Page 27 of Forged in Secrets

Ben ran a hand through his hair as he squinted in the direction of the boat.

“It’s too far to read the name on the back,” he said. “But I’m pretty sure I can make out an ‘L’.”

Grace nodded. “That’s what I thought. Anyway, I guess you’re right. It’s probably not important. We need to talk to Jade and see what else we can find out about Katie.”

As they made their way up the boardwalk toward the ice cream shop, he resisted the urge to reach for Grace’s hand. Just because he’d made a mistake once didn’t mean that he had to do it again.

Instead, he continued on the safe subject of yachts, which Grace apparently had an encyclopedic knowledge of. She even confessed to her top secret hobby of building and painting miniature boat replicas, though she usually went for historical military models.

As she held a one-sided conversation comparing the relative merit of Supero 5000s and ForceStars, he realized for the first time that Grace Hinton–gorgeous Grace, with her designer clothes and perfectly manicured fingernails–was a nerd.

Maybe as much of a nerd as he was.

Keeping his hands safely in the pockets of his shorts, he stole another look at her.

Her hands were moving as she talked, and the excitement she had while talking about her interest felt contagious. He wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up researching nautical miniatures on Youtube later so he could actually contribute to what she was saying.

How was it possible that he’d missed so much about her, even after knowing her for all of these years?

“Anyway,” Grace said after a while, shaking her head quickly as though she just realized that she was embarrassed. “Now that I’ve given you the ultimate ammunition for the rest of the guys to make fun of me, I suppose we may as well get ice cream. Since we’re here.”

“How practical of you,” Ben said with a chuckle. “I’ll go get it. You stay here in case Jade shows up. She should be here any minute.”

She reached into the pocket of her shorts for a moment and then looked up at him.

“Actually, forget mine,” she said, shaking her head. “I forgot my wallet. I usually just use my phone to pay for things, but I wanted to enjoy the view without being tempted to capture it in a photo, you know what I mean?”

Her cheeks flushed pink.

“I do,” he said, picking up his own phone and holding it away from him as though it was covered in something filthy. “I always worry I’ll need my phone if I leave it at home, but I hate the temptation to pick it up all the time. I spend plenty of time staring at computer screens back at FBS.”

“Totally,” Grace said. “I hate the way I end up filtering my view of the real world through a camera lens.”

He said nothing for a moment, putting his hands on his hips as he stared out at the sea. Now that the sun had fully set, the water looked like deep blue ink. It was beautiful, but there was something ominous about it too–like the island itself, he suspected that danger lurked beneath the surface.

“So,” he said, letting his arm brush against hers accidentally-on-purpose as he took hold of his own wallet. “Chocolate? Vanilla? Strawberry? Something else?”

A smile tugged at Grace’s lips. “Are you sure?”

“Of course.”

“This feels kind of like a date, since you’re paying and all,” she teased.

“Don’t push your luck. I mean, technically I could just charge it to the company,” he said, certain that the flustered look on his face had given the truth away, whatever his words said.

It wasn’t a date.

But he wished that it could be.

GRACE

“Okay, give me that spoon, you’re driving me insane,” Ben said, reaching out and plucking the ice cream spoon from where she’d been tapping it against the picnic table.

“You can’t even hear it over the music,” she said, relinquishing the small piece of pink plastic.

“I can still see it,” he countered. “It’s visual clutter. Like trying to think while staring at Cameron’s desk back at the office.”

She pretended to shudder. “Okay. That’s fair. Even I can’t think in there.”

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