Chapter Five
~ Mars ~
Bare might be one of my best friends, but I wanted to swear at his sudden appearance. Reba was skittish enough without having to meet my friends on our first date. And this was a date, even if she didn’t think so. From the glances I’d been intercepting, I knew she was attracted to me. A lot more than she’d ever let on before tonight. Thank fuck.
I slipped my arm around her waist and tucked her protectively into my side. More so she didn’t run away than anything else.
Glancing past Bare and his fiancée, Petra, I scanned for more of our friends. “Just you guys?”
“Um-hmm. I’ve lived here for four years and never saw the fountain,” Pet said. She extended her hand toward Reba. “Since Mars is rude… Hi, I’m Petra. And this is my fiancé, Barrett. You must be the woman Mars has been crushing on all this time.”
“Pet…” Both Barrett and I groaned. That girl. Since she’d come out of her shell, she’d been a handful. Bare loved every second of it.
“I don’t think you look like you’re thirty-two, though. More like…early twenties.”
“Marshall! What did you tell them?” Reba exclaimed, freezing as she and Petra shook hands. Her arm dropped, and she stared at me open-mouthed.
I shrugged. “I didn’t know exactly your age when I said it. I just threw out a number that would get them off my ass.” I nuzzled against her ear, loving the little shiver I felt when I whispered against her and breathed in her lemon scent. “Pet’s right, though. You don’t look anywhere near even twenty-eight.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re right,” she told Pet and jabbed me in the side with her elbow, trying to step out of my hold. I didn’t let go. “I’m not thirty-two. Mars said we were going to get ice cream and see the fountain. So I guess that we’re planning to do close to the same thing.” She looked up at me. “Maybe?”
“If that’s what you want. I know you wanted…” How did I say it? “Uh, to be away from Cherish Cove.”
“Ooh! We’re on the DL,” Pet whispered with a weird little shimmy. She waved a hand. “Don’t worry about Bare and me.” She zipped her lip and made a motion like throwing away the key. Like that would ever stop her from being chatty. Bare quietly snorted, apparently thinking the same thing while he slung his arm around her shoulders.
Still, I trusted her not to spread rumors. She wasn’t a gossip like that, even if she was unrepentantly chatty.
She leaned in to Bare and gazed up at him. “I want ice cream, too.”
“Uh, babe, you’re allergic to milk?” he reminded her.
“Yeah, well, lucky for you, they have vegan ice cream here. Come on.” Ducking out of his hold, she grabbed his hand then headed for the line. Her man helplessly followed—of course, I knew he’d follow her anywhere. They were totally gone for each other. The world could end, but if they had each other, they’d be fine.
I glanced at Reba, feeling much the same. “Ice cream?”
“Yeah. Your friends are…um…”
“Weird?”
“Fun. Pet’s a firecracker, isn’t she?”
“She is, now that she’s with Bare, anyway. She used to be a lot quieter. Then they got together, and she really opened up.”
Reba smiled, though it was only a tiny curve of her lips and didn’t get near her eyes. “The right guy will do that.”
Jealousy screamed that I didn’t want to know who’d hurt her. That same caveman in me bellowed that I did, though. So I could crush him, bury him.
“The right guy will for you, too. Promise,” I vowed. I stared into her eyes with the assurance to her that the man I spoke of was me.
We joined the other couple in line, and my arm went back around Reba’s waist. She was stiff at first, but slowly relaxed into me as we chatted with Bare and Pet. Well, more like Pet and Reba chatted while Bare and I silently absorbed our women, content to just hang out.
They liked Reba—and I would have been shocked if they didn’t. It was a relief, though, to know she’d passed some unknown test.
In a way, I was glad we’d run into them. After the sexual tension swirling around Reba and me in the car, the breather was good. The last thing I wanted was to push her too far too soon. I knew she’d run if I did.
It was a couple minutes after ten when we had our cones.
“We need to hurry the fuck up or we’ll miss the start,” Bare said. “The website said it starts at ten after.”