Page 34 of My First Time Fling

“It’s gotta be nice, too, to have his brothers to rely on too, if anything breaks, or if you need extra help. My sister, Jenna, lives down in Florida and even if she were up here, she wouldn’t do anything that could risk her breaking a nail.”

Mal laughed. “In theory, yes, it is nice. In practice, though, it’s a little more complicated.”

“Oh?”

“Well, Em pitches in sometimes, which is great. But their other brother, Connor, is, um…let’s just say that it’s probably best for all involved that we keep him away from most guests and tourists.”

“A bit of an acquired taste, is he?”

“You could say that.” Mal smiled. “I like Connor a lot, but he’s not really a people person, and he and Deacon strike sparks any time they’re left in a room together for more than five minutes.” His smile broadened. “To tell the truth, I actually think Connor’s softening a bit. His boyfriend Julian’s influence, I think. But you’d never catch me telling Connor that to his face. I’m pretty sure he takes pride in his ‘hitman with a migraine’ image.”

“Okay, seriously—is everyone on this island gay?” The words were out of my mouth before I realized I’d spoken, and I flushed as Mal threw back his head and laughed.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said, still giggling as he got himself under control. “It’s not—not you. It’s just—God, I wish Deacon were here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just that I think it would be nice for him to hear you say that. I think Summersea has changed a lot in the past few years. He grew up here, and had some pretty bad experiences with homophobia. And I’m not saying it’s a utopia now, but it’s really cool to hear your impression of what it’s like. It’s so different from his experience. I think it might help him to hear you say that, you know?”

Mal leaned forward and put his hand on the tabletop. “Listen, I’m going to get a pitcher of beer for the table, but then you’re going to give me your phone number. I really want you to meet Deacon soon, okay? I think you’d like each other, and even better, he can probably be guilted into helping you fix the Sea Glass up, once you buy it. If you even need any help—it sounds like your boyfriend is kind of an expert, judging from his conversation with Tate.”

Mal tilted his head over in Mark and Tate’s direction—they were talking about caulk now, because of course they were—and smiled, and I fought down the urge to clarify that Mark wasn’t my boyfriend. If anyone was going to clarify that, it was going to be Mark. I wasn’t the one who was going to break first.

So I just smiled and nodded and let a song about dinosaurs being warbled by a children’s singer up on stage wash over me. This evening—this whole day—didn’t make any sense, but I was just going to accept it and enjoy the ride.

Eventually, the children’s singer changed to a polka band, then a group of men in overalls with a washtub bass and other dubious-looking instruments, and finally a country band with a singer who declared that it was time to get our square dance on. Mal had drifted away by then, but Em pulled Tate up to dance, and I looked over at Mark and grinned.

“You hear that? We’d better get out on the dancefloor or we might get in trouble.”

Mark’s face paled, and he wore the most serious expression I’d seen all day. “Oh no,” he said, a note of panic in his voice. “No, I don’t dance.”

“‘Don’t dance’ doesn’t mean anything. It’s eithercan’torwon’t, and I don’t see anything to suggest to me that you trulycan’tdance, so it must just be because you don’t care about me enough or value our relationship,” I said, turning on the puppy dog eyes. There, let him react to that!

“I value you enough to buy you another beer,” Mark said. “Does that count?”

“You didn’t even buy the first beer, Mal did.”

“Okay, well I value you enough to buy you one myself. I still think that should count for something.”

“We’ll see.” I narrowed my eyes. “But you’re on thin ice, buddy.”

Mark did get us more beer, but by the time we were done, the square dancing was over. They’d switched to a DJ who was playing pop hits, and I was even more determined to drag Mark out onto the floor.

“Come on. There’s no way anybody is paying attention at this point in the evening,” I begged. “No one is going to notice you dancing.”

“You’llnotice me dancing,” Mark grumbled.

I rolled my eyes and stood up, walking around to the other side of the picnic table to tug on his hands. If sweet reason wouldn’t work, brute force would have to do. Or as much brute force as a guy like me could have with a guy Mark’s size.

After a few more half-hearted protests, Mark let me pull him up and out onto the temporary floor. Once we were dancing, it was hard to keep my eyes from roaming all over his body. God, he was hot. And nowhere near as bad a dancer as he claimed. Besides, when in doubt, you just got closer, which was perfect, since that was what I wanted to do anyway.

The song switched, and I moved an inch nearer to Mark, and then another, and another, until I was practically on top of him. I had the stupidest grin on my face, partially to indicate that we could still play this all off as a joke, partially because I couldn’t help it. I was having too much fun. I ground up on him and he said something that I couldn’t hear.

“What?” I yelled over the sound of the music. “I didn’t catch that.”

Mark angled his mouth down, and I stood on my tiptoes to lean in, but instead of bringing his lips to my ear and repeating myself, he kissed me.

I froze in the middle of the swirling bodies and music, but only for an instant. Maybe it was the beer, maybe it was just how weird the day had been, but I didn’t want to question this, and I didn’t want to play it off as a laugh anymore. Instead, I put my arms around Mark’s neck and pulled him closer. I felt his arms snake around me, and the next thing I knew, we were full-on making out on the dance floor. Someone whistled nearby, but I didn’t even care.

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