CHAPTER32
LARISA
There had to have been something in the water where Tanner and his friends had been conceived because they were all incredibly attractive men. Each of them in his own way, but they were an extraordinarily good-looking group of friends.
They sure didn’t make them like this where I was growing up.
My meeting with Shawn Ramirez and Bart Philips had finally arrived, and I had to admit that I’d been a little taken aback when I’d walked into the bar they’d suggested and found the two hottest guys in the place waiting for me.
As it was, I’d thought Tanner being friends with Jeremiah had to have been a fluke. In my experience, it wasn’t often that two men who were best friends were both incredibly handsome, but the chances of a group of four all being that way had to be slim.
Isn’t it like a rule of the world that there has to be at least one ugly duckling?
If it was a rule, it clearly wasn’t one that applied to this particular group. None of them appealed to me personally but I wasn’t blind. Hot would always be hot and these guys were it.
Shawn had a jogger’s build. Deep brown eyes that sparkled like jewels in the sun and always seemed to have laughter in them were fixed on me in that moment. His full lips gave me a brilliant smile that might’ve made my knees weak if I hadn’t met his friend yet.
Bart also had dark hair, like Jeremiah and Shawn, but where Shawn’s was pitch black and Jeremiah’s was more of a dark glossy brown, Bart’s was somewhere in between. Such a deep brown that it was almost black, there were lighter strands of burned caramel in between when the light hit it just right.
Shawn’s complexion was darker, like mine, whereas Bart was almost pale. Not like glow in the dark pale, but it was clear that he didn’t spend much time in the sun. His cheeks had Tanner’s natural reddish glow but there was a bit of stubble on his chin and jaw that none of his friends seemed to favor.
He looked at the world through vibrant forest green eyes surrounded by a pair of rectangular glasses with thick black frames. If Shawn’s eyes made him look like he was always laughing internally about something, Bart’s looked like he was studying. Assessing.
They were all tall, seemed fit, and were well dressed, but they sure were an interesting mix of characters, too. In the few minutes since I’d sat down, I’d already realized that they seemed very different but were also all quite nice.
“Jeremiah couldn’t make it,” Shawn said, definitely the more chatty one between the two of the group who were there. “He said we should carry on without him, though. Steph said they’ll call you sometime soon.”
“That’s not a problem. I’ve already met with Jeremiah and I’ve gotten some good ideas from him. Have you guys known Tanner for as long as he has?”
Shawn laughed. “Nah. We’ve all been friends since we were kids, but Bart and I only came along once we hit high school. Those two grew up practically stitched together at the hip.”
“So I’ve heard,” I mused. “They do seem close. Do all of you live in the same building?”
Bart shook his head. “God, no. The internet speed there would drive me nuts.”
I couldn’t tell if he was joking, but it didn’t seem that way. “Okay. No one has mentioned that internet speed is important to Tanner where he lives.”
“That’s because it’s not important to Tanner.” Shawn rolled his sparkling eyes at his friend. “Bart here is just a snob. He chose his place based on speed and bandwidth. Do yourself a favor and never take him on as a client. He’s a gamer and he’s always practicing for the next e-sports tournament. You’d never get him out of your hair for long enough to actually work around him.”
“At least I don’t pay rent for a place I only use to sleep in from time to time,” Bart retorted, a slight grin touching his lips as he glanced at his friend. “I swear, you need directions to your apartment every time you do decide to go home.”
He looked at me to explain. “Shawn’s a model and he takes advantage of being invited everywhere all the damn time. I don’t think the city has had an event that he’s missed in the last couple of years. It’s exhausting just trying to keep up with all the places he goes.”
“You’re a model?” My jaw nearly dropped. “Where did you guys even all find each other? How is it that you all do something that you can become known for and got successful at it?”
Bart shrugged and pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose with his forefinger. “Well, in all fairness, a person can become known for anything. Any career offers the opportunity, but I get what you mean. We are a group that does things for work that often ends with us in the public eye for one reason or another.”
“Exactly,” I said. “It’s just seems unlikely within one group of friends.”
Shawn chuckled, pretending to buff his nails on his shirt. “We’re just that kind of awesome. Speaking of which, I hear Tanner’s been giving you trouble with his remodel. If you’ll excuse the pun, is he really refusing to play ball?”
I laughed. “That’s a good way of putting it, considering his history, but yes. Your friend is being exceptionally difficult about providing me with a direction he’d like me to go in with the design. He’s given me some basic hints, but pinning down what he wants hasn’t been easy.”
Bart frowned, then perked up and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He put it down on the table after bringing something up on the screen. “I came across some old pictures of his bedroom as a teenager when Jeremiah called to ask if we’d help out. I’ve downloaded them to my phone. They might be able to give you some ideas, especially since I know Jer already showed you his apartment.”
He pushed the phone across the table, and both he and Shawn leaned over as he scrolled through pictures. “Since we never just took pictures of each other’s bedrooms, all of these have one of us in them, but there’s enough in the background to see what his room was like.”
Shawn hooted with laughter at the first picture, a shot of all of them in a pretty standard-sized bedroom for the suburbs. It was a typical boy room, to my mind. There was a single bed made up in faded navy sheets, posters of baseball players on the wall, and the obligatory calendar of a sexy girl draped over a sportscar.