Hot Sauce (Suncoast Society #26)(40)

And she wasn’t even kinky. Kink-friendly, absolutely. She’d even admit to being kink-curious at this point.

“I get why he did it,” she added. “I just wish he’d felt safe enough with me.”

“It’s not about safety,” Reed said. “In his case, he was very protective of you. He didn’t want to do anything he thought would stress you out.”

“He always did look out for me. Even when we were kids.”

“Never doubt how much he loved you,” Lyle said.

“I don’t,” she quietly said.





She had dinner nearly ready when the two men arrived Sunday night. Reed had been out of touch all day because of his charter, but Lyle had texted with her.

Jenny, Tilly, and Eliza all expressed their enthusiasm over Vanessa having the men over for dinner.

And even Carlo was thrilled to see them, running to fetch a talky-wubbie when they arrived.

Her morning had been filled with doing mundane chores, like laundry and scooping Carlo’s poop out of the backyard, getting things ready for her return to work tomorrow, and avoiding Tony’s room.

She wasn’t ready to sort through his things.

She’d placed a short note on his FetLife profile early that morning and had checked for and replied to messages on FetLife all throughout the afternoon, both on her account and his.

That was all she could emotionally handle.

And when she ran out for groceries, she stopped by an office supply store and picked up a couple of spare thumb drives, one to give to the organizer of the memorial next Saturday, and one for Tilly, who wanted to do something similar.

With a score of new friends suddenly in her life, Vanessa had decided maybe the best course of action was to emotionally coast for a while. They were all telling her the exact same thing—there was no rush, that she should be taking care of herself right now, and that her brother wouldn’t want her to wall herself up in a protective shell and shut everyone out.

All truths.

And now…

Now here were two men kneeling in her hallway and playing with Carlo.

She could even lie to herself if she needed another excuse and say she was doing it for the dog’s sake. Tony had friends dropping by all the time, several times a week, either in passing, to go somewhere else, or to eat with them.

There was no reason why she should stop doing that now, with the friends now hers by inheritance.

When they finally sat down to eat, both men wore inviting smiles. “This smells great,” Lyle said.

“My cooking skills are a little rusty,” she admitted. “I hope it’s okay.”

Reed nodded after taking a bite of the fish. “It’s wonderful.”

“Oh, if you like hot sauce, I have a bunch to choose from.”

“We do,” Lyle said, “but I don’t need any for this.”

“Good, remind me, I’ll give you all of it to take with you. It was…I don’t use it.”

Tonight, she didn’t want to cry. She wanted to try to seek some normalcy.

“Well,” Reed slowly said, “we could leave it here in your fridge for when we eat here.” He arched an eyebrow at her, sending her pulse into a skittish gallop.

She swallowed hard, liking the implication behind that statement. “Do you think you’ll be eating here enough to use it?” she carefully asked.

“I really hope so,” Reed said, meeting her gaze head-on. “But I think that’s more up to you to decide than us, isn’t it?”

Her mouth went dry. She nodded.

Lyle smiled and reached over to pat her hand. “He’s a flirt. I should have warned you.”

“That’s okay,” she said, returning her gaze to Reed’s. “I don’t mind. I like it.”

Reed grinned. “Good. Then I’ll feel free to carry on until you tell me otherwise.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.

Holy hell, was she actually getting turned on by this?

It shocked her to realize she was.

“Anyone want some wine?” she asked, getting up to head for the kitchen. “I’ve got plenty of moscato.”





She limited herself to one actual wine glass of wine and noted the men did, too. When they finished dinner, they insisted on helping her clean up the kitchen. With that finished, they settled on the lanai, dusk wafting in around them with a humid, purply light. Carlo had already been out again. He now lay on the pool deck with a wubbie in his mouth, hopeful that someone would try to take it from him.

“We spent a lot of time out here,” she said.

“It’s peaceful,” Lyle said.

The backyard was shaded by a large oak tree in the far corner that helped block the hottest of the afternoon sun. The eight-foot privacy stockade fence was barely visible in places, between tall shrubs and jasmine vines that grew on and in front of it.

“Would you believe I didn’t use the pool here a lot until Tony moved in?” she said. “I paid a service to take care of it, but it didn’t get much use.”

“Why not?” Reed asked.

She shrugged. “I just…didn’t. Tony used it more than I did. Hell, he’d just shuck his clothes and jump in and skinny dip if it was the two of us.”

“Stupid question, then,” Lyle asked. “Why’d you buy a house with a pool?”