Safe Harbor (Pine Cove Book 1)

by HJ Welch

  Robin stood, but he was still holding Dair’s hand. It was only then that Dair noticed the grim expressions on the three other faces around him.

  “Mac?” Robin queried.

  Mac?

  Dair shot up to stand beside Robin, holding his hand a little tighter. “Mac?”

  Mac tore his gaze from Robin and gave Dair a friendly smile. “Oh, hey man. Are you here with Robin? I’m Mackenzie. We all used to go to school together.”

  Emery thwacked his fan open so hard it was amazing it didn’t break. “Did we? I don’t remember.” He glared at Mac.

  But Mac just chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah,” he said slowly. “I guess it’s been a while. Robin, could we maybe talk for a minute?”

  “You’re talking now,” Jay snapped.

  Dair looked down at Robin and raised his eyebrows, asking him silently if he wanted to go talk with this guy. Dair hoped if he did, they’d just move across the courtyard so he could still see them. But Robin was his own man. Dair wasn’t going to tell him what to do or speak for him. Even though he was sorely tempted to inform Mac that Robin wasn’t going to be going anywhere with him.

  Robin looked back at Dair, then something appeared to relax in him. He pushed his glasses up his nose where they’d slipped, and turned back to face Mac. “Actually, Dair’s only just met everyone. I’d rather not abandon him.” He cleared his throat and looked like he was struggling with something. “Dair’s my b-boyfriend.”

  “Oh, really?” Mac nodded. “That’s great. Nice to meet you, man. If Robin’s looking this well, you must make him really happy. That’s awesome.” He shook his head. “Look, I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I know I was a jerk when we were kids, and that wasn’t fair on you at all. I know I did wrong and I didn’t believe in you enough. You’re in computers now, right?”

  Robin licked his lips. “I’m a software developer,” he said.

  “He’s a genius,” Dair chimed in, rubbing Robin’s back. He wasn’t buying Mac’s nice guy act. People could change, sure. But Dair wasn’t going to abandon Robin just because of a cute smile and a pretty apology. “He basically keeps the company going.”

  “Babe,” Robin said bashfully.

  Babe. It was a generic pet name that Robin was probably only using for effect in front of Mac, but it warmed Dair’s heart in a surprising way.

  While everyone’s eyes were on Robin, a couple of chubby guys holding hands maneuvered their way around Mac, who was in the thoroughfare. The expression flashed across Mac’s face for less than a second, but Dair was certain he caught a sneer. Then Mac was all smiles as Robin looked back at him.

  Hmm.

  “That’s incredible,” Mac said in response to Robin’s job title. “You always were so damn smart. I’m proud of you, Binny. Well done.” He held up his hands suddenly. “Sorry. You never liked that name, did you? Robin.” He nodded to the group and took a step back. “Well, I’ll let you get on with your evening. Hopefully I’ll see you guys around. Dair – pleasure. See ya, Robin.”

  The five of them watched Mac re-enter the club. Then a loud bang snatched their attention back to the table. Emery had slapped his hands down on the wood, his pretty, black-lined eyes narrow with fury. “We need shots. Now.”

  He stormed away from the table to the outside bar. Ava nodded as she stood to follow him. “Yeah. Sounds like a sensible plan.”

  Dair looked down at Robin.

  He was shaking ever so slightly.

  Without thinking, Dair wrapped his arm around his small frame and steered him toward the table to sit again opposite Jay. The twins immediately reached a hand out to each other to hold.

  “Are you okay?” Dar murmured.

  His blood was pulsing in his ears. That wasn’t how he’d expected Mac to be at all. He’d envisioned some drunken redneck with a pot belly, not a charming guy with movie star looks. It had caught him off guard, but hopefully he’d taken care of Robin well enough.

  Robin cleared his throat and shook his head. “Yeah,” he rasped, then tried again with a more normal voice. “Yeah, I’m fine. That was fine, right? He was okay? I told you he wasn’t a psycho. He was nice. He was nice to me.” Robin was nodding, his brow slightly creased. It looked like he was replaying the encounter in his head.

