Jiya cut herself off and traded an uncomfortable, through-the-eyelashes glance with Andrew. “Oh, was it terrible?” Andrew coughed into his fist. “I’m, uh…sorry to hear that.”
Jiya tucked her hair behind her ears. “Perhaps it wasn’t a love match, but at least now I have a starting point to go on. The next guy will either be better or worse and then I’ll have a date barometer. Is graphing my date experiences cruel or simply scientific?”
“Scientific,” Olive said, pushing up her glasses. “Definitely.”
Andrew tensed. “More dates?”
“When do the lessons start?” Rory cut in, widening his eyes at Andrew.
“In two weeks!” Jiya picked the envelope back up and held it over her head like she’d just hit Powerball. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it.”
With that, she danced back out the kitchen, leaving a vacuum of sound in her wake.
Jamie turned to Andrew. “You bought the lessons, didn’t you?”
His older brother stared after Jiya with his heart in his eyes for a moment before schooling his features. “Be at the Hut on time,” Andrew said, striding from the room. “We’ve got another busy day ahead.”
*
Jamie walked down the boardwalk, watching seagulls swarm a dropped breakfast burrito on the beach. At this time of morning, summer Long Beach was just beginning to come alive. Joggers trundled down the wooden planks in brightly colored gear, young people in pajamas walked their dogs, eyes glued to the cell phones in their hand. The sun drifted behind the remaining cloud cover, continuing to burn it off little by little. The scents of warm sugar and coffee and sunscreen mingled together, so familiar. And yet the way Jamie felt that morning was anything but commonplace.
A guy on a bike swerved around him, dinging the bell, but he barely reacted. Up ahead, the Hut beckoned, the same as it did every day. Marcus would be there. Even if he broke it off with the man, which he needed to—absolutely had to—Jamie still needed to act like last night never happened, for the benefit of their audience. For Marcus’s sake.
And he was in a panic at the mere idea that last night would never happen again.
That last night was it.
He’d never go to sleep again feeling…like nothing in the world could touch him. Like he was in the safest place on the planet. Like he could let his guard down.
Jamie’s heartbeat started pounding double time the closer he got to the Hut. Bad. So bad. He’d always thought of Marcus as some kind of big, eager canine who wanted to play fetch, but the roles were reversed now. Jamie might as well be wagging his fucking tail in anticipation of seeing Marcus. Jesus, how had he let this happen?
He stopped for a moment to brace himself against the railing. To psych himself up. Breaking off this thing with Marcus was the only option. His brothers were worried—and Jamie had worried them enough for one lifetime. Caused them enough trouble and pain. He respected and trusted Rory and Andrew. If they were fearful enough to stage an intervention before their alarms went off, then Jamie needed to heed their warnings. It was totally possible he’d stopped seeing this situation with Marcus objectively.
I have to end this. It’s already starting to hurt.
Seeing Marcus and pretending to just be friends, restricting their touches to behind closed doors…it was everything Jamie vowed he’d never do. Today marked the end.
With weight pressing down on his lungs, Jamie pushed off the railing and continued toward the Hut, already rehearsing his speech in his head. Marcus, I care about you. I loved what we did together. But we have to stop this before it goes too far.
Right. As if they hadn’t leapfrogged over too far weeks ago.
When Jamie was almost at the Hut, some people came into focus and he slowed to a stop. A female dog walker was holding six leashes and each one had an enthusiastic dog on the end. All different breeds, barking and turning in excited circles. Labs, schnauzers, a cocker spaniel and a humongous Saint Bernard.
In the middle of them all stood Marcus, rubbing their fur and crooning to them in baby talk while the dog walker laughed. As Jamie watched, the Saint Bernard jumped and settled his paws on Marcus’s shoulders, licking his face…and time seemed to play in slow motion. Marcus turned his face up to the sun and let out a booming laugh that echoed down the boardwalk, stopping people in their tracks and kicking Jamie’s heart into a million beats per second.
Marcus allowed the Saint Bernard to push him to the ground and then the entire posse of pups piled on, nuzzling Marcus with their wet noses and barking happily. In the center of them all, Marcus lay prone, chuckling at all the attention and Jamie could tell he was trying to give each dog equal attention and—