Page 5 of Candy Hearts
“Yeah. It’s pretty,” he said.
In the summer, fishermen took rowboats out in the morning for their catch of the day, and the water smelled fresh and clean and, yeah, muddy. Cattails and lily pads covered the shallows, and toads sang into the night. It was beautiful in an earthy, unassuming way in the summer, but William also loved the starkness in the winter. The bare trees, the golden grass, the grey water.
Benji snorted and rummaged through the cooler, coming up with a can of local ginger beer. When he straightened, he said, “I get the impression you only say half of what you’re thinking. As if you’re actually waxing poetic in your head, but out loud you say, ‘Uh, yeah, it’s pretty,’ like a very gorgeous caveman.”
“You think I’m gorgeous?”
“You own a mirror, don’t you, caveman?” Benji walked back inside.
William had been called a lot of things in his life. Caveman was not one of them. Cavemen didn’t wear Tom Ford dress shirts during a power outage, did they?
William looked down at his sleeve. Shit, maybe they did.
He followed Benji back inside and headed to the kitchen to make himself a sandwich. The house was open concept so he could see Benji arranging himself on the wooly rug near the hearth.
“What do you do for a living, Mr. O’Dare?” Benji asked as William slapped some peanut butter onto a piece of bread.
Guilt and shame bubbled up in William. Benji probably knew that stuff about his sisters’ other friends. William had known both of Benji’s sisters—Sasha and Rosie—for nigh on a decade, but he’d been notoriously absent for most of that time too. Too busy to show up to the big events. Too busy to be there when they needed him. Their annual Valentine’s Day House Party was the only time he’d seen Sasha in years.
“I co-own a nightclub management business.”
“That’s fancy.”
“It’s mostly spreadsheets. What do you do?”
“I’m a mechanic. I specialize in imports and restoration.”
William blinked a few times. He had not been expecting that. He wondered if there was grease under the fingernails of Benji’s expressive hands or the scent of oil on his skin.
William took a bite of his sandwich so he didn’t blurt out how much he wanted to stick his face in the join of Benji’s neck and shoulder. Benji transferred his attention to the fire, which gave William a bit of breathing room.
After finishing his sandwich, William pulled a book off the shelf and moved to the chair closest to the fireplace. And Benji. Benji seemed content to sit in silence, and because William’s intense and instantaneous attraction to Benji was muddling his brain, silence was probably good.
* * *
This sucked. Awkward silences sucked. Benji didn’t reallydosilence. He pulled his phone out. This was all Sasha’s fault, and she needed to answer for her crimes.
He texted her:What the hell?! Why didn’t you tell me the party was postponed?
He could tell she’d seen his message, but she didn’t respond.
“That jerk left me onread,” Benji said out loud after a few minutes, sort of talking to William but mostly talking to himself.
William was reading, but Benji hadn’t seen him turn the page once. Anytime Benji glanced at William, William seemed to be staring at him.
“Maybe she’s busy,” William said, reasonably.
Benji hated reason. He glared at William and called Sasha.
“Benji,” Sasha said. She sounded out of breath. “Where are you?”
“I’m at Copper Lake,” Benji said slowly and with a lot of exaggeration. “Where are you?”
“Uh-oh.”
“Yeah. Uh-oh.”
She stifled a laugh, but it still came through loud and clear. “I decided to go into work today. I forgot to call you.”
