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“I think Kelly’s sitting there,” he said, keeping his voice light and upbeat.
“Nah. He’s making sure the tab’s set. He wanted to sit near Cindy anyway—her new girlfriend is friends with Veronica.”
“Kelly, man, are these your seats?” Eric called out. Not that much older than Canaan and Damian, he already had a smoker’s rasp to his voice.
“Go ahead,” Kelly called back.
“See. All set.” Damian settled into the chair opposite Canaan, leaving Renzo and Eric to take the two seats at the end of the table. Damian picked up the thick drinks menu. “Who’s drinking what? Since we all walked over, I figure we should enjoy ourselves, right?”
Canaan waited to see if Renzo reached for one of the menus, but he just shrugged. “I chugged the energy drink on the walk over. Don’t think my stomach wants me to mix that with anything loaded.”
“Come on, man. Don’t tell me you’ve got a weak stomach like Canaan here? Last thing we need is two nervous pukers.”
“Canaan’s stomach’s just fine,” Renzo said evenly. Man, loyal too. More good boyfriend points for him. “And I’m saving my stomach—and my carbs—for the onion rings.” He pointed at the table tent advertising the specials.
“Someone’s not getting kissed tonight.” Eric’s laugh was just as rough as his voice.
“Someone owns mints.” The look Renzo leveled at Eric could topple one of those monuments Kelly was so fond of. Speaking of, why couldn’t they have ended up near Kelly instead of what was shaping up to be a pissing contest?
“You can share your mints. I’m getting garlic fries.” Canaan bumped ankles with him under the table, trying to remind him both that he’d welcome kissing regardless of who ate what and that he could back off Eric some.
The waitress came by for their order, and Canaan got strawberry lemonade rather than one of the drink specials, in part because he didn’t want Renzo feeling left out since all he’d ordered was water. But also because if there was any chance that Renzo was serious about kissing, he wanted to be sober. He might only get this one shot with Renzo, and no way was he wasting it getting sloppy.
“So how much is Canaan paying you to come hang out with us this weekend?” Eric’s tone made it clear he was joking, but Canaan still felt nauseated, like maybe he was going to have to hurl after all.
“Dude. My ass is priceless. And he’s a fan of the band.” Canaan tried to joke back, but it came out flat.
“Oh really? Old stuff? New? You catch the single we cut for the streaming app special sessions deal?” Damian leaned forward. He always was a sucker for some fan worship.
“Older stuff mainly.” Renzo managed to sound almost bored. “But, yeah, I’ve heard it. It’s all right.”
“All right is high praise from him,” Canaan clarified.
“Maybe you’re just not trying hard enough.” Eric laughed as the drinks arrived.
“Can I try your lemonade?” Renzo asked, leaning closer to Canaan.
“Sure.”
Renzo dropped his voice before accepting the drink, saying in Canaan’s ear, “I know ways to kill him that won’t leave a trace. Just putting that out there.”
“Be nice.” Canaan laughed, appreciating the joke.
“You two are cute.” Damian was having some sort of high-octane iced tea that the place called Saloon Special. “How’d you guys meet?”
Oh crap. All those hours in the truck, and they hadn’t hashed out a history for their supposed relationship. Under the table, Renzo tapped his foot, presumably to tell Canaan that answering was on him. Which, okay, he could handle. The trick with any good lie was always to stick close to the truth, so that was what he did.
“Couple of months ago he came into the Smoothie Palace on base where I work. I liked him immediately and knew I wanted to get to know him better.”
“I’m not surprised you ended up working on base. You’ve always had a thing for uniforms. Even in high school. Remember when you used to make me go watch the SEALs run on the beach?”
“Yeah, yeah, I remember. We were kids.” Canaan really didn’t need Renzo thinking he was some kind of SEAL chaser, even if maybe he kind of was. “Anyway, I asked him out. I knew he was special just from the first time he walked in. One thing led to another.”
All that was technically true even if it had taken him way longer to hit on Renzo than he was making it sound. He had a thing for Renzo right from the start. He wouldn’t quite go calling it love at first sight or anything, but close. The food arrived, big platters of burgers and sides. He snagged one of Renzo’s onion rings, trading him a couple of fries.
“And you? You out to your team?” Damian asked Renzo. “’Cause if not, that must have been hella awkward, Canaan drooling all over you while you were on duty.”
