Knight of Ocean Avenue (9 page)

Gotta think of something else.
“So Sissy, do you want to go to the bachelor party with me?”

Three sets of eyes turned to him.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt.” Heat singed his ears.

“Hey, I’d love to!” Sissy gave him a giant hug. Not quite what he was expecting. Rhonda smiled, Giles raised an eyebrow, and Mitch just seemed like he might laugh. But Shaz? His face looked funny. Half happy and half uncertain. Hell, Billy understood that reaction.

Mitch excused himself and went to the men’s room. A couple of minutes later, Giles went too. Sissy leaned toward Billy. “What are you going to wear to the party? So I can coordinate, you know?”

Coordinate? Did people do that? Billy looked at Shaz. “Don’t know.”

Shaz nodded. “No worries. We’ll suit you up perfectly.”

She kind of bounced in her seat. “What color?”

Shaz pondered. “Navy and white, maybe. Or possibly mauve.”

“Ooooh. Lovely.”

He kept getting half-and-half feelings. Half of him felt like an idiot for not being able to dress himself. The other half thought it would be fun to have Shaz spruce him up. He needed a breather. “Excuse me. Men’s room.”

He got up, threaded through the tables in the club dining room, and walked into the men’s room off the lobby. Standing at the urinal, he heard a soft moan.
Uh-oh
. Maybe this club wasn’t quite as conservative as he thought.

Embarrassing
. He stared at his dick and tried not to look toward the classy little rooms the toilets were in. A guy could sneak a girl in one of those easy. Hell, or another guy.

He shook his dick, flushed, zipped, and walked around the wall to the sinks. As he soaped up, Mitch ambled around the corner. Billy nodded as he rinsed. “Hi.”

Mitch stopped for a second, then smiled real big. “Oh, hi, Billy.” He said it kind of loud.

“Fancy head.”

Mitch stuck his hands under the automatic faucet. “Yes, I guess so.”

He couldn’t think of anything else to say so he grabbed a hand towel—real terrycloth—from the counter, dried, and left.

When he got back to the table, Shaz looked up. “Have you seen Giles?”

“No, just Mitch.”

“He must have fallen in.”

“I should get going.”

Sissy stood up. “Would you mind giving me a ride? I hitched with Mitch and Rhonda, but I bet they don’t want a third wheel hanging around.”

“Sure. Where do you live?”

“Newport Coast.”

“It’s on my way.” He looked up as Mitch arrived at the table. Billy stuck out his hand to his soon-to-be brother-in-law. “Thanks for inviting me. Nice club.” He turned to Rhonda, leaned down and gave her a kiss, then gave Shaz a grin. “Thanks for—” He looked down at his outfit. “—everything.”

Shaz extended his hand with a soft smile. “My pleasure, and we’ve only just begun.”

That gave him kind of a weird thrill. He shook the slim hand, which gave him more of one.

Giles sauntered up to the table, and Shaz’s smile cooled. He pulled his hand from Billy’s as he stared at Giles. “I thought we’d lost you.”

“Nah, sorry. Just got in a conversation with an old friend.”

Billy nodded. “Good to meet you.”

Giles barely glanced at him. “Yes. My pleasure.” He sat and sipped at his champagne, which had to be more than flat by now. Shaz glared at him, but the man didn’t look up. That guy was cruisin’ for a losin’ if he didn’t behave better. But maybe Shaz couldn’t afford to dump him.

Sissy slipped her arm through his. “Bye, you guys. See you at the bachelorette.”

She happily chattered all the way through the short drive to her house. Billy got what Shaz and Ru meant when they said she was good-hearted. She talked about other people most of the drive, but never a nasty word except for Giles.

“I hate to say it, but I don’t think Giles is good enough for Shaz, you know what I mean?”

Billy nodded. He sure as hell did.

“I mean, come on, he has no reason to be so stuck-up and rude. Mitch isn’t that way, and he has way more money than Giles. Oh well, maybe his family is mean to him because he’s gay. Who am I to judge?” She pointed to a row of condominiums that overlooked the ocean north of Laguna. “My place is over there.”

He followed her directions and pulled up in front of a Mediterranean-style two-story townhouse. “Here you go.”

“Thanks so much.” She turned and looked at him. She was a fancy addition to the cab of his truck, no doubt about it. “You don’t want to kiss me good night, do you?”

