Page 54 of Off Plan

“Yep.” He looked away, his eyes on the water again. It made the sunlight glint off his eyes, and I had to swallow when my mouth went dry.

Stop it, Mason.

“But the Goodmans, ah… you know. Did what family’s meant to do. See, I didn’t really spend time with my dad growing up, so I’d never laid eyes on my aunt Mary and her family until a few years ago. But when I ran into some trouble, my dad heard about it and invited me here and he—they—gave me a place to live. A job to do.” He shrugged. “I’m grateful to them. They were there for me.”

Which meant hisotherfamilyhadn’tbeen? That made me unreasonably pissed off.

“What kind of trouble? Legal? Financial?”

“Nope.” Fenn’s mouth twisted. “The kind of trouble that involved me being really, annoyingly, stubbornlygay, despite Mom and Neil’s best efforts.”

“What do you mean?” I demanded, outraged on his behalf. “What did they do?”

Fenn drew his spine straighter and cocked an eyebrow. “It’s a boring-assed story, and besides, no two-for-one deals, Loafers. You got your truth. Your turn now. Truth or dare?”

I leaned up on one elbow. “Is that how we’re playing this? I feel like I gave you a truth and a half, and got half a truth in return.”

“That’s the exchange rate, Loafers.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I wasn’t informed of this.”

“Have you heard yourself talk? You easily use three times as many words as I do, on average, so to keep things equitable—”

“You’re infuriating.” I shoved at his arm.

“So you keep saying, yet here you are, drinking with me, sooo…” He tilted his head in my direction. “Truth or dare?”

“Fine.” I sighed. “Make it an easy one. Truth.”

Fenn looked at me for a minute like he was weighing multiple options. He shifted forward so he was nearly looming over me, and I felt like a bug under a microscope. I fought the urge to squirm.

“You have a side of this blanket,” I informed him, putting up a wall with my arm. “Kindly stay on it.”

He laughed out loud. In fact, his eyes were still dancing when he said, “So, tell me how you lost the girl,” and I was so caught up in watching him that it took me a full two seconds to even process the question.

When I did, I sucked in a breath. “I asked foreasy.” I tried to make it sound less like a whine and more like a joke. I failed pretty hard.

“I know.”

“I would really rather not talk about this,” I said quietly.

“Ah.” Fenn sat back a bit. “You’re not over it.”

“No, that’s not it.” I shook my head once. “I’m overher. I don’t miss her or anything. It’s justembarrassing.” And it was true. I wasn’t entirely sure I was over the way we’d broken up, but I was positive I was overVictoria.

I took a deep breath. “Her name is Victoria. She’s very pretty. We were together for a year and a bit. Now we’re not.” I hesitated. “She left me for a globetrotting photographer we hired to take our pictures—”

Fenn’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re kidding.”

“No, Fenn. Unlike you I understand that jokes are meant to befunny.”I shoved his knee lightly. “The dude’s name isGunner. He’s six five and built like a blond Jason Momoa. They first met on Instagram because he has a billion followers, he lives in a treehouse in Belize with a tame howler monkey when he’s not traveling the world photographing shit, and he wanted her to be hismuse. WhereasIamme—” I flicked my hand up and down myself. “I enjoy binge-watching period dramas. Andcuddling.” Not that she was ever into either. “Can’t compete.”

Fenn stared at me for a long minute. “No,” he said finally. “No competition at all.”

I nodded and looked out at the water, trying to convince myself that didn’t sting.

“For one thing,” Fenn said sadly, “no howler monkey.”

I snorted and darted a look at Fenn, who was grinning, and then suddenly I was full-on laughing, too, flopping over on the blanket, gripping my stomach, even though it honestly wasn’t that funny. I nearly spilled my beer until Fenn grabbed my hand and saved it.