Page 29 of What It Means To Be Found

Taylor was lathering her up in sunscreen, chatting about something I hadn’t bothered to try to pay attention to because I was too busy struggling to not stare at her bare ass cheeks. I had walked over to the umbrellas they were standing by, waving at Courtney and Josh who were walking hand in hand in the waves, and nodding at Taylor as I met their eyes and approached.

And then Taylor had told me to finish spraying down Eloise.

I was able to without getting too hard. Hard enough for others to notice, at least. I’d had to think about some pretty horrible and disgusting things to keep my dick focused, but it worked. I hadn’t dared rub the sunscreen into her skin, though. I knew I would be made if I laid a single hand on her. My eyes couldn’t stop flicking all over her exposed skin, the flower tattoos on her hip and thigh, and the one that I had now finally seen the entirety of on her ribs, curving with the shape of her breast. Plus, I wanted to talk to her about whatever was hovering in between us before I laid a finger on her. Before I assumed that she truly, truly wanted me to touch her like that. I did not want any mixed signals or misunderstandings between us if there was a reality where I could touch her like that.

That day changed me because now I physically ached for Eloise.

Prophecy fulfilled; I still managed to upset her again. Thankfully she didn’t shove a dessert in my chest or assume the size of my penis, instead, she just seemed resigned. Which felt oddly worse than her usual anger and glares. I didn’t want her to feel like she had to give up, and her comment about me being nice to her simply out of pity didn’t sit right with me either. But then the universe decided to give me the middle finger by allowing someone else to interrupt yet another fucking conversation between the small woman and me.

“Thoughts?” Josh asked, making me blink to clear my vision and focus on the task at hand. We were all at a swanky high-end suit store somewhere in LA. It was exclusive, required reservations months in advance, and catered to celebrities like Joshua Madey. The rest of the band was here too, Tom and Kyle, inseparable as Kyle gave Tom multiple ties and squares to try out. The bassist silently accepted all the accessories that I had the feeling he would never wear if Kyle wasn’t his partner.

Garrett was there too, sitting in between Adam and Taylor as all our heads lifted to attention at the sight of Josh in his new suit combination.

This was one of two fittings, we all still needed to get our measurements taken.

“No,” Taylor shook their head, eyeballing Josh up and down before pulling their phone out again, “That tone will wash Courtney out when you stand next to her. You either need to go lighter or darker if you like that color.”

Josh frowned as he held his arms out and circled once, taking in his appearance from all angles thanks to the multiple mirrors that surrounded him.

“I wouldn’t have even thought about that,” Josh shrugged and stepped back into the dressing room as he tugged off the suit coat, “Thanks, T.”

“Yup.”

“Are you bringing anyone to the wedding?” Garrett, Carbon Cut’s lead guitarist, asked Taylor. He elbowed them with a dramatic wiggle of his black eyebrows. He recently let his hair grow out a bit, concealing the tattoos he had on the sides of his head.

“Not sure, it’s kind of hard to secure a casual date when the wedding is a year from now,” Taylor smiled. “Are you?”

Garrett responded by punching Taylor in the thigh, who just cackled at the response.

“Believe it or not, Kate is still with me, you asshole.” Garrett chuckled at the ribbing he was used to from everyone.

“It’s true,” Kyle piped up from his position over the table of pocket squares, his bright blue hair sticking out on all sides, “She’s even kissing him in front of us now.”

“I almost couldn’t believe it,” Tom added, holding up a pocket square for Kyle to eyeball next to a tie, “I didn’t know they actually kissed until a few weeks ago.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Garrett smirked, flipping off his drummer and bassist.

“She likes her privacy, then?” Adam asked, crossing one ankle over his knee as he leaned his head back against the wall that the bench that they were all sitting on was up against. I was in a chair off to the side, listening like always.

“Mostly she just didn’t want to show a lot of PDA in front of the other guys on the off chance that we didn’t work out,” Garrett shrugged, “Which made sense to me. If we broke up, it would be easier to go back to our business relationship without the habit of kissing each other goodbye on set, you know?”

“I understand that.” Adam nodded as he scratched a spot on his head, messing up his dark red locks, “Beck and I are strictly professional at work as well.”

Taylor snorted, “Yeah, okay.”

Adam rolled his eyes at Taylor’s remark, “You only saw us one time, T.”

“It was enough.” Taylor sat forward to address the rest of us, “I had walked into Beck’s office and was surprised when I hit something on the other side of her door, so I peeked around it and saw Beck literally jumping off of Adam.”

The guys chuckled at Taylor’s retelling, making Adam blush enough to conceal some of the freckles that dotted his face.

Eloise’s freckles on her nose did similar things when she blushed.

Fuck, now I was thinking about all the fun ways that I could make her blush.

But first I had to fucking talk to her.

“Are you bringing anyone to the wedding, Logan?” Josh had joined the conversation again, stepping out of the changing room for one second before glancing at himself in the mirror and aggressively shaking his head. He went back into the changing room without another word.

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