Page 90 of Brewbies
“I can attest to that.”
As he spoke, Ethan’s chest expanded with real feeling. “I feel like I know every tree and hollow. Every shop and keeper. The tide schedules. The seasons. The festivals. Hell, even the criminals. I know the names of people’s dogs and grandkids. And they know me and mine. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and this one raised me.”
“Probably why you’re so weird.”
That evoked a snort of laughter. “Oh, it’s exactly why I’m so weird. And protective. And involved. And—”
“Overbearing? Controlling? Closed-minded?”
Okay, he deserved that, but she didn’t need to know. “Keep it up and you’re paying for your own deep-fried stick of butter.”
They laughed as they paused at a crossroads. One way was the stage where Kiki and her family gave their final performance, and the other way stood a friendly half-circle of food trucks.
“I had raw butter for lunch,” she teased, holding her hand over a pretend-full stomach. “Maybe something…healthier?”
They stared at each other for a second, each of them thinking about devouring the other.
“Meat?” he finally suggested.
“Meat,” she agreed.
They wandered over to the food trucks, too absorbed in each other to see Cady and Fox until they were almost wearing the basket of fries they were sharing.
Welp, guess they were eating at the Humble Pie Cafe, table for one shirt-tucker where the soup of the day was cream of awkward.
Cady and Darby shared exclamations as if they hadn’t been together all day. Fox and Ethan, on the other hand, quietly mad-dogged as if it would take the twitch of an eyelash to kick nine shades of shit out of the other.
“Cady talked you into a crowd today, huh?” Darby chucked Fox on the shoulder as if they were old war buddies.
Hmmmm…
“She likes it when I break stuff and throw things.” Fox shrugged.
“Look what he won me!” Cady reached into a backpack and pulled out an adorable stuffed bear…
Dressed in a black leather harness, numerous buckles, and a bright red ball gag cinched in his little teddy bear mouth.
“I love it!” Darby squeezed the bear. “You guys are too cute. A match made in…well, in Townsend Harbor.”
Cady flipped a long blonde strand over her shoulder and adjusted her beanie. “You guys getting food?”
Ethan sent Darby a silent message:Don’t invite them to eat with us. Don’t invite them to eat with us. Don’t invite them to eat with us.
“We are. You want to join us?”
Cady took one look at both men and immediately said, “No thanks! We ate already. Just sort of making our goodbyes.”
“And getting dessert,” Fawkes reminded her, tugging her gently toward a booth painted to look like a vintage ice cream truck that sold frozen yogurt boobs and dong popsicles.
“I have to tell Darby something really quick—do you mind grabbing us something?” Cady blinked her moon-cow eyes at Fox, and Ethan remembered how devastating they could be.
“Of course—what do you want?”
“Make it a surprise.”
“One surprise coming right up.”
Her eyes lit as she had an idea. “Can you make that surprise a doughnut?”
