“Ouch. And no.” The look Owen gave me was withering.
“He was already going out of business, which we found out after chatting him up,” Kingston said.
A process I was becoming familiar with. The two of them were practiced at the chatting someone up experience. “About twenty minutes, then?” Please let this joke land better than my previous comment.
Kingston grinned. “Young and not nearly so experienced, remember? More like an hour.”
I laughed.
“The shop owner mentioned things were failing.” Owen picked up the story. “I was straight out of cooking school, and every one of my business ideas centered on baking, so I tossed out some ideas about fresh baked sweets.”
“He liked what we had to say, but wanted to move onto other things.” The way Kingston dove in, it felt like they’d rehearsed this story. They probably had, but the two of them still had a dynamic that was nice to watch. “He’s an old school, hard core gamer who didn’t like the direction of the industry, or that his shop couldn’t make it as-is.”
“So he sold it to us.” Owen glanced at Kingston in the rearview mirror.
What was that look? Questioning? About what?
Kingston shrugged. “Everyone already knows, she might as well too.” He focused on me. “I did it to piss off my mother. She’d told me to make something of my life, and I intended to prove I could do that through gaming. Not as direct a route as some people take, but I’m happy with the outcome.”
“And the rest is history and listed for the world to read on our website.” Owen wrapped the entire tale up with a nice neat bow.
A story like theirs didn’t end so abruptly, though. I could ask for more info—it was tempting—but I didn’t want to delve into the innermost details of their private lives. I wasn’t here to get to know them on a friendship level, just to learn enough to protect myself and my own shop.
“So are the two of you...” What was I doing? This was the exact opposite of not delving into their private lives.
Owen glanced at me. “Are we...?”
It wasn’t that I had a problem asking are you a couple? They’d played tonsil tag in front of me, so it was a reasonable assumption. “I’m wondering if your partnership goes beyond business. Beyond friendship.”
Silence.
I glanced between them. “Is this another of those secrets like how long you’ll be in town?”
“No. Rather, it’s not something we talk about a lot, but it’s not a secret,” Kingston said. “It’s just not as cut and dried as a label.”
“Also, I don’t want you to take it wrong when I say the kiss the other day was as much for your benefit as ours,” Owen added.
Curious. “Now you have to explain.”
Kingston drummed his fingers on the center console.
“You said you had a friend, the one who got you the X poster, and the two of you make better friends than lovers.” Owen seemed to be measuring his words. “It’s kind of like that.”
Kingston silently flattened his palm on the leather. “Kind of. I dated this woman, years ago, who thought it would be hot to see two guys together. That was the first time we...”
“Shared.” Owen picked up the thread without pause. “There was kissing, more, between Kingston and me. It was good.”
“Good isn’t exactly a screaming endorsement. And doesn’t quite line up with that kiss I saw.” It had been incredible for me, and I’d only watched.
“He’s understating things,” Kingston said. “Tell me you’re surprised. She and I didn’t last long—she was jealous of my relationship with Owen—”
“Seriously?” I shouldn’t be any more surprised about that than Owen being minimalist in his description. But it had been her idea.
Kingston playfully tapped Owen on the arm. “I was glad it showed early. My friendship with Owen is one of those things I’m not sacrificing. We’ve got an occasional with-benefits thing going on. We lean into the passion when it feels right for the situation.”
“You were reading yaoi, you’re an X fan, the kiss added to the moment.” Owen made it sound like a reasonable step in a business plan, rather than an intense, shared moment.
Right. “But it was totally spontaneous.” I kept my sarcasm light.
“We didn’t discuss it first, if that’s what you’re implying.” Kingston almost sounded wounded. He didn’t have the right.
But I liked the idea that they were in-tune enough with each other that a kiss could be spontaneous, and my imagination was running rampant with fantasies of them together. Especially given how easily they talked about being friends-with-sometimes-benefits.
“You’re not jealous, are you?” The faintest hint of concern ran through Kingston’s voice.
I’d wonder if I’d imagined it, but his tone wasn’t hard to read.
“We’re not dating.” I had to remind myself as much as him. “But no.” Kind of turned on. Okay, a lot turned on. Letting that truth slip out was a gaping chasm of a line that I wasn’t crossing with them.
Chapter Ten
The cabin was rustically beautiful, as I expected from a group of twenty to thirty something trust fundies. In the middle of a forest clearing, set back far enough from the lake to be private, but close enough to have its own dock, and make swimming and boating convenient.
The interior defied the log-cabin look, with tile floors, stainless appliances, and high-end electronics. I wasn’t judging—it looked comfortable, and it was hard to complain about that.
Kingston and Owen introduced me to the six other people there. Half had just come back from an unsuccessful morning of fishing, and the other three were arguing over how many ingredients could change in a drink and still have it be a mimosa.
The morning passed in a blur of fruit plates and idle chatter. The more time that ticked away, the further I drifted toward the living room walls.
I should mingle. This wasn’t a large group, and I was here to make connections. The way everyone had split off into packs of two or three made it difficult to know where to gravitate, so the edge of the room got my company.
“Mind if I share your wall?” Owen startled me when he brushed my shoulder and leaned back next to me. He handed me a cold bottle of water. “I’m sorry for assaulting you with so many names at once. It’s a lot to keep track of.”
I took a long swallow of water. The icy cold froze my uncertainty. I looked up to find Owen watching me. I turned away before eye contact could become more. “It’s fine. I’m good with names.”
“I should have guessed that. Let’s see... you give each one of them a nickname, and associate their real names with whomever you’ve decided they are?”
I didn’t like being pegged so easily, even if it was exactly what I was doing with everyone else in the room. “Maybe.”
“Care to share?”
“No.”
“Why not?” Kingston seemed to appear from nowhere, and planted himself between us and the rest of the room.
“People never appreciate the instant judgment, even when there’s truth to it,” Owen said. “So many want to categorize everything around them with neat little labels, but apply one of those labels to them...”