“Hey, Gwynn,” Damien shouted. “Did you hear? Plant TD’s going to marry a cactus. It’s got a fantastic prick!”
“What great news,” Gwynn shouted back. “I’m so happy for them. When do we get to meet the succulent young thing?”
“Soon.” Damien stole a look at xV, who was struggling to hold back his laughter. The sight took the raw joy in his chest and buffed it to a shine. Chatting with the guys online kept Damien sane, but seeing them in person set his soul free. “I think we’ve got a couple other people to meet first. Have TD, Glit, and their men arrived yet?”
By now, Damien and xV had caught up with Gwynn, and the three of them continued down the walkway together.
“Not yet.” Gwynn took his glasses from his face and checked the lenses for smudges, then sat them back on the bridge of his nose. “The ferry should be arriving in ten minutes. According to the chat, all of them should be on board. Didn’t you see the conversation?”
“No.”
“No?” Gwynn furrowed his brow. “You’re always in the chat, Knot. Where’s your phone?”
Damien waved a hand. “It’s a story best saved for another day.”
Another day meaning never. The less Gwynn knew about Damien’s run-in with Matthew, the better. That wasnota bridge Damien ever wanted to cross.
xV lifted a brow. “Didn’t we decide last year that keeping information from the rest of the group is an offense punishable by death?”
Gwynn nodded. “Yup.”
Damien buzzed his lips. “You’re gonna want to hold off on that death sentence for a few days. The glitter war is coming, gentlemen. By the time it’s done, I can guarantee that one of the three of us will be more glitter than man. We might be short a Single Dad—you don’t want to be short two, do you?”
Gwynn opened his mouth to rebut, but before he could make a noise, Damien shut that shit down. With lightning-quick reflexes, he pulled out the expertly concealed water pistol that was holstered to his chest and shot Gwynn point-blank in the shoulder. The squirt of water splattered upon impact, not only making Gwynn wet, but making him shimmer.
The gun’s tank wasn’t only filled with water—Damien had concocted a rainbow glitter blend from his own private stock. Glit was bringing the pain, but Damien refused to step foot on a battleground without a little something in his back pocket.
Gwynn looked at his shoulder, then set his sights on Damien. The promise of war burned in his eyes. Before he could retaliate, Damien cackled and took off at a sprint.
“Placenta!” Gwynn bellowed, like the word alone had power over Damien.
The fool.
Without a placenta-bot to populate the landscape with nightmarish fleshy pancakes garnished with their very own skin-tubes, Damien was immune to his onslaught. With his phone in the lagoon, nothing could stop him.
Nothing.
Damien laughed again, feeling on top of the world. With his friends there to bolster his spirits and his heart still racing from his encounter with Matthew, he felt like a person rather than a professional. Work could take a back seat this week. The glitter war had begun, and Damien wastherefor it.
Gwynn was going down.
5
Damien
The ferry had barely moored when TD flung himself down the ramp, his wheeled suitcase jostling behind him. Two steps from the dock, it bounced on its wheels and almost plummeted into the ocean. TD yelped and course corrected, flinging it toward the shore in a desperate attempt to save it from a watery grave. It flew directly at Damien’s face. Thinking fast, he snagged it midair and guided it to the ground before it could do any damage. It was a good thing—the bitch was heavy. It would’ve plowed him down like a rodeo bull looking for revenge.
“Ohmygod Knot, sorry!” TD hopped off the ramp and reclaimed his suitcase, flashing Damien a hesitantly apologetic smile. In all things, TD was enthusiastic, but when it came to Damien, he was always a little uncertain. Damien couldn’t blame him. Several years back, he’d let his feelings get in the way of his common sense, and he’d been an asshole to TD when TD needed his support. While it hadn’t destroyed their friendship, it had changed it, and Damien regretted it deeply.
He wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
Unlike xV and Gwynn, time had changed TD in noticeable ways. He still had the same blond hair, blue eyes, and round baby face, but maturity had started to creep into his finer features. When they’d first met, TD had been in his early twenties. At that time, he’d been naive and impressionable, not yet wary of the world. Now that he was in his mid-twenties, TD had started to settle. While his eyes still bore traces of innocence, they didn’t look at life in the same way they had before. His smile, while still bright, was guarded. The young man Damien had once found irresistibly alluring was gone, and to Damien’s surprise, he found he didn’t want him back.
TD wasn’t the right guy for him. In his desperation, he’d thought otherwise, but Damien had enough distance from his old self to realize he’d been mistaken. Damien needed a boy with a softer touch and a sweeter disposition—someone whose quiet affection would speak louder than words. Matthew’s startled wide eyes and flushed cheeks came to mind, but Damien tamped those dangerous thoughts down. Matthew Gwynn was untouchable.
“Don’t worry about it.” Damien took a polite step back, giving TD his space, then winked. “There are worse things you could’ve flung at me. Ask Gwynn. He spent most of the walk to the wharf trying to pelt me with coconuts.”
“I was defending myself against him,” Gwynn protested. “He was spritzing me with glitter the entire way.”
