Isle of Waves (14 page)

“Busy,” Wig said. “The boys must be exhausted.”

“I am,” Liam said, “and they made me rest, so they did three times as much as me.”

“You worked just as hard,” Paul said, as he picked up a freshly cooked scampi.

“It was a long day,” Liam agreed.

“Wig and I will open up tomorrow. You guys come in later,” Nibs said to Ben. “And you—” He scowled at Liam, who took a step back. “—take the morning off. You’re meant to be on a honeymoon.”

“This is our honeymoon. Sam and I are having fun.”

“You are weird people.” Ben shook his head. “I’m going to find Steve and take him home.”

“Cool,” Wig said. “See you tomorrow.”

Liam yawned. “I’d better find out where Sam is.”

“He’s at the hospital,” Paul said. “I’ve just spoken to Mum. They’ve taken Gran in. Is it okay if Skandik and I leave now and we’ll take Liam?”

“No worries,” Wig said. “The place is tidy. I’ll do the floors.”

“He likes sweeping and mopping,” Nibs said.

Paul opened his mouth, but Wig fixed him with a scowl. “If you say that’s because I’m the woman in the relationship, I will kill you.”

“I wouldn’t say a thing like that,” Paul said.

“Yes, you would.” Skandik came up behind Paul and buried his face in Paul’s neck.

Paul wrinkled his nose. “You stink of burgers and cooking oil.”

“We need showers. Have we got time?”

“We’ll make time. Rose will only complain.”

“A shower sounds nice,” Liam said wistfully.

“We’ll meet you at your hotel in forty-five minutes.”

“Done. Bye.” Liam disappeared out the back, and Paul and Skandik vanished upstairs.

“And then there were two,” Nibs said.

Nibs cocked an eyebrow. “Want to take advantage of that, lover boy?”

Wig licked his lips. “Going to bend me over the table and roger me senseless?”

“That was the plan.”

“I like that plan.”

W
IG
AND
Nibs were curled around each other watching a rerun of
Mock the Week
when Paul and Skandik returned. One look at their faces told Wig things were serious.

“How is she?” he asked.

“Not good. She’s in A & E, waiting to be admitted. They think she’s got pneumonia. Mum’s staying with her; everyone else has come back to get some sleep.”

Wig sat up. “Oh hell, I’m sorry, Paul.”

Paul gave a tight smile. “Me too. I thought the old girl would go on forever.”

“She isn’t dead yet,” Nibs said. “Remember she was on death’s door last year and she recovered.”

“True,” Paul agreed, slumping down on the sofa. He rubbed his temples wearily. “It’s been a hell of a week.”

“And yet Skandik hasn’t run away screaming.”

Skandik sat next to Paul and threaded his fingers through Paul’s. “You’ve shown me what family and friends should be like. Paul has an amazing family, and friends like you are hard to find.”

Paul patted his cheek. “You weren’t really looking for them, love.”

“I’m going to be very lonely when I go home.”

Wig swallowed the lump in his throat. There was real anguish in Skandik’s voice. “So you’re going to make a go of it?”

“You mean the endless trips across the Atlantic and persuading Immigration that, yes, there’s another member of family mad enough to try?” Paul huffed and looked at their joined hands. “Yeah, I think so, although heaven knows how we sort out the job situation.”

“We’ll work it out.” Skandik leant back and pulled Paul against his chest. “I need an early night.”

“What time are you leaving tomorrow?” Nibs asked.

“Ten thirty,” Paul said. “We’ve got to check the ferries first thing to see they’re still running, but they don’t anticipate the worst of the storm hitting until the evening.”

Wig got to his feet and stretched. “Do you want a drink before you go to bed? I’m going to put the kettle on.”

“Tea, please,” Paul said. “The tea in the hospital machines is foul. Not as bad as Americans make it but bad enough.”

“Coffee would be great.” Skandik ignored the dig from his lover. “I don’t get your British obsession with burnt leaves.”

Nibs smiled at him. “Tea, please, babe.”

Wig kissed Nibs and headed into the kitchen to fill up the kettle. He felt genuinely sad for Rose, who’d always been kind to him. “Let her go peacefully,” he murmured, although he wasn’t sure who he was praying to.

