Page 30 of Finley

Daniel took a seat, and as his friend grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge in the far corner, a genuine smile split his lips. Derek had done exactly what he’d said he would when they had been kids: saved up and bought a gym by the beach. Just like Muscle Beach in California.

“What, no gym equipment outside so you can scope out the hot, oiled muscle men all day while you slave over your paperwork? That was part of the dream, wasn’t it?”

Derek threw a bottle his way and winked. “Clearly you didn’t look to your left when you stepped out the back.”

Daniel craned his head in that direction now, and sure enough, there were men in varying degrees of clothing, pumping iron.

“Well, fuck me. You really did it.”

Derek perched his ass on the desk and unscrewed the top of his water. After chugging half the bottle, he nodded. “Course I did. You didn’t think I spent all those years shaking my ass for it to not pay off, did you?”

Daniel wasn’t sure what he’d expected. Derek had mentioned opening his gym a couple of years ago, but that had been it. Apparently, it had been a huge success.

“Congratulations, man. This is one hell of an office.”

“Yeah, it’s not too bad. I bet it’s almost as high-rollin’ as yours is up in the big city.”

“I’d take your office any day.”

Derek gestured to the beach with his bottle and shrugged. “It’s all right there, Danny boy. You just gotta want to come home to it.”

Daniel grew quiet, wondering if Derek was referring to more than the beach. And if he was, Daniel wasn’t sure he was ready to go there just yet. It was hard enough to ask Derek what he was about to.

“So, what brings you by? If it isn’t my promotion on twenty-nine-ninety-nine-a-month membership minus the enrollment fee—for you—then it must be something equally fucking groundbreaking.”

Daniel laughed at that sales pitch. “How kind of you.”

“Hey, I’m always thinking about my buddies.”

He rolled his eyes. “Mhmm. Well, I’m here for some advice, actually.”

“Advice, huh? Okay. Well, I say fuck him. There, that’s my advice.”

“Really?” Daniel asked, shaking his head and realizing how much he’d missed this crazy bastard. “I haven’t even asked anything yet.”

“I know, but when it comes to Brantley Hayes, nothing else will really compute with you until you get that part out of your system. It was always that way.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

“Yes. Yes, it was. Our college job ringing any bells for you?”

Christ, he hadn’t thought about that in years. “That was your idea, not mine.”

“Of course it was my idea. We were hot, and I knew we would get awesome tips. And I was right, wasn’t I? We used to make a couple hundred each night. You more than me, with the way you used to move your ass on the dance floor. But after the night Brantley turned up, everyone else might as well have disappeared off the planet. Man, you were like a dog with a bone—or a dog with a boner?—”

“Yeah, I was there, remember? But there’s one slight problem to your plan: my mother still doesn’t know, so how do I just?—”

Derek laughed. A deep, rumbling belly laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”

There it was again, that niggling feeling that— “She knows, doesn’t she?”

“Ahh, yeah. Pretty sure she worked it out, Danny.”

Daniel scratched the side of his head.Well, fuck.That was different. His mother knew about him and Prof—Brantley—huh.Now what?

“Did I help with your little problem?”

He scrunched his nose up and finished the rest of his water. “You didn’t even hear my original question.”