Chapter One
Reid Glover dunked his fingers into his latte and dabbed the scent of coffee on his Feminist Is My Favorite F-Word T-shirt. A shirt he’d loved yesterday, beautifully rumpled on a sleepy Toni, but today it smelled too strongly of her and the putrid stench of rejection.
Laughter twittered around him, and framed Elvis pictures winked at him from the walls. Hopefully the cheerful environment would reenergize his spirits before his nanny interview with the Bell family.
He sank low on the café sofa and shut his eyes, refusing to re-live every line Toni had delivered. Refusing to dissect it. Refusing to drown in inadequacy.
“It’s not you, it’s me.”
A groan escaped him.
That damned line, delivered by his last four girlfriends. It was Reid. Had to be.
Footsteps clapped over tile, followed by the familiar hushed voices of his ever-dueling friends—loveable egomaniac Loretta, and steady-as-a-rock Natalie.
“It’s your best friend,” Natalie narrated to Loretta, “and he’s as green as his shirt.”
Loretta poked his cheek. “What’s wrong with him?”
Reid opened his eyes, swatting at their fingers. “Stop prodding my cheeks. I’m deep in despair, not dead.”
Loretta tucked wavy brown locks behind her shoulders. “What ‘fuck you’ did the universe bestow on our Reid?”
Reid grimaced. “A lover’s disagreement.”
“Disagreement?” Natalie queried.
“Toni dumped me.”
Loretta smirked. “Knew it! You owe me ten bucks, Natty.” Natalie nudged her ribs, and Loretta oofed, then aimed for genuine concern. “I mean . . . so sorry, what happened?”
Reid scrubbed his face. “I wanted us to move in together. The feeling was not mutual. I thought it was our dream, but . . . apparently it was just mine.”
“Not gonna lie,” Loretta said, “that’s a stinger.”
Reid drowned his self-pity in a gulp of his latte. He kept her parting line to himself.
The words hurt too much to toss around.
Loretta sank onto the couch. “I’m sure there’s someone, somewhere who could love—”
Natalie gave Loretta a filthy shake of her head and sat on Reid’s other side. “Don’t listen to her. Look, you’re hot. For a guy. I think.”
“Sooo much more helpful,” Loretta said sarcastically.
Natalie’s eyes sparkled with the promise Loretta would pay for that later. “You’re also crazy clever and thoughtful, Reid. And your hair is better than anyone’s—”
“—Except mine.” Loretta patted Reid’s wrist comfortingly. “What we’re saying is, there is someone out there who won’t mind that you work as a manny, or cry at commercials, or are horrendously misadventure-prone.”
“I’m not misadventure-prone.”
“Last weekend you locked yourself in a toilet cubicle.”
Reid flushed. “It didn’t have a handle. I didn’t see the out-of-order sign, and I totally climbed out on my own—even if I did collapse on a Viking using the urinals, and fuck God I will be single forever.”
“Yes,” Loretta agreed.
Natalie reached around him and tugged Loretta’s hair.
Even down in the dumps, his friends made him laugh. “I haven’t told you the worst part.”
“It gets worse?” Loretta skedaddled out of Natalie’s reach.
Heat scorched up Reid’s neck. “Toni mentioned wanting to be . . . to be dominated. In the bedroom. And I said I was a twenty-eight-year-old dog you could teach new tricks.”
“Not in those words, I hope.”
Reid tucked his mortification into another sip of coffee. “I tried to sexy-growl. And I might have spluttered the word bitch.”
Loretta palmed her forehead. “Reeeeid.”
“Then buckled under the wrongness of it all and called myself the bitch.”
“Oh, please stop.”
“I mean, I love sex as much as the next horny man, but I have to admit, I love it most when I get to lie there. When I’m told what to do and how to do it.”
“You’ve killed me—and possibly half the customers here.”
Reid gazed around clumps of conversing friends, landing on a stunning guy sitting across from them. Dark crew-cut, broad shoulders, sleeves scrunched up hairy forearms, and piercing eyes stuck on Reid.
Reid’s posture stuttered for an embarrassed second and the demigod before him dropped his gaze to his laptop.
“Anyway,” Reid said, laughing at himself. “At least you guys will never leave me.”
Unnatural silence passed between his friends, and Reid had the prickly feeling he shouldn’t have tempted fate.
A silent conversation passed between Loretta and Natalie that Reid wasn’t privy to. “What?”
Natalie shook her head. “Nothing.”
Reid was depressed, not stupid. He knew something was happening. “Tell me.”
“Don’t you have an interview to rush off to?” Loretta stonewalled.
Reid checked the time, cursed, and propelled himself to his feet. “Spit it out, ladies. You know my imagination makes mountains out of molehills.”
With a sigh, Natalie palmed Loretta’s thigh and looked Reid in the eye. “There’s something we haven’t told you.”
He left his sunny-side marina, sailed as far north as he could, and hoped his habit of falling for the wrong guys hadn’t followed him.
-David
Second Time Around
Chapter Two
They were in love. His always-bickering friends. In love. With each other.
They were planning a six-month round the world trip.
Leaving in a week.
Loretta and Natalie had skirted around telling Reid for three weeks, uncomfortable at the idea they were leaving him behind.
Reid left Kings Café feeling throat-achingly empty.
He thought his breakup was bad, but it was nothing compared to the prospect of half a year without his friends.
The entire bus ride to the neighboring town, Reid couldn’t stop picturing how Loretta had folded into Natalie the moment Natalie told him their news. The love and adoration in Loretta’s gaze was staggering. Deep happiness pulled at Reid’s heart. He was . . . thrilled for them. Absolutely.
He shot off a message to Loretta.
Reid: I expect gifts from every country you visit.
Loretta: We’ll miss you, Reid.
Reid totally didn’t sniff. Nor did the words on his phone screen blur.
Reid: Wish me luck in this interview. Definitely need a win today.
Loretta: You’re the best manny. You’ll land the job, no sweat.
Reid was sweating.
A port? A yacht?
This was the location of the live-in manny position?
Reid paced Dock J, glancing longingly past the boat lifts toward the marina boardwalk.
Some might call Waverly, this little seaside town, idyllic with its brightly painted historic buildings, golden-leaf trees, and bustling café fare. Some might call the Aquarian, the superyacht before him, a classic.