When he took the tray into the lounge, Paul was watching the weather forecast. “It looks like it’s going to be a bad one. Are you prepared?”

Paul took his tea and nodded. “All the sandbags are out the back, ready to use. We’ll be fine.”

“We’ve weathered a few storms,” Wig agreed, handing out the rest of the mugs.

“At least Rose is safe,” Paul said. He raised his mug. “To Rose, the best grandmother ever.”

Wig lifted his mug along with Skandik. “To Rose Owens. Friend, confidante, and thoroughly wicked woman.”

Paul grinned. “Hell yes. I learnt everything about being wicked from her.”

“I’ll thank her next time I see her,” Skandik said.

“She didn’t teach me
everything
.” Paul leered at Skandik.

“Boys, boys, you’re making me blush,” Wig said.

Paul hooted. “You? Blush? In your dreams, lover boy. You haven’t blushed since the day Mum caught you blowing Nibs in her bathroom.”

“He didn’t blush then as I recall,” Nibs said. “He just smiled and swallowed it all. Your mum, on the other hand, she blushed like a lobster—and that was from a woman who brought up you and Sam.”

“She’s got past that stage now. If she catches one of us in a compromising position, she just backs away and closes the door.”

“Caught you too many times, has she?”

“Good times, my friend, good times.”

“Why am I here again?” Skandik asked plaintively.

“I’ve been asking myself that since I picked you up at the airport,” Paul said. “I decided it was because you wanted me to suck your brains out. No one forgets a Paul Owens blow job.”

Skandik blushed and then scowled as Paul crowed at him. “You are an arrogant little shit.”

“But you love me.”

“Keep telling yourself that if it makes you happy.”

Nibs shook his head. “You’re worse than Liam and Sam.”

Paul flipped him off. “I’m going to bed and taking my boy with me. I’m shattered. If anything happens with Rose, we’re going back to the hospital. So if we’re not here in the morning, it’s been an experience!”

Nibs pulled Paul into a hug. “We couldn’t have survived the last few days without you both. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Nibs shook Skandik’s hand and then pulled him in for a quick hug. Skandik looked surprised and pleased.

Wig hugged them both, feeling overemotional and like the small kid among all the tall guys.

“Biggs is under orders to keep you informed of anything they’ve discovered,” Paul said.

Wig frowned. “I’d almost forgotten about the break-ins.”

“I hadn’t,” Nibs said grimly, “and since that talk with the Sawars, I’m more confused than ever over who else is trying to destroy us.”

“What talk with the Sawars?” Paul asked, sounding confused. “Aren’t they your neighbors from hell?”

“Yep, but they claim to know nothing about the break-ins. Khalil spoke to us. He’s the new leader of the Chamber of Commerce. And Ghuram, who’s the one trying to drive us out, swears he had nothing to do with the break-ins. He says it’s not his style.”

“Do you believe them?” Skandik asked.

“Strangely, I think I do. Ghuram’s an arse and a crook, but he’s not a murderer. He’ll drive us into the ground to get the restaurant—in his eyes that’s just business—but he wouldn’t burn us out.”

Wig wished he was as convinced as Nibs.

Paul shook his head. “You need to talk to Biggs about this little chat. It sounds suspicious to me.”

“Khalil can’t afford for his family to fuck up, can he?” Nibs said. “It’s a small island. If it gets out his brother tried to kill long-standing members of the community, poofs or not, his business and political career is screwed.”

“You think he wants to get into politics?” Paul asked.

“I’m sure he does. That man has got aspirations to go all the way to the top.”

Wig looked at Nibs. “You seem to know a lot about him.”

“I know people who know him. He’s a good man, but he’s a politician.”

“That still begs the question: who else has got it in for you?” Skandik asked.

Wig groaned and rubbed at his temples. “Who the hell knows? I can think of a dozen people we’ve pissed off over the years, but no one who’d want to kill us in our beds.”

“Anyway, we all need to sleep. Tomorrow is probably going to be a long day for Wig and me, and you might be up in the night.” Nibs herded everyone toward the door. “Night guys.”

