Page 151 of In Plain Sight

“Mouthfeel?” Jesse looked between them. “What the hell is that?”

“Something tells me we don’t want to know. Not in this context at least,” Sebastian said to Jesse.

“You don’t,” Dev and I said in unison.

“Why do I know what motor oil tastes like?” Isaac asked, staring at Asa in horror. “I know for a fact I’ve never tasted it, but I somehow know what it tastes like. How is that possible?”

“That would be something called chemoreception,” Asa said.

“Huh?” Isaac asked.

“The chemical sensing system that connects your nose and mouth, and your eyes and throat too. It’s what links your sense of smell with your sense of taste. You’ve smelled it, so your brain can translate that into a taste. Or at least what you think it would taste like. It’s not a foolproof sense.”

“No.” Jamie shot Isaac a flat look.

“What?” Isaac asked, not quite pulling off a confused look.

“You’re not testing that out either. Remember what Dev said? If it’s not food, it doesn’t go in your mouth. We don’t lick random things, no matter how much we want to.”

“I said that exact same thing to the twins last week,” Cass mused, referencing her five-year-old siblings.

“Something tells me they’ll learn that lesson long before Isaac does,” Jamie said with a smirk.

“Hundred percent,” she agreed.

“I wouldn’tactuallydo it.” Isaac rolled his eyes dramatically. “I’m notthatimpulsive.”

“But you’d think about it,” Asa countered.

“More than any adult should,” Jesse added.

“Maybe,” Isaac admitted with a smile.

“You’d better keep an eye on him when you get home,” Dev said to Jamie. “Otherwise you’re going to find him licking your furniture in the middle of the night.”

“Or he can give me something else to put in my mouth.” Isaac waggled his eyebrows at Jamie. “What’s that called? Misdirection?” He glanced at Asa. “Did I use that right?”

“Distraction would work better, but I’ll give you a pass since you got the gist of the word.”

“Speaking of distraction,” Nate said loudly as he tucked his phone into his pocket. “Pizza’s here.”

“I’ll get it,” Isaac volunteered, already heading toward the front of the shop.

“I’ll help,” Jamie said, hurrying after Isaac.

“And by help, he means make sure Isaac doesn’t start stuffing his face before he gets the pies back here,” Jesse said.

“Are you okay?” I asked Luka, leaning closer and lowering my voice as everyone around us started talking about how Isaac couldn’t be trusted around pizza.

“Yeah,” he said. His smile was small but genuine. “Still kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop, though. You know?”

I nodded. I knew exactly what he meant.

After so many years of keeping things secret, after the weeks of sneaking around, this felt almost too easy.

Even though I’d known deep down that everyone at work would be okay with us, I’d been afraid that our relationship would be a problem just from an HR perspective. I’d gone through so many scenarios in my head, most of them involving me finding a new job and losing my friends, but that hadn’t happened.

My family knew the truth, my mother knew, and the important people in Luka’s life knew. No one had reacted badly, not even my mother, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t have to hide who I was.

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