Page 56 of Rough Fantasy

“Sure, love. Let’s get something for Zee. He really likes red.”

She smiled again and he felt like he owned the whole fucking world.

“You’re right. That would be fabulous. Let’s look.”

She grabbed his hand and pulled him through the tent. This time, he went willingly as he tried to figure out just what the fuck he was going to do about her.

twenty-three

“Rory and I decided that red is your favorite color,” Maura said as he pulled the red straw fedora out of her bag.

Zeke chuckled and took the hat. “It is.”

“I thought you would need it to keep you covered while on the island since you decided to go all bald a few months ago.”

Zeke nodded.

Maura smiled happy that he liked her gift. Zeke was one of those people who were so hard to buy for. Knowing that he had a rough time after his father had been killed. Money had been tight. So, once Zeke started making money, he never hesitated to buy what he wanted. He had what he wanted mostly.

“Did you and Conner have some good work time?”

He hesitated. “Yeah.”

She frowned and stopped going through her bags. She studied him and could tell that something had happened. “What?”

Rory glanced at her then at Zeke. “Yeah, what? I picked up on that too.”

“I got irritated with him and yelled at him.”

Maura didn’t say anything for a long time. Her fear was that her brother had found out about them. It wasn’t that she was ashamed of what she was doing, but she didn’t need a lecture about it. Of course, if Conner knew about it, he would probably be sitting here waiting for her when she got home.

“And, what happened?”

He shrugged. “We worked it out. It wasn’t anything important.”

“It wasn’t that important but it’s bothering you?”

He glanced at Rory, then back at her. “Just some issues at the office, stuff we have to work out. You know your brother is a pain in the ass. Once he decides on something, he’s tenacious.”

That wasn’t the whole truth, but she knew better than to push Zeke. He might call Conner hard headed, but Zeke was just as bad. If he decided to hide things from her, there would be no budging him. Maura decided a call to Jillian was in order. She’d know what was going on with the partners.

“Yeah,” she said, grabbing up her bags. “I bought some of that pineapple stuff and I am going to put the rest of this away. I want to hit the beach for a little bit. I’m going to change and if anyone wants to come along, come on.”

Zeke nodded. “Be up in a minute, love.”

She gave them both a quick kiss and hurried up the stairs. Once she was in the room, she started thinking how everything had changed in just one day. One simple day and they were acting like this was normal. Okay, so not really normal, but it was if the three of them had been together for years.

Her phone chimed Jillian’s ringer and she picked it up immediately. “Hey, Jillian.”

“So, did you have fun this morning?”

She laughed and sat on the bed. “This morning, yesterday afternoon…I’m sure tonight.”

“Slut.”

Knowing she was joking with her, Maura chuckled. “You would know from experience.”

“Really, how is it going?”