working. Well, no better time than now.
“Dude. Brah. Compadre. Cut the shit.” Blake and I are sitting on bar stools under a tiki hut on a crowded beach where I have gently rejected the advances of three girls in the past hour. Blake is ogling me in disbelief. I continuously search the skies for whisperers.
“Don’t make a big deal of this,” I say.
His eyes drop to my glass of water then rise to my face. “I will make a big deal of it, because it is a big deal. You don’t need to do this, man. You got nothin’ to prove.”
“I’ve got plenty to prove. To myself.”
He closes his eyes, shakes his head. I didn’t expect him to understand.
A blond bombshell saunters up to us with mile-long legs and mini black shorts. She has a posse of manicured beauties following behind her. Blake sees me looking over his shoulder and turns.
“Ah, hey, baby!” he says. The blonde smiles and stands between his legs, wrapping her flyaway arms around his neck and kissing him.
She’s magazine material. A few men glance at Blake with envy.
“How’s my man?” the girl asks, leaning her forehead against Blake’s.
“Helluva lot better now that you’re here.”
She turns to me and blinks with big eyelashes.
“Oh, hey,” Blake says. “This is my boy from way back, Kaidan. This is my girlfriend, Michelle, and her J-Pack of friends, Jessica, Jamie, and Jen.”
Girlfriend? Apparently I’m not the only one with secrets.
We shake hands, and I say, “Nice to meet you, Michelle.”
Her eyes widen at my accent, and her friends move forward, all their eyes on me, auras zinging with red. I shake each of the J-Packs’ hands and sit back.
“Hey now,” Blake says when Michelle has stared at me a beat too long. “Don’t be looking at him. He’s gay.”
I fight back a grin.
“Oh,” Michelle says, eyeing me differently now.
“Just kidding,” says Blake. “He’s bi. Sometimes we get it on.”
Her face scrunches when she realizes he’s teasing her, and she slaps his shoulder. Her friends laugh and smile at me.
“Wait,” says the friend Jamie, with a hand on her hip. “So, are you gay or not?”
“He’s whatever you want him to be,” Blake tells her. “Straight, gay, bi, tri. My boy here does it all. He also likes to watch. So you girls go ahead and put on a show.”
I keep a straight face as the girls laugh at Blake’s antics and swat at him with their clutch purses.
“What are you girls up to tonight?” Blake asks them.
“We’re going to the movies,” Michelle says. “Want to come?”
“Not tonight. I’m taking Kai out on my boat.”
Michelle’s face lights up. “I want to come!”
“I mean the fishing boat,” he backpedals. “We’re going fishing.”
“Ew, never mind. You guys have fun.”
Blake winks at me. He and Michelle kiss again and the beauty posse leaves, sending a few backward glances my way.
“You have a girlfriend,” I say.
“You’re not working,” he retaliates.
We search around us to be sure nobody has heard, then Blake tosses back the rest of his rum runner. “Look,” he says. “My pops is making me, okay? It’s not enough for me to date. I have to be able to land the big one and take her off the market. Trophy wife and all that.”
“Shite,” I whisper.
“Yeah. Don’t say anything to anyone.”
“I won’t.”
We look around again, paranoid. I wish we had a way of talking without worrying about anyone eavesdropping. I take a drink of my water and think about it.
“We should learn Sign,” I say.
“Sign language?” Blake scoffs. “We can’t be caught doing that. They’ll know we’re being secretive.”
“No shit. We’d obviously only do it when nobody’s around.”
He thinks about it and nods. “Yeah, all right. I’ll let Gin know, and she can tell the others to learn too. I hope it’s not too hard. Ain’t nobody got time for that.”
I do. I’ve got all the time in the world these days.
I end up spending a lot of time in Santa Barbara to keep my distance from the other Anna and to give Blake time from Michelle. I’ve never truly had a best mate before—someone I can be myself around. Our fathers approve of us “working” together, so it’s a brilliant setup.
We’ve spent a lot of time learning Sign and trying to talk to each other. I had to dig a bit online to find all the swear words, though. Blake let the twins know, and they also want to learn. They’ve got a bit of time away from their father to safely