  “Just because he was nice doesn’t mean shit,” Jay snarled.

  Robin frowned. “People change.”

  Dair smiled and gave Robin’s shoulder a little squeeze. “The important thing was that you’ve seen him and there wasn’t any drama. As long as you’re okay, we can forget about him and enjoy the rest of the night.”

  “Speaking of forgetting,” Emery announced as he and Ava came back to the table. They had a tray each, and when they placed them down, Dair was horrified to see they were covered in shot glasses filled with alcohol of every color.

  Some of them were on fire.

  His manners activated on instinct, and he reached for his wallet with his free hand. That many shots must have cost a fortune.

  Emery stuck a polished nail in Dair’s face. “No, she doesn’t,” he said firmly.

  Ava shook her head as she began placing glasses in front of people. “Em’s loaded. Don’t try arguing with him. Just drink your forgetting juice. It’ll make you grow up big and strong.” Her eyes flicked up and down Dair. “Big-ger and strong-er.”

  Dair toyed with the purple drink he’d been handed. They’d gotten an Uber across town, so he didn’t mind indulging. But he wanted to make sure Robin was truly okay before they started getting tanked.

  “How are you feeling, really?” he asked as the other three started taking selfies with the carnage spread across the table.

  Robin blinked and looked up from the small glass dangling between his slim fingers. “Honestly, fine,” he said. There was a hint of incredulity in his tone, like he couldn’t believe what he was saying. He let out a laugh. “All this time I’ve been letting this idea of what we were mess with my head without even realizing. But he was totally normal, wasn’t he? Polite and friendly and he acknowledged he was a jerk.” He shook his head. “I’m so relieved.”

  Something strange reared in Dair’s chest. Was that jealously? No, that didn’t make sense. But there was definitely something in his gut warning him that Mac still wasn’t to be entirely trusted.

  “As long as you’re okay?” Dair said diplomatically.

  Robin nodded, clinking their glasses together. “It’s like – maybe I wasn’t such a terrible judge of character? Maybe I didn’t waste all that time with him getting messed around? Not that I, like, want to get back together or anything. But yeah. I feel better. Less embarrassed about the whole thing.”

  Perhaps it was the shot they downed together or the three more they did with the group, but as the night went on Dair couldn’t agree that he felt better after meeting Mac in person.

  In fact, he was pretty sure he felt worse.

  10

  ROBIN

  APPARENTLY, someone had let a stampede of rhinos run through Robin’s bedroom last night, and they were currently dancing on his head. He groaned in pain as daylight pierced through his eyelids, and he licked his dry teeth and lips.

  He was the wrong way around in his bed, hugging a pillow for dear life with Dair’s large feet poking into his hair. From his soft snores, Dair was evidently still asleep. But Robin felt too nauseous. He needed a glass of water, some aspirin, and to brush his teeth.

  Mercifully, he still had his jeans on, but only one sock. He sat up and pulled the other one off too, padding toward the door barefoot. Their jackets, shoes, and shirts from last night were strewn across the desk, office chair, and dressers. There was a pizza box half hanging out of the wardrobe and empty beer bottles littering the furniture surface tops.

  Jesus. What had they gotten up to last night? Robin remembered the shots outside The Aquarium, then dancing in the club. There had been a drag queen…and maybe some karaoke? He rubbed his head and grimaced. Okay, they had def
initely ordered an Uber to take them home after they’d picked up the pizza from the only place in town that stayed open late enough to serve food to drunken revelers. That was a relief.

  Had he and Dair continued dancing in his room? He honestly couldn’t recall. There was some vague recollection of him claiming that pillow and curling up on the bed…

  Had Dair pulled the comforter over him?

  He rubbed his stubbly jaw. Maybe?

  Shaking his head, he turned and reached for the door. He could continue his detective work after he’d taken measures to diminish this hellish hangover. But as soon as he opened his bedroom door, a fluffy ball shot inside. “Smudge! No!” Robin hissed. But he couldn’t grab the puppy before he launched himself onto the bed, scrambling on Dair’s chest.

  His naked chest.

