something beneath his breath and rubbed the gel between his hands before setting his attention to Benny’s legs.
“This is that all-natural stuff,” he said. “Ms. Barbara gets the local market to order it in because she saw a documentary about chemicals in hand cream. You could eat this stuff if you wanted. Works better for sunburn though.”
Benny tensed but because Jack’s hands were warm, so was the salve.
Both spread across his thigh with ease, another palmful continuing to his shin.
“You don’t have to do this,” Benny reiterated. “I’m a big boy, you know.”
Jack snorted and went from spreading the gel to massaging it in.
He ignored the comment.
“Does this hurt?” he asked. “You’re not as hot as I thought you’d be. After going through the pics I realized I really should have put sunscreen on you myself.”
“Once again—not a child.”
Benny tried to wiggle away from the second helping meant for his other leg, but Jack grabbed his ankle to still him.
“Then sit still and accept this care without whining. If you need to, think of this as an apology for accidentally getting the internet’s panties in a twist.” He met Benny’s eye. There was a sincerity there.
Benny’s hurt didn’t just go away.
He did, however, relent.
“Fine. But you’re not allowed to tell anyone about this,” he decided.
Jack let go of his ankle and readjusted his position on the bed to get a better angle for Benny’s other leg. His usual snort turned into more of a chuckle as he started.
Benny didn’t mean to, but he felt a flash of pride for it.
Making Jack smirk was nice, but making Jack laugh?
He liked that.
He also…liked Jack rubbing his leg, he realized.
Enough to remember that the only thing he was wearing was boxer briefs. With nothing but air to cover them.
“Thanks,” Benny said as soon as Jack had finished with his other leg. He hurried to sit up, already mentally ushering the bartender out of the room.
Jack had other ideas.
“I still need to get the rest of you.”
He pressed Benny’s shoulder down to keep him from standing and got more aloe. Instead of the one-handed application method he’d been using, Jack pressed both palms against Benny’s absolutely-bare chest.
The heat from the sun was outburned in an instant.
“I— This— Jack, what are you doing?”
Jack’s hands slid upwards, pressure even, until his fingers slid over Benny’s shoulders and his thumbs rubbed at the base of Benny’s throat. The sweep continued outwards, covering the full breadth of his shoulders.