Chapter 19 #2
“I think I know how to get to you without getting caught.” He turned to Justus, who looked pumped as all get out to be where he was. “If your mom finds out, she’s going to kill me.”
Justus was cheesing.
Benny sounded less enthused.
“When I'm finally unhooked, what happens? I can't just walk through the front door again after he already thought I left.”
Jack tried to see Benny's face, but it was too hard with the totem-pole-like stance they were in.
“Then you fall the rest of the way out and I'll catch you. Deal?”
There was a pause.
Then, “Deal.”
Jack gave their ground team a sweeping look.
“Let’s get it done.”
Ethan and Callum moved their cars before the three of them looped back around and went into the bar. Jack watched them go in silence until it was just him and Benny and the window.
Jack realized that one thing felt truer than true in that moment.
Benny De Carlo sure was a hard man to ignore.
He cleared his throat now, underlining Jack’s unspoken point.
“I was spying.”
Jack tilted his head to the side a little.
“Come again?”
Benny’s hair brushed along Jack’s.
“We were driving by, and I saw the sign for the bar and figured I hadn’t really done much for Cassidy’s, so I thought it would be good to see what y’all were up against,” he started.
“Then the dang owner walked up and started instantly bragging about the place and how what he had in the back room was going to help put that 'hick bar' out on its butt. And that got me all mad and so I kind of had to go look after that. But then someone was walking around and I got spooked and tried to run.”
He let out a long, low breath.
“I panicked, got my big butt stuck in a damn window, and told Ethan to call you. Sorry I’m so pathetic.”
Jack didn't know which piece of information he wanted to tackle first.
So, instead of tackling any one point, he said the first thing that came to his mind.
And, he said it with a grin on.
“You're a lot of things, Benny De Carlo, but pathetic isn't one of them.” Jack put his hand over one of Benny’s and patted it slow. “Also, not for nothing, I climbed through a window last night myself. So, who am I to judge?”
The top of Benny's hair shifted against his again. Jack was disappointed that he couldn’t see his eyes.
“If I remember right, you managed that task pretty well.”
Jack snorted.
“Only because you let me in first,” he pointed out. “If you hadn’t unlocked it, I’d still be standing there, holding that weirdly fun salve.”
Had pre-boat Benny been the man on his shoulders, Jack thought he might have tried to double down on his clumsiness. Instead, post-jumping into the water Benny caught him by surprise.
An understatement, considering their current situation.
“Does that mean I can also get something aloe-based for my trouble later? It would definitely make this more of a bearable experience.”
And, just like that, the anxiousness Jack had been feeling since he’d left Benny’s that morning eased right on off.
Benny was teasing him.
He teased right on back.
“I’m not sure of the rules, but I think if you’re willing to risk jail for someone, that should at least score you a blow job.”
Silence rushed into the air above Jack.
Then Benny shook with laughter.
It spilled from his mouth so loud that Jack lifted his hand into the air to try and find the source.
“Benny,” Jack hurried. “We can’t do that if you get caught.”
Benny kept shaking as he tried to reign in his laughter. When it cut off with a little yip, Jack was sure they’d been caught.
Great, how am I going to explain to Dixon that I fought Thomas Bleuth in my running shorts?
Luckily, the new movement and sounds were from a boy who was having too good of a time.
“It's Justus,” Benny whispered. “Hold on.”
Jack pushed Benny as high as he could so he could talk to the boy.
There was wiggling and then there was cussing.
Benny called down to Jack on the tail end of the latter.
“Get ready to catch me, Jack.”
Jack didn’t get a chance to ask for specifics.
Instead, he did what he was told.
For one moment Benny was out of his hands.
Then he was falling through the air without his pants.
Jack caught him with a grunt.
There was no time to assess past that.
“Let's get out of here,” Benny called out.
Two black sneakers flew through the air in front of them. Jack caught Justus’s head disappearing back inside of the window.
No jeans floated down, so Jack let Benny down, scooped up his shoes, and ran to the driver's side of his truck.
He didn’t mean to, but he laughed.
Benny must have been feeling it too.
He actually whooped as Jack sped away into the adjoining parking lot. He was still laughing when they made it to the main road.
“I tell you what, whoever finds my pants next is going to be confused as hell.”
Jack, still amused as all get out, laughed again.
When Benny swung his head around at the next stop light to look at him, Jack couldn’t help but glance down at his lightly sunburned legs.
Which is why he missed the new mischievous glint to Benny’s eye as he made a proclamation that was as determined as it was confusing.
“Speaking of pants, I think I know a way to beat The Drinking Spot’s newest secret weapon,” he rallied. “But first, I need to know how comfortable you are with your nipples.”
If Jack had a blog, he decided that one would have made it into a post.