Blue Plate Special: A Table for Two Novella by Layla Reyne

Author:Layla Reyne [Reyne, Layla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798986922911
Publisher: Layla Reyne
Published: 2023-01-23T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“You smell like you took a bath in cocoa butter.”

Abel’s assessment wasn’t wrong. “I’m trying not to wind up a lobster again,” Ezra replied as he stood from his boat seat and reeled in some line. It was a lovely day, not a cloud in the sky, the sun bright and gleaming off the gentle waves that rose to meet the Carolina-blue horizon. Perfect for a fisherman like Abel who’d spent half his life on the water, a recipe for disaster for a pale New Yorker who’d spent half his life in an office. Did it soothe his soul? Yes. Did it soothe any physical part of him? Absolutely not. And he had hopes for the physical later. “I have a date tomorrow night, and I’d like to enjoy it.”

Abel propped a foot on the boat’s rail and let more of his line go. “What’s this now?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know. You were the chief of police and visit Blue Plate at least twice a week. I’m sure the gossip’s made it your way.”

He smirked but kept his eyes on the water. “Noah’s a good kid.”

“Oy, don’t say that.” He shoved his rod back in the holder and plopped into the seat. “He’s thirty-three.”

“Only meant it in the colloquial sense.”

“Yeah, like he’s a kid compared to us.”

Abel shrugged. “Didn’t stop me marrying Rachel.”

“How did you get past it?”

Abel’s coal-black gaze swung his direction, twinkling with mirth.

Ezra rolled his own eyes. “Okay, yes, she’s beautiful, but I know you better than that. There had to be more.”

Mirth turned to genuine affection. “So much more. So much good, in her and for me. Age didn’t matter.”

Ezra propped both feet on the rail and hung his arms over his bent knees, watching their lines bob in the water far more gently than the thoughts bouncing around in his head. Was it really the twenty-five-year age difference between him and Noah that was keeping him up at night? No, he and Al had played with younger people before. Hell, six months ago he’d fucked a twentysomething bartender in a coat closet at a charity event. But he hadn’t built sandcastles with any of those people. While Ezra could ignore—almost forget—the past in the heat of the present, in the aftermath, in his bed alone at night, staring at the ceiling, his memories returned. As did the doubts and recriminations about what he was doing in the present. “You knew Rachel when she was younger, right?”

“I did.”

“That’s the part I’m struggling with. Reconciling the Noah from a decade ago with the man I had across my lap the other night.”

Abel adjusted his line once more, then put the pole back in the holder and turned in his seat, reaching into the cooler between them and pulling out two bottles of water. He handed one to Ezra, then settled back in his seat. Ezra waited. He’d known Abel for going on thirty years, and patience while the giant gathered his thoughts and words was usually rewarded.

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