Trade Deadline - Avon Gale Page 0,40

of prepackaged cookies. He held up both. “I bring offerings.”

Micah laughed. “Come on in.” He tried not to laugh when Daniel had to duck a little to get through his door. “I know, I know. I think the people who built this house were shorter than me.”

Daniel laughed and followed him through the house. “The first thing I had to do in my new place was replace the master showerhead, so I didn’t have to duck.”

Micah did not want to think about gorgeous Daniel standing naked under the shower. Or he did, but he probably shouldn’t right now. What he really wanted to do was see it, and that was the point of this whole dinner. To see if they were going to be friends, or if there was a chance for something else, too.

“Your house is great,” Daniel was saying, as they moved into the kitchen. “How long have you lived here?”

“I bought it about two years ago,” Micah said. “I was living in a condo and I liked it, but the fees were starting to get ridiculous and the traffic in the area was making my commute so long, I might as well move to Fort Lauderdale. This place came up and I knew it was going to go fast, so, I put in a bid. It’s such a seller’s market that I didn’t think I would get it, but the sellers were family, so.”

“They were your family?” Daniel asked, opening up a couple of beers and handing him one.

Micah took it, even though he didn’t really see the point in Michelob Ultra. He knew it was probably all Daniel could have with it being hockey season, but Micah liked his full-flavor wheat beers. Still, he took one and clinked his bottle with Daniel’s. “No, I mean, they were queer.”

“Oh! Right.” Daniel smiled. “It all looks updated, did you do that, too?”

Micah shook his head. “I’d like to say yes and look like an HGTV maven, but honestly, it was the sellers. I do really like it, though. Want a tour?”

“Sure,” Daniel said, and followed him through the house. It wasn’t a long tour—the house was three bedrooms but on the small side. Micah didn’t need much room. Daniel spent about four minutes trying to coax Cousteau out from under the guest bed, and Micah remembered Daniel saying he had five dogs. He tried to imagine Cousteau around five dogs, then told himself if he was going to start fantasizing, stick to Daniel in the shower and not future living arrangements.

Micah knew he had a crush, but geez, this was intense.

“The one thing I did was set up a pretty sweet backyard,” Micah said, once they’d returned to the kitchen. He opened the back door and waved to show Daniel he should go first.

The back of his house had a small narrow yard that Micah had transformed into an outdoor space he’d actually use. The tiled area was entirely encompassed by an iron canopy, with swathes of netting that could be lowered and zipped to keep the bugs away. He had a table and chairs and a comfortable lounger under the canopy, and off to the side on a bricked area was a grill and a tall bar with stools.

He’d put up hot chili pepper lights intermixed with white ones, and there were some tiki torches ringing the area. “Voila,” he said, smiling.

“Aw, man, this is great!” Daniel, who Micah assumed lived in a fancy house in Coral Gables given his job, probably had a pool and a way fancier outdoor space. But he looked as impressed as Micah’s other friends had when he’d finished it and invited them over for a party.

“Right? Thanks, I’m really proud of how it came out. I laid this tile myself!” Micah wiggled his eyebrows. “And damn good, too. Look, it can’t even get up.”

“Your jokes are still bad,” Daniel said, smirking as he took a long sip of his beer.

“Guilty.” Micah snorted. “Have a seat, I thought we’d eat out here.”

“I can help you,” Daniel said immediately, because of course he did. “And I’m starving, so that means we’ll eat faster if I don’t have to wait on you.” He grinned.

Micah’s stomach did six somersaults, and he smiled back. “Sure thing.”

It was amazing, Micah thought, how comfortable they were together. They brought out the food, and Micah lit the torches even though there weren’t many bugs. “I’ll have to take the netting down for hurricane season, but usually I’m safe from