But Rio was going to need something to drive, in the interim.
Hmm, maybe he could get Jon—his latest fake boyfriend—to give him a ride to the rental place. That would actually be good—a chance to check in with Jon in private, away from the dive bar where Frank Miller’s crew hung out.
Rio knew he’d been silent for too long—the voicemail had timed out, so he quickly dialed back. “Whoops, sorry Tash, still me. And okay, since you still didn’t pick up, I’m gonna assume you don’t need your car right this second, so I’m gonna go home first because damn, I need a shower. Unless, you know, you want me to rush over to be your emergency fake boyfriend, too, because apparently that’s what I do now. And yeah, okay, call me when you get this, thanks, bye.”
His text alert rang and he glanced down to see... Dave! It was a message from Dave!
Rio quickly checked his rearview to see no one directly behind him. A large black truck with a don’t-stop-short warning of a dent in its right front grill was a safe sixty yards back, so he jammed on his brakes and pulled over, fast, into the nearly empty parking lot of an emergency veterinarian. Because, please Jesus, if anyone could help him convince Casey to talk to him, it was gonna be Dave.
He unlocked his phone and...
So... I’m in London.
Holy shit! That was great news! Except, shit-fuck, no it wasn’t, because Rio needed Dave here in California, except, damnit, despite his burning personal need, this was exactly where Rio wanted Dave to be, knocking on Luc’s—real Luc’s—door, instead of getting caught back up in Jon-without-an-H’s bullshit drama.
Dude! he typed back. Well done! How’s my baby cousin?
Dave zapped back the grimacing emoji—the panic face—then I haven’t called him yet.
What!? No, no, no no no.
I’m experiencing a little... self-doubt.
What? That he won’t want to see you?
Yeah, came Dave’s response, embellished by the pathetic emoji that was just two eyes in a mouth-free face.
“You are fucking insane,” Rio muttered as he scrolled down to Luc’s latest text. Hey, he typed to his cousin, if Dave can wrangle a stop in the UK would you be down with a visit?
Luc responded almost immediately. Where is he? Oh, shit, is he in Germany? Is he okay????
A hospital in Germany was usually the temporary destination of SEALs who got injured while out in the world. Luc’s intense worry was evident—about a man from whom he’d run away, hard and fast. It was pretty damn clear that this visit was exactly what both Luc and Dave needed.
Rio took a screen shot of his and Luc’s text thread and sent it to Dave, then replied to Luc. He’s already in London. I’m pretty sure he’s okay, but you can ask him that yourself.
Try to have fun, my brother-from-another-mother. He texted the same message to the pair of them, not expecting a reply in the immediate future as they both—finally—got their heads out of their asses and made plans to share a nice dinner or lunch or tea or pint or whatever was appropriate for the time it was in England right now. Let’s see, it was almost noon here in San Diego, which made it almost 8 pm in London. Yeah, perfect for a trip to the nearest pub.
But Luc responded with a stream of emojis—hearts and flowers and yeah an irreverent eggplant—and the message I can’t believe he came all this way for me!
Then, immediately, Luc sent another text with the same panic-face emoji that Dave had used, with Oh shit, what if he breaks my heart?
Then, rapid-fire, right after that, Luc wrote Although what if he doesn’t...?
Meanwhile, Dave had texted again. You left me lots of messages. Everything okay there?
Rio took a deep breath. He didn’t want to lie, so he started with the truth. I wanted your thumbs-up to tell Casey I’m not Luc. But she kinda found out and now she’s a little mad. Understatement. And as for Jon, he kept up the soft-pedal. Plus some drama with the Air Biscuit. Nothing I can’t handle, he told his friend, which was maybe not entirely true, but certainly true enough. He ended with an emoji heart—something he’d only ever used before with his family, but it said what he wanted to say.
Dave hit him with an emoji thumbs-up and that same red heart and the words Casey won’t stay mad forever, but she does burn hot, whoops, here’s Luc! Gotta go.
Holy shit! Dave must’ve been standing outside of Luc’s flat when he first texted Rio. It was so freaking adorable—that plus the knowledge that right now, right this very minute, thousands of miles away from here, Dave was surely kissing the shit out of Luc. Well, actually it was probably Luc who was kissing the shit out of Dave—Rio knew his cousin well, and while Dave might’ve managed to be restrained at this reunion, Luc hadn’t been born with that particular filter.
Grinning his ass off, Rio put his phone back in the VW’s cupholder. He knew damn well that there was no guarantee that Dave and Luc were going to connect in a way that lasted forever, and yeah, maybe Luc’s heart was going to break, but that was okay. At least they were willing to take the shot.
And yes, that was a twinge of wistful envy he was feeling—because he wanted that. He wanted Casey to be brave enough to say, “Hey, this is far from optimal, but I think this thing we have between us—this crazy inferno of everything—is worth a try.”
He picked up his phone again, tempted to text her with that very message. Instead, he typed, Dave’s safe. He’s in London. Thought you’d want to know.
Rio pushed send, and it whooshed as it went through.
