“Thanks for rushing, but it’s actually for no reason. Kiki and Robbie just texted, and Layla has the flu.”
“Oh.” Tiana looked genuinely bummed out, and so did the blonde.
“I’ll play,” Niko volunteered.
“You will?” Tiana questioned, her eyes widening to double their size.
“Sure.” He shrugged.
“Thanks, but we need four,” the blonde explained. “So we’re still one person short. I’m Jenna, by the way.”
“Oh!” Tiana’s eyes bounced between them. “You two haven’t met?”
He smiled and held out his hand. “Hi, I’m Niko.”
“Oh, I know.” Jenna’s cat-that-ate-the-canary smile told Niko that she had information he wanted. Inside, BFF, type information. To get that sort of classified intel, he would need to get her onside, to do that, he needed to spend time with her.
“You said you need four people.”
Jenna nodded. “Four minimum.”
He grinned. “I can find us a fourth.” He scanned the room, but he already knew who he wanted. He’d spotted Deacon St. Claire the moment he walked in. His neighbor next door to the Airbnb was impossible to miss, six-four and dressed in an MIT hoodie that somehow managed to showcase his muscular upper body. He was a single dad tech billionaire that moved to town a few months prior under suspicious circumstances, but it turned out he’d found out he was adopted and that the man who contributed half of his DNA had also fathered five other children. Two of those children were now married or engaged to Niko’s siblings. Liam, was married to Frankie, and Poppy was engaged to AJ. So it sort of made Deacon and Niko siblings-in-law.
“Hey, Deacon.” Niko grinned as he approached.
“Hey.”
Niko saw the apprehension in his eyes and knew that he was probably unsure which twin he was. “It’s Niko.”
Deacon relaxed. “I thought so.”
“We’re down a man for trivia.” Niko motioned to his table.
Deacon glanced past Niko’s shoulder to the table where Tiana and Jenna were seated, and without saying a word, he picked up his beer.
As they walked back, Niko wondered if he’d imagined it, or if when Deacon saw Jenna, there’d been a slight hitch in his breath. He’d definitely paused on her a few seconds longer—too long for it to be a casual observation.
Niko returned to the table with Deacon in tow and made introductions as he and his pseudo sibling-in-law took their seats.
“This is my girlfriend, Tiana.” Niko loved saying that, whenever he could get away with it, he would.
“And this is Jenna.”
“She owns The Beauty Spot,” Tiana added.
Niko wasn’t sure either party heard a word either himself or his fake girl had said because the moment Deacon reached across the table to shake Jenna’s hand and their eyes met, it appeared from the outside looking in that no other person existed. Suddenly, there was a subtle freezing of air molecules around the four-top, a moment so quiet that Niko heard the rattle of ice in someone’s glass three tables away. It was as though the entire bar dimmed a shade. The weight of mutual awareness, the loaded, high-voltage tension, made Niko feel like he was in an episode of The Twilight Zone.
Jenna's entire vibe changed, she went from outgoing and boisterous to shellshocked and speechless. Her lips parted as though she was about to say something but forgot how to speak. Deacon was no better, his lips were parted also, but neither was speaking as they held hands and stared into one another’s eyes.
Niko wanted to get popcorn, pull out his phone, and time it to see how long it lasted. Finally, after around thirty seconds, Deacon managed to find his voice.
"Hi." It was a single syllable that sounded like it contained a thesis. The air between them grew sticky and thick, like the moment before a thunderclap.
"Hi," Jenna responded, but the word was threaded with something else, something that made Niko feel like he was an accidental eavesdropper on a conversation conducted entirely in micro-expressions as Jenna’s face flushed with color.
Tiana picked up on it too. She gave Niko a sidelong glance, eyebrows raised, and he knew at once that she saw what he saw. Hell, probably every undergraduate psych major in the bar could sense it, but the four of them at the table felt it with such clarity that for a second Niko thought about excusing himself, just to give the two of them some privacy.
But then, it was over. The tiara-wearing ladies popped the bubble Deacon and Jenna had been floating in. One of thewomen from the table screamed at Jenna. “Hey speed daters, looks like you’re down a couple players!”