What the hell?
“Uh, I don’t—”

She held up a hand. “No problem. I understand about breakups and stuff. I mean, it would be okay with me, but I don’t think you really find me irresistible or anything. I just want you to know that I’m happy to go to the parties with you and just be friends if that’s what you want. I’ve got no big plans or anything.”

His mouth opened, closed, and finally opened again. “You’re really pretty, and seem nice—”

She nodded. “Good. I like you too, and you sure are cute. We’ll have fun, okay?” She leaned over and kissed his cheek, opened her own door, and was headed up her walkway before he recovered enough to react. Finally, he opened the passenger window and leaned over. “Thanks so much.”

She waved a hand. “G’night.”

He watched her walk and finally smiled. There was a woman he could like.

He drove away from the complex and back out onto the Pacific Coast Highway, heading south toward Laguna. The phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out and clicked the speaker by feel. “Ballew.”

“Billy?”

“Shaz?” He caught his breath.

“Hello, darling. I’m sorry. I figured you’d be busy and I’d leave you a message.”

“No, I’m just driving.” God, that man’s voice was so cool. “Aren’t you busy?” Jesus, why did he ask that?

Shaz chuckled. “As in getting busy? No, I’m afraid Giles made it all the way into the doghouse tonight, so I’m not at all busy.” He laughed, but it sounded kind of strained.

“I’m sorry.”

“La la, darling. I’ll get over it, I’m sure. Anyway, I wanted to see if you’d like to go look at some of my places with good prices on furniture tomorrow. I have a day off and could show you where they are and introduce you to the owners.”

“Hell, I don’t want to make you work on your day off.” But his heart beat fast.

“Not at all. It would be fun for me.”

“Wow. If you’re serious, I’d love it. I work until three, though.”

“No Little League?”

“No. Not tomorrow.” He’d have to call and beg off his second job for a day, but he never missed, so the super would forgive him. “Thanks so much for remembering.”

Shaz’s dancing voice got kind of soft. “I wouldn’t forget.”

Billy swallowed. “Where shall I meet you?”

“You live in Laguna?”

“Yes.”

“How about I come to your place? Then I can help with selection if we see anything good.”

Jesus
. Shaz at his apartment. “Uh, okay. It’s not much.”

“And we’re going to make it much more.” He laughed.

“Okay. Here’s the address.” He rattled it off.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at, what, three thirty?”

“Okay.” Maybe his pulse would slow down by then.

S
HAZ
STARED
through the window of the Jaguar at the old three-story building on one of the narrow streets of South Laguna. Billy’s place. Before walking in there, he should answer the question Ru asked him before he left the salon earlier.
What in the hell are you doing
? Not a topic he wanted to explore. He could tell himself all he wanted that he was helping out a client. The truth was he didn’t take his clients shopping for furniture much at all. He was a stylist, not an interior decorator. Perhaps he’d take a friend shopping for furniture, but Billy didn’t really qualify as a friend.

He glanced up the steep street. At a cottagey house two doors away, two men were playing ball in the front yard with a kid and a dog. One guy threw the ball to the kid. The dog would jump up and catch it and the little boy would squeal and laugh. All kinds of scenarios could be superimposed on that happy scene. One of them was that the guys were the kid’s daddies. Happy gay couple with child. Shaz sighed. Just how sentimental did he plan to get?

He looked back at Billy’s place, threw open the car door, and stepped out. Hell, he liked the guy. There was a sweetness to him that didn’t match the big hunky exterior. If Shaz liked Billy’s ass as much as his kind nature, what difference did it make? The guy was straight. That was that. He could damn sight make friends with whomever he wanted.

He stomped across the street, into the boring beige building, and headed up three flights of stairs. Good for the buns. A light tap on the door got instantly answered. Shaz looked up at Billy filling the doorway. “My goodness, were you standing by the door?”

“Yeah, I kind of was.”

The man shone. Clearly, he’d showered, shaved, washed his hair, which was still wet, and probably polished his ass. He glistened. Shaz smiled. “Am I late?”

“No, right on time.” Billy stepped back, and Shaz walked into the apartment.
Son of a bitch
. Billy might not know or care about fashion, but obviously interior design fell into a different part of his brain. “This is really nice.”

“You’re kidding?” His big blue eyes widened.