  For a moment, Robin forgot his panic that the puppy would wake Dair up with a hangover just as bad as his. He stared as the bed sheets slipped down a little, revealing taut pecs and rippling abs…

  …and Robin was being a creep. He screwed his eyes shut, managed to snag Smudge off the bed, and fumbled back out into the hall. Somehow, Dair was still asleep, so Robin closed the door, then deposited Smudge back down on the wooden floor.

  “You’re a terror,” he chastised.

  Smudge licked his black nose and wagged his fluffy tail.

  First, Robin hauled himself into the shower, the scalding hot water soothing his aching body. Once scrubbed up, he popped a couple of painkillers, had a quick shave, then snuck back into his room to grab some clothes. Dair was still sleeping soundly, all snuggled up under the blankets.

  Robin sighed to himself. ‘Cute’ wasn’t a word he would have thought he’d use for the large, handsome ex-Marine. But right then, he did look kind of adorable.

  Before heading down to the kitchen, he found his phone in yesterday’s jeans. The battery was dead, but he unplugged his charger to bring with him.

  It transpired he wasn’t the first of his siblings to make it downstairs. He hadn’t realized how early it was, as Jay was still there. Granted, he was already dressed for work and eating cereal, but Robin would have thought he’d be out of the house by now.

  Ava was sprawled across the kitchen table, her head lying on her arms. From the looks of her clothes, he wasn’t convinced she’d even been to sleep at all. She moaned at Robin’s entrance without looking up but otherwise didn’t react to his presence. Robin wasn’t sure she was even fully awake.

  Someone, probably Jay, had put Smudge’s food down for him, so Robin didn’t need to worry about that. Good thing, as he could barely work out his own needs. “Morning,” he croaked with a grimace.

  Jay cocked an eyebrow at him. “Morning,” he said. “What time did you party animals get in?”

  Robin frowned as he plugged his phone into the wall and fetched a cup of coffee from the pot. “You didn’t come home with us? Ohh – no. You left early.” He’d also stopped drinking alcohol and switched to water at a reasonable time. Unlike everyone else. “You came here, not your own place?”

  “I’m staying here all week,” said Jay, flashing a cocky grin. “Besides, I wanted to see what state you’d be in this morning. You’re coming to my students’ Shakespeare play tonight, remember? No wriggling out of it. So, how’d you get back from the bar?”

  Ava whimpered, probably feeling like Robin did about being forced to watch kids attempting Shakespeare with a hangover. He pointed at his sister. “We got an Uber with Emery and dropped him off along the way. With Dair, of course.”

  “Of course.” Jay smirked.

  “What?” Robin’s insecurities flared.

  But Jay shook his head. “You two were just cute, that’s all. He looks at you like you hung the moon.”

  Robin frowned and blinked. “Must have been the alcohol,” he muttered, hunting through the cupboards for the sugariest cereal he could find. When he looked back at Jay, though, he was frowning.

  “You mean, he’s not normally affectionate when you’re out?”

  Damn. No, what he meant was ‘Dair couldn’t have looked at me like that because he’s straight and we’re just pretending.’

  Robin shrugged in what he hoped was a nonchalant way, then fished a carton of milk from the fridge. “I mean, he’s still getting used to all of this. He thought he was straight before.”

  “Oh that’s right. He’s bi, isn’t he?” Jay nodded. “Well, he’s certainly embracing his queerness now. Have you guys swapped ‘I love you’s yet?”

  Robin choked on his cereal. “No,” he mumbled, wiping his chin. “Of course not. Don’t be stupid.”

  Jay gave him a funny look. “Oh-kay. Forget I asked.”

  It was time to change the subject to something safer. “What about you? Weren’t you dating that waiter guy?”

  Jay’s expression settled into that purposefully neutral one Robin had seen a thousand times. “That was over ages ago. It wasn’t even anything more than a couple of hookups.”

  It wasn’t ages ago. Robin remembered Jay talking happily about the waiter just a week or two back. Robin had assumed Jay wasn’t mentioning him as much due to all the reunion pressure. He definitely hadn’t said it was over.

  Jay hadn’t dated anyone seriously in the past couple of years. Usually, he was the opposite of Robin. Since college, he had always had a steady boyfriend, never being single for long. Why the change?

