The man held out his hands to try to ward off any further attacks, his laughter fading as he took in Riley’s anger, and Wrigley jumped onto the couch and settled one of his paws on Cole’s lap, glaring in Riley’s direction.
“Really, man, I’m sorry for freaking you out,” he said, his apology sincere. “I wanted to tell you, and I thought this would be a fun way to reveal my secret identity. I kinda thought you’d figure it out. I didn’t mean to scare you. I even told Garrett about it ’cause I figured you’d ask for his help at some point. I hoped he’d make you feel okay with it.”
Josh still had his arms wrapped around Riley, one ofhis hands plastered across his chest so he could feel his heart racing.
It was true that they were freaked out at first, but Josh had felt a lot better about it once they heard from Maritza. She—
Josh cut off his own thoughts as the realization slammed into him.
“Maritza Shaw said she was CJ’s girlfriend,” Josh said, thinking out loud. “But Elena is Cole’s girlfriend. Holy shit, are you…” He trailed off, unable to finish the question, Elena’s smile growing as she watched him process everything. He aimed an angry look at Cole. “Are you cheating on Elena with some other author?”
The smile fell from Elena’s face and Cole’s laughter turned into a cough.
“No, Josh,” Elena said, her tone softer than usual. “I’mMaritza Shaw. I use that as an alias to write my books.”
Josh’s mind was exploding with all this information.
“So you both secretly write romance novels under different names,” Josh said, making sure he understood.
Cole smiled, wrapping his arm around Elena. “We were talking to each other online under our author accounts for so long before we realized who we really were.”
Riley finally stopped pulling away from Josh and settled in his arms. Josh trusted he wasn’t going to attackCole again, but he didn’t want to let go of him yet. Or ever.
“That must have been a fun surprise,” Riley said, his body shaking with laughter.
“Yeah, didn’t see that one coming at all,” Elena said, her eyebrows lifting for a moment at the memory.
“Okay, so Cole is a secret romance writer,” Josh said, talking himself through the realizations. “Elena is a secret romance writer. Any other big reveals for tonight?”
“Nah, I think we covered everything,” Cole said, beaming.
Josh smiled as he guided Riley to the couch and they plopped into their seats.
“I still can’t believe you were CJ Rollins this whole time,” Riley said, slightly dazed. “Wait, did you actually write a book about Josh and me?”
“Oh, no, that was just for the reveal,” Cole said, but Josh could tell he was hiding something.
“What is it you’re not telling us?” he asked.
“Well, I might have written a book about you guys years ago, but you were the inspiration. It wasn’treallyabout you.”
Elena snorted and broke out in laughter. “Don’t lie to them.Worth the Weightis about two gym buddies who lived together and worked together and took forever to realize they weren’t straight.”
“That could be about anyone,” Cole argued, and Josh stared at him until he continued. “Okay, maybe it was a little about you, but let’s call it wishful thinking. I knew you guys would get there eventually.”
“I guess we can’t fault you for that,” Riley said as he settled his arm across Josh’s shoulders, pulling him in tightly against him. Josh sighed as he wiggled in his favorite spot in the world.
“Nah, you were totally right,” Josh added.
“So, you forgive me for pranking you?” Cole asked nervously. “I really thought you would have figured out it was me.”
Riley let out a deep breath. “We forgive you.”
Josh had no problem letting Riley speak for him on this one. No one knew him better, after all.
“But we still expect to be paid for the work we did on this fake book you made us design graphics for.”
“No worries there. It’s a real book, I just need to send you the real blurb, which isn’t about you two at all,” Cole said. “Get this, it’s about a veterinarian who falls for a taxidermist.”