“No, it’s great.” And it was. Shaz looked around at the one big room Billy had divided into purposeful areas. On the right, a living space had been created by careful arrangement of an old sofa opposite two interesting midcentury-style wood and upholstery chairs. The rug under the area was old and worn but very clean and a good size to define the space.

Shaz walked over to a cabinet that stood against the wall between the sofa and chairs. “This is beautiful.” He ran his hand over the polished black lacquer surface.

“Thanks. It was just a furniture-in-a-box thing. I reinforced it to make it stronger and refinished it.”

“It’s really lovely.” He looked up at Billy, who was blushing.
A-dorable
. He cleared his throat. “Okay, so we should look for a couch if we can find something appropriate.” He turned and looked into the dining space. “That’s a fabulous table. Where on earth did you get it?”

Billy beamed. Clearly he loved his place. “I found it in a used furniture store up near Julian. It was stuck in the back, and they wanted to get rid of it. I loaded that sucker into my truck so fast they hardly saw it move.”

“It’s exceptional. Danish, I expect.”

“Swedish, I think.”

“I’m afraid to ask how much you paid for it.”

“A hundred and twenty bucks.” Billy laughed.

“Dear God, it has to be worth a thousand or more.”

“Probably now. I refinished it.”

“You need some better chairs.”

“Yeah. I’ve never been able to find anything I—”

“Merwaorwr.”

“Mewr.”

Shaz looked down. Halloween in fur. “Who have we here?”

Billy squatted, the denim of his jeans straining over his powerful thighs. “This is Clancy.” He scratched under the chin of the big orange cat. “And this is Yerby.” The slim black feline rubbed against his leg.

“As in Tom Clancy and Frank Yerby?”

Billy looked up. “Yeah. Not many people get that.”

Shaz laughed and looked at the bookcases that lined one wall of the room. “I gather you like men’s adventure?”

He shrugged and gave each cat its own hand for rubbing. “I like everything. I just kind of learned to read on those two.”

“Hmm. Most people choose See Spot Run. Funny, funny, Spot.”

“Yeah, well I had a lot of trouble with Dick and Jane. Even Puff couldn’t quite get through to me. Finally I taught myself to read on
The Hunt for Red October
and
The Golden Hawk
. I really wanted to know what they said, so I forced myself to learn.” He picked up the two cats and rose beside Shaz. “These are the boys. Guys, say hi to Shaz. He has a sense of style, just like you do.” He grinned and glanced at Shaz. “Confidentially, I think they play for your team. They’re inseparable.”

Shaz laughed. Dear God, the guy was mind-blowing. He had these great gay cats while his clothes looked like something the cat dragged in. He must be saying he never learned to read in school, but he had a wall of books and this beautiful start on a stylish apartment.

Shaz reached out a hand and stroked the silky fur. “Hi, guys.” The black one looked at him inquisitively, and Shaz slipped a finger under his chin. A soft vibration tickled his hand. “You like that, huh?” The orange guy bumped Shaz’s hand with his big head. “Okay, okay. No favorites. You both get some lovin’.”

“Do you have pets?”

Shaz shook his head. “I’m so busy at the salon, all I can manage are some tropical fish, and someone else takes care of them.”

Billy pressed a cheek against a soft furry back. “Some days these guys are my best friends. Cats aren’t too much work. These two keep each other company. As long as I provide food, they’re happy. Way easier than people.”

“I’m quite sure that’s true.”

He deposited the “boys” back on the hardwood floor. “Okay, guys, I left you food. I’m going out for a while. Say good-bye to Shaz.”

Shaz leaned over to pet each one in turn. “I hope I see you guys again.”

Billy glanced at him sideways. “They hope they see you again too.”

God, for a second he couldn’t breathe. He swallowed. “Uh, should I see your bedroom?”

Billy shook his head. “Not much going on in there.”

Shaz smiled. “That’s a damned shame.”

The familiar pink attacked Billy’s ears. “I mean I haven’t done much in there yet.”

“So it’s a clean slate?”

“Yeah.”

“While we’re shopping, let’s see if we can’t spice things up. Come on.”

“T
HANKS
FOR
having dinner with me. I hate to eat alone.”

Billy smiled. Didn’t take a genius to know Shaz was just being nice. He could eat with anybody he wanted. It was Billy who would have been alone. “Hey, after that shopping trip, I’d be glad to feed you by hand.”