He heard a long sigh from the other end of the line, and Justice bit his lip so hard he tasted blood. Please let this guy find them a captain and a boat.
“All right, kid. I know a little bit about disappointment. I’ll take you out myself.”
“Thank you so much, sir!”
“Okay, let’s get one thing straight…don’t call me sir. Sir is —was, my father. I just need to get some details from you; size of your party, if you’ll be needing dinner served, how long you want to go out.”
With Rich’s reluctant help, Justice gave the man all the pertinent information and got their Valentine cruise booked. He was absurdly proud of himself once all was said and done. Rich just maintained the same sour lemon expression he’d had since they’d gotten there.
Justice was just getting ready to ask him what his fucking problem was, when the front door opened and Rory stepped inside, big as life. God, Justice had missed him.
Rory Donovan was what his grandparents liked to call ‘Black Irish,’ simply meaning that, though he was Irish, he had dark hair, olive skin, and caramel brown eyes, á la Colin Farrell. Was it any wonder Justice crushed on him for a whole semester?
Rory had to duck to get his six foot four frame through the living room doorway. His face lit up when he saw Justice. Justice rose to give him the one-armed ‘bro hug’ that he’d had to perfect while playing the straight guy, but Rory was having none of it. He wrapped Justice up in a bone-crushing bear hug, lifting him off the ground.
“All right, all right, put me down, Sasquatch.”
Rory gave a playful
Chewbacca
growl before dropping Justice back on his feet. He grabbed Justice’s face in his big hands and planted a sloppy kiss on his forehead. Rory had always had a touchy-feely nature, which had made it even harder for Justice to resist him all those years ago. That was water under the bridge, of course, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t entertain a fantasy or two.
“I can’t believe you finally made it, old man! I’m so glad you’re here.”
Justice rolled his eyes at the college nickname. “I’m only like three weeks older than you and you damn well know it. Now I want to meet the woman who’s crazy enough to marry you.”
A throat cleared behind the massive wall of Rory, and he stepped aside. Behind him was a tiny Asian girl, who couldn’t have been an inch over five feet. She was gorgeous —Justice would expect nothing less from Rory —but he couldn’t imagine the two of them…well, you know.
“Justice Crawford, meet Maia Nguyen, my fiancée.”
She smiled sweetly at him as she shook his hand. “It’s so good to finally meet you, Justice. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Lies, all of it,” he said with a laugh, though he really hoped Rory hadn’t told her all about his
special needs
. “I’m glad to meet you, too.”
As he was shaking her hand, he looked down at Maia, then up at Rory, and down at Maia again. “So how’s
that
work, then?”
He heard stunned gasps behind him from Lara and Rich, and realizing what he’d said, he clapped a hand over his mouth. There he went again with the saying things.
Rory and Maia looked at each other and burst out laughing, obviously unphased by his rudeness. Hell, they probably got that question often enough.
“We make it work, don’t you worry,” Rory said with a wink.
Later on at dinner, Justice fidgeted uncomfortably as he tried to think of things to talk about with Rory’s friends. He just wasn’t a part of this new life Rory had. And Rich seemed to be waiting in the wings for him to crash and burn as best man. Or was that just a figment of his anxiety-riddled imagination?
Fortunately, Lara jumped in for the save. “So Rory, Justice has planned you a killer bachelor party -one that won’t get you in trouble with Maia.”
Rory stopped eating and looked over at Justice in surprise. “You didn’t have to do that. You just got here, how could you possibly have done anything so fast?”
As usual, Justice could feel his infernal pale skin heating, and sweat broke out across his brow from suddenly becoming the center of attention. “Um, it’s not a big deal. Rich mentioned you were interested in one of those charter boat things. So I got us a yacht for tomorrow. We’ll cruise around the lake and have dinner out there on the boat.”
“Holy shit, that’s awesome! How did you arrange that on such short notice?”
“Just got lucky, I guess. I wasn’t exactly sure how many guys you wanted to invite…Rich and I hazarded a guess and said ten, but I can call the guy back if you want to change it.”
“No, that’s perfect! Can’t wait. Thanks, man.”
“Sure, no problem,” Justice said, blushing.
“So Justice,” Rich said, looking like the proverbial cat that ate the canary. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
Justice nearly choked on his Bolognese. He’d asked the question like he knew what the answer would be. Did he suspect something? “Um…no. Not at the moment, anyway,” he amended. “I work too much to have a very active social life.”
Unintentionally coming to his rescue, Maia stepped in. “You’re a graphic designer, right?”
“Yep. I used to be an in-house designer for a retail company, but now I’ve gone freelance…started my own business.”
“That’s exciting, right?”
“Exciting, yes. Terrifying? Absolutely,” he said with a nervous chuckle, although he
so
wasn’t joking about the terrifying part. Nothing like worrying about where your next paycheck would be coming from. He’d been doing pretty well so far, but in today’s market, things could change in an instant. “Uh, it’s good to be your own boss though…it’s how I was able to take a couple of weeks off to be here.”
“Enough about work, already,” Rory said. “You’re on vacation!”
“Truer words were never spoken, my friend.” Justice raised his wine glass, willing his hands not to shake and spill all over himself, and clinked it with his best friend’s.
Chapter Five
Nic grumbled as he put the last of the groceries away in the galley pantry. He was such a fucking sucker. He’d cleared his schedule for a week to give himself time to recover from the funeral, but something about the pleading tone in the guy’s voice when he’d called yesterday, it spoke to him. And he’d crumbled like a house of cards.
Gordon, his regular captain, was out of town visiting family, so Nic would have to pilot the boat himself. It wasn’t a problem, it was his boat after all. But it meant less time he could spend keeping an eye on the guests. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for some of his shit to grow legs and walk away.