  “Really? I’m sorry.” Robin chewed down another couple of mouthfuls of his breakfast. He was starting to feel a bit more human again. “Everything okay? With dating, I mean.”

  Jay shrugged and opened up his phone. “Just working more on myself right now. I’ll date the right guy if he comes along.”

  He clearly didn’t want to talk about it – whatever ‘it’ was. But Robin’s curiosity would have to wait as his own phone obviously had enough juice to come back to life. The sound of a text message notification rang through the air from where he’d left it on the counter. It was only a soft ‘ding,’ but Ava still groaned at the noise.

  Robin chuckled at his sister’s expense, then drained the rest of the milk and cereal from his bowl in a couple of gulps. After placing it and his spoon in the dishwasher, he stood and opened up his messages with the phone still attached to the charging cord.

  It was a text from an unknown number, so he opened it fully to read it and discover the sender.

  “Oh,” he said out loud, his skin rushing cold for just a second.

  “What?” Jay asked.

  But Robin didn’t know why he was being silly. He shook his head. “It just took me by surprise. It’s Mac, on a new number.”

  He’d blocked the old one, after all. He read the message out for his brother to hear.

  “Hey Robin! I hope you don’t mind, but I got your number from Sandy on the Reunion committee.”

  “Sandy?” Jay scowled. “I’ll be having words with her about privacy policies.”

  Robin tutted. “No, look, it’s fine. Listen. I know it’s kind of out of the blue, but my company’s having some real tech issues. The IT folks keep running around talking about going fishing or some shit. Do you think I could pick your brains while you’re in town? I bet you’re leagues smarter than our guys lol. Coffee tomorrow?”

  “Bullshit,” Jay snapped.

  Robin felt a little taken aback. “What? No – he just wants to talk work. I think that’s actually pretty cool and mature of him.”

  Mac had always teased Robin back in the day and called him a geek and a nerd for spending all his time tinkering around with computer software and programming. Robin felt validated after all these years that his ex was finally recognizing his skills.

  “Bullshit,” Ava garbled into her arm.

  Robin huffed. “Guys, it’s not like that. He’s just asking for help. And I can actually help him with that. Easily. I think this could be good for me. I was so hung up on our time together, but it’s all fine now, I think. This will be like a fresh start. I can close the door on h
igh school like a normal person. I mean – who is still obsessed with their ex-boyfriend ten years after they broke up? That’s insane. No, if I don’t go meet him for coffee, that would be weird. This is great. Just two adults, getting together to work through a professional problem. And he’ll respect me for once. I’d much rather be civil, after all. There’s no reason we should be avoiding each other or anything. I want to say yes. I wouldn’t just be helping him, anyway. It would be for his company. And is it really so crazy to think he needs my help? I am pretty great at what I do.”

  He hadn’t realized how long his monologue had gone on for until he stopped, leaving the kitchen in silence. Jay glowered at him. “Are you done trying to convince yourself this is a good idea?”

  “No one’s questioning your talent,” Ava added. “Only his shady motives.”

  Robin scoffed and locked his phone screen. He sat back down opposite his twin. “He’s not asking me on a date. He just happens to have a problem that I can help with.”

  “How convenient,” mumbled Ava from underneath her mass of curls.

  Jay sipped his coffee and cocked an eyebrow. “Agreed. He just happens to have an issue like that the morning after he sees you for the first time in a decade? I’m not buying it.”

  “Stranger things have happened.”

  Robin knew he sounded defensive, but he didn’t care. Jay was being overprotective and it was irking him a little bit. Robin was a grown man. He knew he’d been away for a while, but he could take care of himself. Just because Jay had called all the shots when they were kids didn’t mean he got to boss him around now they were twenty-eight.

  “Okay,” Jay said, tilting his head. “What do you think Dair will say? I’m assuming he does know what an asshole Mac was to you by the caveman vibes he was radiating last night?”

  “Huh?”

  Jay rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on. Dair was one step away from clubbing Mac over the head and dragging you back to your cave to fuck your brains out.”