Hot Sauce (Suncoast Society #26)(39)

In some ways, she preferred it that way. She’d quickly come to feel an affinity for these two men. Amongst all the people she’d met so far, excluding Jenny and Eliza and their guys, Reed and Lyle had, in some ways, known her brother more intimately, a different side of him. They’d shared play experiences with him, not just a friendship.

He’d obviously trusted them enough to do that with them, and he’d spoken highly of them in his journal. Toward the end of it, he’d mentioned them several times. She wished Tony had kept up with it more regularly. Sometimes he might write several days in a row in it, and then go weeks with nothing. It was snapshots of things he’d apparently thought important enough to note at the time, but she missed seeing the minutiae, the trivia, the mundane.

Any little scrap of insight she could glean from it.

As she sat there, Reed leaned in. “I checked Facebook earlier,” he said. “I guess they’ve secured a venue for the memorial for next Saturday. It’s going to be over on Siesta Key at a park, at five.”

“He would have liked that,” she said. “Will you be able to make it?”

“Yeah. I’ve got an all-day charter scheduled, but I’ll discount their rate and tell them why I’m cutting it short by a couple of hours. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“I know you haven’t checked the thread,” Lyle said, “but they mentioned setting up a video show of pictures.”

She felt her heart pound. “I can send them pictures,” she said. One thing she and Tony had done together, not long after he’d moved in, was scan all their old family photos into the computer, as well as gather in one place all their digital photos, so they’d both have copies, plus send them on a thumb drive to their parents.

“If you want any help going through them,” Reed said, “We’ll be glad to.”

“Thanks. I appreciate that.” She took a risk. “I won’t turn you down either.”

Lyle patted her shoulder, leaving his hand resting there. It felt comforting, comfortable…

Right.

She laid a hand over his and squeezed, holding on.





The more I play with Lyle and Reed, the more comfortable I feel with them, and the more I trust them. Not that I didn’t trust them to start with, or I never would have played with them at all. But it’s like they get me, like we have common…goals isn’t the right word, but it’s all I can think of now. Like they don’t have an agenda. Like whatever this is that’s building between us, it’s safe, it’s healthy, and maybe even something that will be solid enough to last long-term.

I like the thought of that. I like the thought of maybe in a few years we’re still playing together, or more. They’re both drama-free, and they aren’t out to build their egos by playing with as many people as they can…

As Vanessa sat and watched others playing, she thought about Tony’s journal. She tried to imagine him there, playing with Lyle and Reed, what it must have been like. Tonight there were more male Tops and female bottoms. In fact she hadn’t seen any male bottoms play that night at all.

By midnight, when Reed was yawning and she realized he probably had to get up early for a morning charter, they were sitting huddled even closer, their own little self-contained pod, both men leaning in and at different times one, or even both of them, had an arm draped around her shoulders in a familiar way.

No objections from her.

“Guess you’re turning into a pumpkin,” she teased Reed.

“Yeah, sorry. Charter tomorrow, too.”

“We’re still on for dinner?”

“Absolutely,” he said. “I wouldn’t miss that, believe me.”

As they drove her home, Vanessa riding shotgun while Reed rode in the back at his insistence, she said, “I don’t know if I’ve truly thanked the two of you yet, but thank you. For last night, for this morning, and for tonight. It means a lot to me that you’ve sort of taken me in like this when you don’t even know me.”

“We kind of feel like we do know you,” Lyle said. “From the things Basco told us about you.”

“I wish he’d felt comfortable enough telling me about you guys. Not just having to read about you in his journal.”

She still hadn’t posted a message on FetLife about his passing. That was something she needed to do, to cross off her list. It wasn’t something she wanted to do, but the people who knew him the best in the local community had been notified in person by her, or had likely been told by others already.

“We understand why he didn’t,” Lyle said. “Most of our family members, and nearly all our vanilla friends, would be surprised, if not shocked, if they found out about this side of our lives. It’s not something most people are able to shout about from the rooftops.”

“Yeah.” She knew she couldn’t in her job. Not that it would get her fired, but if anyone she worked with found out about this, it would likely weaken her position as a manager. It was difficult enough being a woman in a male-dominated profession, and there had been times in the past she’d had to stand up for herself against pinheaded asshats.

If someone thought she was kinky and word got around about that, she’d never live it down.

I need to be careful.