Page 23 of Jewel in the Rough

Benny squinted at Tristan, then Teagan, then back at Tristan. “So… last night? What was that about? They tried to kill us. Me.” He waved his injured hand. “I have the stitches to prove it!”

“Had to have been set into motion before the Feds closed in on him,” Tristan replied. “They took him so fast his men had no idea he was gone.”

“Are you here to escort the two they caught back to LA?” Teagan asked.

“Nope. I’m here to see you with my own eyes.”

Teagan gave his friend an assessing glance. “Huh.”

Benny didn’t think it was his imagination that Teagan’s eye’s glistened just a little.

CHAPTER11

Teagan

You don’t know what you don’t know…

Thank fuck, Teagan mused. Ciara had decreed she would take over showing Tristan around the island since he’d traveled all the way from LA—which had nothing to do with anything—but Tristan was allowing her to whisk him away with a “we’ll stop in at the shop first for some coffee.”

Teagan had to chuckle. He’d never seen his sister so instantly taken with someone. Or Tristan for that matter. Ciara was not like anyone his old friend would meet in LA. Teagan was pleased his sister’s attention was elsewhere because otherwise she would have stuck around and offered opinions where they weren’t needed and gloated about him and Benny—which he also did not need.

“Him and Benny” was still early days, so early that Teagan wasn’t ready to unbox what he was feeling in front of his sister, no matter how much he loved her. Yes, he was romantically attracted to Benny—but would Benny stay on the island now that Talache was no longer a danger to him? Did Teaganwanthim to stick around?

His newly awoken heart thumped hard. The answer to the last question wasyes.

Benny walked with Ciara and Tristan over to where their cars were parked, and as Teagan watched, he laughed at something one of them said. His infectious grin had Teagan smiling too. He couldn’t help himself.

Tristan followed Teagan’s gaze his lips curled upward, and he nodded back at Teagan in an especially irritating manner.

Know-it-all.

In the short time since Benny had appeared on the farm and incrementally crept into his life, Teagan had found himself more and more at peace with the way his life was working out. He’d resisted Benny at first, but the truth was, Teagan was happier than he had been since leaving the force and probably even before then. As Tristan had loftily informed him years ago, he didn’t know what he didn’t know. Teagan hadn’t known there was a Benny Brambilla who would wake up his heart and make him want more. Make him not resent the Indignant Gurls and their quirky personalities, make him laugh at existential ice cream flavors with names like Caramel Almond Anguish or Cherry Pit and the Pecan-dulum of Doom. God help him, he was considering baby goats.

Benny wasn’t the world’s greatest farmer. His ADHD kicked in and every once in a while, when he was supposed to be cleaning out stalls, Teagan would find him instead with his ever-present note pad, jotting down ideas for t-shirts, goat yoga, or organic cooking retreats. When Teagan had pointed out he didn’t grow human food, Benny had shrugged and shot him that grin of his. Right, he wasn’t growing human food...but he could.

Ciara drove off toward Hidden Harbor with Tristan following behind her in the ridiculous clown car he’d rented, and Benny made his way to where Teagan waited.

“Let’s see what we can clean up inside the house,” he said. “Assess the damage, I guess, and call around for a new front door. The general store in Killegen’s Point might have something that would work.”

Benny stared up at him, his sexy brow slightly furrowed. “What if I’m tired and need a nap?”

“Are you tired?”

“Yeeesss. And my hand hurts. I probably need to lay down.” He stuck his bottom lip out and gazed soulfully at him. Teagan’s heart beat a little faster.

“By nap, you mean…”

“Definitely laying down needs to happen. Probably should be naked too.”

Teagan re-barricaded the front door and together they made their way up the stairs to Teagan’s bedroom. Benny, remarkably, seemed suddenly awkward. Shy? Teagan couldn’t tell. Was he having second thoughts?

“Is… something wrong?”

He couldn’t imagine what it could be, or maybe he could, and he was trying not to think about it.

“I feel like I need to apologize to you but also…not. I’m conflicted… uh…”

Teagan had finished unbuttoning his work shirt but left it hanging open off his shoulders, enjoying that Benny was distracted by his chest.

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