Page 59 of Broken Ice
“I love it. I could also pass you some photos from his childhood and you can do a little slideshow,” she suggested, grin audible in her voice.
Beau echoed the expression. “Fuck, yeah. And if you want to slip in some embarrassing ones for my own enjoyment…”
Anna cackled. “You read my mind.”
Beau got everything in place. He got two tickets to the aquarium, gave strict instructions to all the guys, and put Pavel in charge of setting stuff up at Emilio’s. Everybody was happy to participate, which saved Beau a lot of energy.
He told Emilio a couple of days before his birthday about the aquarium plans, passing it off as something small and casual.
“You really don’t have to do that,” Emilio said, but he was smiling.
“I want to,” Beau replied simply and curbed the urge to kiss the fond expression on Emilio’s face.
Beau truly expected everything to go perfectly which, knowing him, was an incredibly silly assumption.
“Uh…” Beau blinked at the building where the aquarium was supposed to be. “This doesn’t look right.”
They sat in Beau’s car, staring at the squat structure, white paint peeling off, big blue letters dominating the front.Frankie’s Aquarium Emporiumit declared.
Emilio glanced at him. “It does say aquarium. We should check it out.”
The inside, if it was possible, was even worse than the crumbling façade. The whole thing was one big room lined and stacked with glass aquariums. Each one was inhabited by some weird bug or reptile or, occasionally, a fish.
There were no sharks in sight.
There was a pimply teenager behind the counter, extremely bored expression firmly in place. “Welcome to Frankie’s Aquarium Emporium,” he droned. “We are happy to have you here.”
“You don’t seem very happy,” Beau pointed out.
“I am. I’m very happy,” the teenager said, voice completely monotone.
Emilio snorted. “I’m guessing you’re not Frankie.”
“Frankie’s my uncle,” the kid said.
Beau side-eyed him. “Great, a family business,” he muttered. “Is this all of it? Are there any sharks?”
The kid pointed at a toy shark on the counter. “Megalodon.”
“Bless you,” Beau said.
Emilio elbowed him lightly. “Let’s check the place out, yeah? Do we have to buy tickets?”
“No, I’ve already bought them. Unfortunately,” Beau said.
He showed the kid the tickets on his phone. He barely glanced at them, waving them forwards.
“What the fuck?” Beau whispered. The first tank was filled withspiders.
Emilio peered into it.
Beau winced. “I’m so sorry. I thought it was a normal aquarium!”
From the counter, the kid piped up. “How did you buy the tickets without realising what it was? There are pictures all over the website.”
Beau shot him a glare. “Nobody asked you,” he hissed.
The teenager shrugged, turning to his phone.
