Page 92 of The Bartender Special

Benny and his sunburn stood tall until the truck’s taillights disappeared down the road.

Despite all of his resolve, that night he revisited that kiss—and all of the others—beneath his sheets.

He forgot all about his sunburn then.

* * *

Jack didn't realize what he'd done until he was driving from his apartment to the bar two hours later.

Well shit.

A whole two hours had passed where he hadn’t even clocked the move.

Just straight kissed Benny on the front porch while there wasn’t a damn soul around. At least out on the sand earlier that day there had been witnesses. He could justify that kiss had been for the optics. Hell, even the make out session post-spider incident could be blamed on adrenaline, if he stretched far enough.

Now he was standing behind the bar at Cassidy's and shaking his head, side-eyeing his cell phone on its top and knowing their fourth encounter had been an honest-to-God slipup.

One neither of them had addressed yet.

Should he call Benny? Text him? Say whoops with some emojis attached?

Maybe just leave it alone.

It wasn't that big of a deal.

In fact, it was kind of like they had been rehearsing.

Hard to sell a relationship as real when you never take it out of the box when no one is looking.

Jack grumbled at himself.

He’d slipped.

He’d fucking slipped.

The main door to the bar opened. Two men came in. Jack pocketed his phone. He was at the bar, not a place to dwell on the taste of warm, soft, and slightly citrus lips.

Now he needed to focus on why he was with Benny in the first place.

Derrick Kennerly, a local who had recently moved back to Arbor Bay, came to the bar with Dewey Royce in tow. Jack was friendly with Dewey but hadn't seen Derrick in a while. He greeted both with a nod as they took over the barstools across from him.

“Well, if it isn't our very own Casanova in the flesh,” Dewey exclaimed, throwing his hands wide. Most would think he was making fun of Jack, but Dewey was always some kind of hyper at every moment of his life. He no more meant to mock someone than Jack meant to kiss Benny on the front fucking porch.

“You know I was at the grocery store today and ended up hearing the cashier and Mrs. Buckley talking about you and Benny,” he continued. “Then I looked at your Facebook and saw you changed your status to ‘In a Relationship’ with him. I guess I was living under a rock, because I didn't even realize y'all knew each other!”

Jack didn't have to ask Dewey what he drank. He went ahead and started pouring a light ale from the tap.

“Now don't you come in here looking for gossip, Dewey,” Jack chided. “You know the only thing I like serving is alcohol.”

Dewey laughed at that. He took his drink with a hand up in defense.

“I'm just happy for you, is all. I know Benny is a good one. And that prickly attitude of yours? Probably could use some of that good too.” Again, Dewey didn't ever mean anything he said to offend, so Jack took the comment with a smile.

Derrick, on the other hand, was a little too aggressive with his tone.

“You know, we were friends in high school, Benny and me. I thought I knew him pretty well until I read some of that blog. I don't get why he felt the need to post everything that was in his head. I’d be embarrassed if it was me.”

Jack realized he had never liked Derrick all that much.