“Eh, it’ll be fine,” Milo said, swirling his coffee around. “It’s raining. Who’s coming for ice cream in this weather?”
“About that,” Alfie said with a slightly flushed face. “Theo has some friends staying and he said he might bring them down. Um, how many of you know Austin Carter?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Owen
“Doyou think he’ll be okay?”
“We should probably give him some space.”
“Did he hit his head?”
“Fuck, I hope not.”
Six of us stared down at Milo, who was currently lying on the floor of Lick It!. I didn’t think any of us had been expecting him to pass out the moment Austin Carter extended a hand and introduced himself.
Then again, none of us had ever expected someone like Austin—a literal sex god—to stroll through the door of our ice cream shop on a rainy September morning.
I was trying not to keep staring at him. And hoping my breathing was vaguely normal. I’d caught a whiff of his cologne when he’d shaken my hand and smiled, and he smelled amazing. Almost as good as Darcy.
My poor angel looked like he was two seconds away from panicking when Milo opened his eyes and said, loudly, “I’m not dead!”
“Oh thank God,” Darcy said, putting his hand on his chest as relief flooded his expression. “Does anything hurt?”
“No, I’m fine,” Milo said. He tried to sit up but Theo, who was wearing a blue gingham pinafore dress, rather like Dorothy, dropped down beside him and put his hand on his shoulder.
“No, you have to sit there a minute. If you get up too quickly, you might pass out again. You should have some water. Have you eaten anything today?”
“Er, I had coffee?” Milo said, vaguely sheepishly, as Alfie hurried off to get him a glass of water. Despite the fainting, Milo looked quite pleased with all the attention he’d suddenly garnered. Thank fuck he hadn’t smacked his head on the edge of the counter. I’d be okay dealing with blood, but I didn’t know if the others would be.
“That is definitely not enough!” Theo tutted scoldingly and shook his head. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”
Austin, who was stood behind Theo and watching with amusement, chuckled softly. “Don’t bother arguing with him, you won’t win.”
“I’d never dream of it,” said Milo.
“Here, drink this,” Alfie said, returning with a glass of water, looking relieved.
I leant over to Darcy as Milo took the water and sipped it slowly while chatting animatedly with Theo and Austin. “Do you think he’s enjoying the attention?”
Darcy chuckled. “That definitely wasn’t on my bingo card for today. Maybe I should send him home, especially if he’s not well.”
“I doubt he’d go.”
“True. But he ought to eat something.”
I glanced at the kitsch vintage-style clock on the wall, which had bright pink and teal numbers around the edge. It was nearlyhalf-eleven, and, as predicted, it hadn’t been a busy morning, so it would be easy to shut the shop up for a while. And I was sure Darcy would appreciate the chance to get out of deep cleaning the chiller.
“Why don’t we get Theo and Austin some ice cream, then we can all go round to Novel Tea or something? It won’t matter if we’re closed for a few hours over lunch.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Darcy said with a hum and a nod. “We can ask Alfie if Jonathan wants to come too. It would be lovely to see him again.”
“Yeah, it would.” I hadn’t really gotten to spend a lot of time with Alfie’s boyfriend, who’d worked at Lick It! for a few weeks before Ellie and I had started. He seemed like a sweet guy though, and Alfie obviously adored the fuck out of him.
“Okay,” Darcy said, cutting through the chatter and drawing everyone’s attention. “Theo, Austin, you came down for some ice cream so please let me get you some now. Then I was going to suggest we go around to Novel Tea so Milo can have something to eat—and everyone else, obviously. Alfie, I don’t know if Jonathan is free, but it would be lovely to see him. Theo and Austin, you are welcome to come too, but I absolutely understand you probably don’t want to hang out with a bunch of, mostly, strangers, especially since one of them fainted when you shook his hand.”
“Hey, that’s not my fault,” Milo said. “Have you seen this man? Sorry, Austin, but you’re fucking gorgeous.”