Paul and Skandik mumbled good night and headed into their bedroom.

“I’ll be so pleased to get our bed back,” Wig said as he climbed the stairs.

“Me too. Then I can cuff you to the bedposts again.” Nibs slapped Wig’s arse.

“You’re a wicked man.”

“I know.” Nibs sounded very smug.

“Are we opening normal time tomorrow?” Wig asked.

“Yeah, we need to get back into a normal routine. Although God knows what the trade will be like. I imagine everyone will be rushing to get off the island.”

“It’s one thing after another at the moment.” Wig wearily stripped off his clothes and climbed into bed. “Come here, gorgeous.” He sighed happily as his man climbed into bed and rolled toward him, slipping one hairy leg between his.

He was too tired for sex, and Nibs didn’t seem interested, so he rested his head on Nibs’s chest and fell asleep, lulled by the steady pattern of Nibs’s heartbeat.

R
AIN
LASHING
against the window pierced Wig’s sleepy
consciousness. He opened one eye to find the morning was dark and horrible. The view, however, was rather nice. Nibs stood naked at the window looking out on the gray day.

Wig admired the sight for a few moment before he said, “Not that I mind your naked arse, but don’t you think you should put some clothes on?”

“It’s five thirty. The only things out there are the seagulls, and I don’t think they’ll be shocked by a glimpse of my dick.”

“I’m sure they won’t, babe,” Wig agreed.

“Even the joggers have taken the day off. It’s really foul out there.”

“Wish we could do the same.” The bed was warm and cozy, and Wig really didn’t want to leave his snuggly cocoon.

Nibs stayed at the window, and Wig realized he had more on his mind than accidentally flashing a passerby.

Reluctantly, Wig joined Nibs at the window and wrapped his arms around Nibs’s waist. “You’re freezing,” he scolded, shivering at the feel of chilled skin.

“Am I? I hadn’t noticed.”

“It’s all this fur.” Wig stroked Nibs’s hairy chest, reveling in the prickle of hair beneath his palm.

“It keeps me warm,” Nibs agreed.

“We could be even warmer if we went back to bed.”

Nibs grunted, his eyes trained on the view outside the window. As Wig watched, a wave crashed over the sea wall, sending spray up high and over the road.

“What are you thinking about?” Wig asked.

“This.” Nibs waved a hand at the window.

“The storm?”

Nibs shook his head. “Not the storm. This, what’s outside. What we have outside our window.”

“It’s a gorgeous view that we’re going to lose if we move elsewhere,” Wig pointed out.

“How often do I see the view?”

“You’re in the kitchen.”

“I’m always in the flaming kitchen.”

It was an old complaint of Nibs’s that he was stuck indoors while Wig got to enjoy the view. Wig would tartly retort that he could swap if he wanted, and Nibs could deal with customers. That was normally enough to shut Nibs up.

“What do you want to do?” Wig pressed into Nibs, letting him know that Wig was listening to his thoughts. “I thought we’d agreed to sell.”

“I veer from yes to no, stay here and move away. My head is spinning with so many thoughts.”

“I feel the same way.” Wig pointed to the dramatic scene outside. “I would miss this, miss our friends if we move away.”

“But as we’ve already discussed, we could start again, babe. Or, fuck the shack, we could become dustmen.” Nibs kissed the top of his head. “It’s just one door closing and another one opening. I keep telling myself that change is a good thing.”

Wig wrapped the robe around himself, he said, “What scares me is being over forty, Nibs. I’m old, and I’ve got no skills because I’ve always worked with you. Who the hell would want to open a door to me? And I’m not becoming a dustman.”

“That’s not true. You co-own and manage a restaurant.”

“I’m a glorified waiter.”

“So this is all about you?” Nibs asked coldly. “I suggest a change, and we can’t do it because you’re scared?”

Wig frowned, confused by the sudden attack. “Of course it’s not all about me. I never said that. I was just saying I have worries too. We’re a partnership, aren’t we? Or do you expect me to fall into line with everything you say. I might be the bottom in this relationship, but I have never been the woman.”