So he’d begged, pleaded, and cajoled Samara into helping him out. She’d be a server, possibly a bartender, and an all-around hostess. He’d be paying for this favor for years.
Bobby, the cook, was pretty much always available so that wasn’t an issue, thank God, but Nic was still waiting to hear back from the second string bartender he sometimes used. In case the guy never got back to him, he had a few cases of beer stashed away that would have to do ‘em.
He heard the telltale clomping of Sam’s platform heels before she even entered the galley. How the hell that woman wore those shoes all day long was a mystery to him.
“I’m here, bitches!” she announced before bursting through the galley door. “Oh, it’s just you.”
Nic raised an eyebrow as he continued checking the kitchen to make sure all was in order. “You were expecting an audience?”
“Well, you did promise me some hot, drunk, frat guys.”
“I did nothing of the sort,” Nic lied. “I have no idea if they’re frat guys, he just said something about college friends. Drunk, certainly…hot, I have no idea. Besides, what about that guy, Kenny? No, Kevin.”
Sam rolled her eyes and smoothed a hand down the skirt of her black and white sweetheart dress. “Oh, him? Meh. He got boring. I’ve got a new one for you to check out. I’m bringing him to Neighbors tomorrow night.”
“About that…“
“Fuck that, Nicolas. You’re not getting out of it.”
“Right, figures. Had to try though.”
“So when are the boy-toys getting here?”
“Five. And relax. They’re here for a bachelor party, not cruising.”
“Not that you’d care anyway. Especially since you’re still hung up on airplane boy.”
“I am
not
hung up on him. I just thought he was cute.” Completely, ridiculously adorable. Cute.
“Mmm, so you said last night on the phone. And a couple more times this morning.”
“The fuck I did.” He might have.
“Whatever. Face it honey. You’re smitten.”
Nic sighed, knowing he would never win this argument. “It doesn’t matter anyway, because all I got was his first name. I’ll never see him again.”
“How very
Cinderella,
” Sam said, mock fanning herself with a hand covered in a black lace fingerless glove.
Shaking his head, Nic checked his watch. “It’s almost time for them to get here. I’m going to go check the bridge, make sure everything’s copacetic, and then I’ll be down to meet them. Once I introduce myself, you’ll take over. ‘Kay?”
Her smart salute looked kind of ridiculous with her pin curls and cat-eye glasses. “Aye, aye, Cap’n.”
* * * *
Justice loved boats. He really did. They were pretty much the only mode of travel that he didn’t hate. But this wouldn’t be the first time his anxiety tried to keep him from doing something he loved.
He’d wanted to stay in bed that day. As it was, he’d had to crash for a few hours prior to the cruise and make sure to take his medication, which would likely make him too drowsy and miserable to enjoy the ride.
He and Lara had met Rory, Rich, and six of their closest guy friends at the Union Marina, and they were now congregated in a huddle next to the slip that housed the
San Valentino
.
“This is incredible,” Rory said, raising awestruck eyes up, way up, and back down the beautiful boat.
Justice froze when he heard a voice behind him.
“One of you guys Crawford?”
He knew that voice. He’d never forget it. A shiver ran up and down his spine just at the sound of it, and that was while his back was still turned. Reluctantly, he spun around and made eye contact with Nic.
Those baby blues registered shock, before crinkling at the corners with a smile that didn’t quite reach his lips. But,
God
, what lips they were. A flash of nerves squeezed Justice’s stomach when he realized that this guy could possibly out him. While nothing of the sort had been said, there’d been an undeniable chemistry between the two of them that had left no doubt, at least in Justice’s mind, of their preferences.
He decided to head Nic off at the pass, and hopefully the guy would play along. Stepping out of the crowd of men, Justice held out his hand for a shake.
“That’s me. Justice Crawford. Nice to meet you.”
Nic’s eyes clouded with momentary confusion before they slid over to Rory and the guys. His face fell a bit, but he must have understood, because he shook Justice’s hand as if they were just meeting.
“Nicolas Valentine. You can call me Nic. Pleasure.”
Justice’s undiagnosed situational Tourette’s struck again. “
Valentine?
Is that really your name?”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Justice!” Lara hissed. “We can’t take you anywhere. Apologize to the nice man.”
Nic didn’t seem to mind. He chuckled and flashed Justice an indulgent smile that made his heart flutter.
“Yes, it’s my real name. Although it was Americanized, changed from Valentino, when my grandparents came over from Italy.”
“Italy? Really? But you —”
“Take after my mother,” Nic said, politely interrupting Justice’s barrage of rudeness. “So, boys, and girl, gather round and I’ll tell you about our adventure today.”
He waited patiently while the boys stopped cackling and shoving each other, and formed a semicircle in front of him. “I thought we’d putter around the lake for an hour or so, see the sights. Then we’ll drop anchor and have dinner, and you all can do whatever you want. After that we can do a bit of night cruising before heading back in.”
“Sounds great!” Rory said, rocking back on his heels and grinning.
“I couldn’t get my regular captain on such short notice,” Nic said, throwing a pointed look at Justice. “So I’ll be piloting the boat. This lovely lady behind me is Samara Alvárez. She’ll be your hostess for the evening. I’m going to leave you in her capable hands and head on up to the bridge. We cast off in ten minutes.”
Nic turned and sauntered off, stopping briefly beside Samara. “Give me about a half hour to get us cruising, and then you can start flybridge tours. One at a time.”
“Sure thing, boss man,” Samara retorted.
As soon as Nic was gone, Justice felt the loss like a physical entity. The air around him felt empty, and the calm that had settled over him without his realizing it, had evaporated. He wanted to say something, to follow him, but Justice could never be that brave. He just stood there like a forlorn puppy in the pet store window, watching Nic walk away.