Chapter 29

And Andy didn’t stopmaking noises the whole time, either. Moans and soft little whimpers and luxurious sighs, and yep, Scooter was straight up going to die. He very carefully did not acknowledge Kat, who he was sure was making a smug told-you-so face at him. Eventually, he stopped, and forced himself to let go of Andy’s hands.

And that was almost worse, because then Andy glanced over at Kat working the cream into Jason’s shoulders. Andy raised an eyebrow at Scooter, a question that he obviously was not sure how to properly voice.

Scooter couldn’t not answer. Couldn’t brush it off with an “I’m fine.” Kat would never, ever let him get away with it. She’d do one of those obnoxious “I do not understand your strange American customs” spiels and make it into a Thing. Scooter managed to conceal his wince as he shoved the jar in Andy’s direction and turned around on the bench, peeling off his tee. “Lower back’s the worst, hunched over that damn desk all the time,” he said roughly, body shivering at the core, waiting for Andy’s touch. Dear God, the shivers were going to be so obvious…Maybe Andy would chalk them up to the insane amount of caffeine Scooter had been downing.

And then Andy actually touched him and Christ on a cracker, why didn’t they do this every day, because the man’s hands were goddamned magic. Scooter gritted his jaw and an embarrassing noise still managed to slither between his teeth.

Andy laughed, just a little, close enough that Scooter could feel puffs of warm breath on his skin. “I think he likes it,” he said, teasing. “I’ve been told that I’m not half bad at this, so it’s okay, feel free to worship me as the benevolent god that I am.”

“I’ll get started on that temple first thing tomorrow morning,” Scooter swore. He rolled his neck from one side to the other, his spine popping loudly. Oh, Jesus, did he just say that? Out loud and everything? It was far too close to “I’ll make you breakfast,” which was a come-on he would never use, not in a million years. The back of his neck heated.

“Glad to hear it,” Andy said, and Scooter could hear the smile in his voice. “I’ll stop in and offer suggestions after Trick’s walk.” He finished Scooter’s lower back, but didn’t pull away immediately, sliding his knuckles slowly up either side of Scooter’s spine, digging in just to the edge of pain. He hesitated at the base of Scooter’s skull, fingers teasing at the bottom of Scooter’s hairline, but then dropped his hands with a sigh. “Probably shouldn’t get this gunk in your hair, huh?” He sounded almost put out by it, as if he wanted—Scooter yanked that thought back by its tail.

On the other side of the table Jason was practically purring, slumping in relaxation. He tipped his head back to look up at Kat and said, “Really, woman, you have to let me marry you one of these days.”

Kat blinked down at him, then stared at Scooter. “Did you hear something? I think maybe the television got left on. I could swear I heard someone talking.”

Scooter leaned back against Andy for just a moment. “Outside,” he said, soft. “Now.” He adjusted his jeans and Scooter was just going to have to hope Andy didn’t notice, because he was almost a hundred percent positive Kat was about to either kiss Jason stupid or claw out the man’s throat, and Scooter didn’t want to witness either of those things.

Andy’s eyes were already wide, and he scrambled off the bench. “Yep,” he said, heading for the door at a brisk pace. “I’m just gonna go check the, uh. The thing.”

Scooter beat him out to the porch only by virtue of longer legs (and possibly by cheating and grabbing the back of Andy’s shirt to pull him back a few staggered steps). “Oh, God,” Scooter said as soon as the door closed behind them. “I hope he planned that, and he’s not just being a jerk. She will kill him if that wasn’t legit.”

Andy glanced back over his shoulder, expression vacillating between amused and concerned. “That was literally the least romantic proposal I’ve ever heard,” he said. “So she might kill him anyway.”

“That’s Jason Anderson, all the way down to the bone. You should have heard it when he actually asked her out the first time. So embarrassing. I was distressed on his behalf,” Scooter said.

Andy snorted. “Terminally straight and so very not-smooth.”

“Not like he has to be,” Scooter pointed out. “Before he took one look at Kat and fell down the escalator—not even kidding, by the way—all the girls and plenty of guys threw themselves at him as soon as he looked their way. But before he started with the running and the weights and the actual growing, he’d barely talked to anyone but me. Skinny kid, but mouthy. He was bullied a lot. Used to get his ass handed to him three or four times a week.” Scooter leaned on the porch rail and let nostalgia pull his mouth into a fond smile. “So, he never really learned how to talk to anybody. Not that it mattered much. Don’t think those girls wanted him for his conversation anyway.”

“No, probably not,” Andy agreed. His eyes were on the horizon, and Scooter had no idea what he was seeing. “She doesn’t seem to mind. She’s good for him, from what I’ve seen. Grounding. She doesn’t let him get away with anything, but she doesn’t play head games either.” He glanced at Scooter, smiling slightly. “She doesn’t care about smooth. She just wants…him. It’s nice.”

“Ekaterina, she gives zero fucks,” Scooter said. “And she’s brutally honest. If she’s ever given you one of her pep talks—” He laughed. “You’re never sure if you’re fired up and ready to face the world, or just terrified of disappointing her.”

“Is that what you call them? I think I got one the second day I was here. I’m going to go with terrifying.”

Scooter squinted down the road at a family of tourists walking up the beach toward them, and checked the time. “Yep, time to open,” he said, slinging an arm around Andy’s shoulders and giving him a half-hug. “Let’s go see if my cook and waitress are engaged or dead. If they’re dead, we’re going to be having a really long shift.” 12

From the way he was glaring, D’ante was about ready to throw the night’s last customers out, preferably through the wide windows that overlooked the porch. Kat had stopped coming in to ask them if they wanted anything else at least fifteen minutes earlier, and Andy knew for a fact Jason had already shut down the kitchen. Andy and D’ante pointedly wiped down the tables and swept the floor. Finally, the customers got the hint (or just got tired of them dragging the benches and chairs around to sweep under the tables) and left.