Hot Sauce (Suncoast Society #26)(22)

She took a deep breath. “So, that’s why I wanted to come here tonight.”

Tony cleared his throat. “Well, I think I speak for everyone here when I say we’re honored to have you here, and we’re truly sorry for your loss. Of course you’re welcomed here. If you have any questions, please, don’t hesitate to ask any of us. I think it’s very generous of you to come seek us out like this, and to be so understanding. You shouldn’t blame yourself for what happened. He was an adult. He held responsibility for his own actions. You can accept the blame, but it’s not yours to carry, and it’s an unnecessary burden you shouldn’t be shouldering in the first place.”

“If you want,” Tilly offered, “I’ll be happy to stick with you tonight. I’m alone tonight, anyway. My guys are on a business trip to their LA office.”

“Thank you. I’d appreciate that.” Despite the initial rocky start, Vanessa sensed Tilly felt badly over the clumsy way she’d handled Vanessa’s introduction to the group.

“Well,” Tony said, “let’s get started.”

“You’re the teacher?”

“I’m the teacher.” He offered her a kind smile. “Obviously, under the circumstances, I don’t expect you to participate. But feel free to ask any questions you’d like.”

“Did Tony—Basco. My brother. Did he do rope stuff?”

She’d have to get used to speaking of him by his scene name, not as his real name. Even though she’d given him the nickname in the first place, she’d usually called him Tony, and had since they were teenagers and she didn’t want to embarrass him in front of his friends.

She surely didn’t want to scare anyone else with the false alarm.

The truth was heartbreaking enough.

“He’d developed an interest in it, yes. He liked to be tied. I never suspended him, but I’m pretty sure Kel did, and possibly Scrye. I’m not sure if Scrye’s coming tonight, but I know Kel will be here later for the open play session, if you’d like to talk to him.”

“Thanks. I’d appreciate that.”

As she settled in to watch, she realized she felt far calmer than she thought she might. Someone had brought her a box of tissues at one point, but other than her initial tears, there was a…reassuring, calm energy in the room. Sad, but also filled with genuine compassion and friendship.

If that, for nothing else, she’d stay.

To not feel totally alone for a little while. To try to imagine how Tony had felt amongst these people.

To hope they’d accept her as a friend the way they’d accepted her brother.





Chapter Nine


Lyle was doing his best to make up time without getting a ticket for speeding or losing his temper at Reed. His partner couldn’t help it that he’d returned home later than usual.

“I’m sorry,” Reed quietly said.

Again.

“Please, stop,” Lyle said. “It’s okay. I just didn’t want to be late and I wanted a few minutes to talk to her before class started. You couldn’t help it.”

Reed stared out his window.

“I’m not mad at you,” Lyle insisted.

“I’m mad at myself. It’s like this day’s been shit from the minute my feet hit the floor. And got worse from that point onward. As if it wasn’t enough I had to drop money on emergency repairs yesterday, and then the mess this morning, but tomorrow’s charter cancelled. Not just a morning charter, either, but an all-day one.”

More unexpected mechanical problems, this time a fuel line splitting. Fortunately it happened before he’d pulled out of his slip, and an easy enough fix, but a helluva pain in the ass to clean up. It delayed the start of his morning charter by nearly thirty minutes as he had to scrub gasoline out of his boat and then change clothes so he didn’t smell like it all day.

Lyle reached over and patted his partner on the thigh. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay.”

“They paid the cancellation fee, right? That covered your repairs.”

“It’s the principle of the matter. You know I hate having to dip into savings.”

Yes, Lyle knew. His partner was far from poor, and was a damn good money manager. He imagined it was this same kind of dedication to his job that had made Reed good at his previous profession, before he walked away from it.

But any time an unexpected expense came up, especially if it was an emergency like this, Reed always had this same reaction. It would be endearingly funny, and a worry that Lyle would usually f*ck right out of Reed’s brain, except for the circumstances.

They both felt sad about Basco, and they both felt nervous about meeting his sister.

As far as they knew, Basco hadn’t currently been involved with anyone more seriously than as play partners, which was why he and Reed had talked about asking him if he was interested in becoming more. Basco didn’t whore around like some people did, so he was not only a handsome and fun choice, but a safe one, too. And drama-free, which was an added bonus.

What was that about missing a hundred percent of chances not taken?

They arrived at the club a few minutes late. They hadn’t bothered bringing a rope or gear bag with them, because play was, honestly, the last thing on their mind that night. They hurried through check-in and hustled inside just as Tony was gathering the class around him to get started.