Page 21 of Whirlwind

“Do you know him?” Ryker asks.

I ignore his question and unbuckle my seatbelt. I can feel the tension in my stomach lighten as I take in the familiar face of Joey. He sees me through the windshield, and his boyish grin makes my cheeks hurt from smiling wider. I push open the truck door and hop out without turning toward my professor.

“Holy shit! Is that Fin “The Shark” Finley?!” Joey exclaims in a Southern accent so heavy it makes my toes curl. I hasten mysteps as he drops the bags he’s holding so I can throw my arms around him.

“I told you not to call me that!” I chuckle in fake annoyance as his arms wrap around me and squeeze so tight I think my lungs collapse.

“Whatever you say, Sharkie.”

I sink into the warmth of his lean muscled body for another second before I pull back to look into his sparkling blue eyes, faintly hearing the slam of a car door closing behind us.

“If you call me Sharkie, I’m calling you Sparkie.”

He cups his hands over his mouth and leans back. “Woof! Woof!”

I laugh. “I haven’t seen you in two years, and you haven’t changed a bit.”

“Why change what’s already perfect?”

I shake my head at him with an indulgent smile as he scans my body up and down.

“Speaking of perfection—you’re looking good, Fin.”

I flush and smack his chest playfully. “Oh, shut it. Your Okie charm doesn’t work on me.” He waggles his dark-blond eyebrows as a throat clears from behind me. It sounds annoyed for whatever reason.

I wink at my friend and step to the side so he can greet the ornery professor. In typical Joey fashion, he proceeds to check him out as shamelessly as he did to me a moment ago. His eyes move up and down Ryker’s toned form, and his roguish grin is obvious—at least to me. I press my lips together to keep a laugh in, remembering all the times he and I used to gush about our love for “The Twister Tamer” together.

Ryker’s hands are shoved in his jean pockets, but by the way his forearms are flexing, causing the corded veins to make an appearance, I know he’s clenching his hands into fists. I think it’s because Joey checked him out, but then I realize his eyes aren’t on Joey—they’re on me.

Is he…jealous?

The corner of my lip twitches, his annoyance a moment ago making sense now. But I don’t have time to think about my discovery, because Joey is rubbing his hands together in excitement and bouncing on the balls of his cowboy-booted feet.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the Tornado Daddy in the flesh!”

My eyes widen at the inappropriate nickname, but Ryker doesn’t get upset. He turns his gaze to Joey and lifts an eyebrow at him. “Seriously, Joseph? It’s not even eight am.”

Joey hoots and steps forward to clap Ryker on the back. They do their man-hug thing before Joey pulls back and grasps him by his upper arms. “It’s never too early to call someone Daddy. Especially when said Daddy has got such great biceps.” He squeezes them for emphasis, and Ryker pushes him off with a groan.

Laughter tickles the back of my throat as I watch the two men interact, and I wonder how they met. The last time I saw Joey, he was only a fan of his like I was.

Joey chuckles as he turns back to me and slings an arm around my shoulders, yanking me into him. “You didn’t tell me that my Finley was going to be on the chase!”

I roll my eyes at his choice of words. Joey loves to claim people as his and give them nicknames. I’ve known that since the first day I met him during undergrad.

Ryker’s features turn serious again, and his jaw flexes. “I didn’t realize you knew Ms. Buckley.”

The way he calls me Ms. Buckley makes my toes curl in my sneakers—and not in a good way. It’s not at all like how it felt to hear him say it when he was buried deep inside me.

“Ooh, Ms. Buckley. I like that!”

I stab my finger into his chest, and he winces. “Don’t you dare.”

“But he gets to call you it.” Joey pouts.

I sneak a glance at Ryker. He’s still tense, and if I’m reading him right, he’s annoyed or jealous again—maybe both.

“He’s my professor,” I clarify. This time, there’s no mistaking Ryker’s flinch, but he recovers quickly.

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