“Maybe one of you should order for May for when he’s . . . finished.”
“He’ll be a while.” Risk kept his eyes on me. “He always is.”
“Yeah,” Angel chuckled. “He’ll order something to go, he’ll have a bigger appetite.”
I felt like I had suddenly swallowed a rock because I could not have this conversation. I was such a chicken shit when it came to talking about sex. I was twenty-seven years old, but I felt like a little thirteen-year-old whenever someone mentioned it to me. I wasn’t a prude, I just was so easily embarrassed by the topic.
“I’ll go and give Joe the order.”
I heard the guys laugh at me as I walked away and I had to talk myself out of running out the diner during the entire walk away from the booth. Instead of just hanging the order up, I entered the kitchen. Joe looked up, then down, then back up when he realised it was me and not Anna or Deena.
“Frank,” he blinked. “What’re you doing here?”
“I’m with Blood Oath,” I jabbed my thumb over my shoulder. “We’re here for dinner.”
I hung our order up then glanced around the kitchen. Joe was a perfectionist. He cleaned as he worked so his station was always tidy. I knew I had nothing to do and that I was just stalling so I didn’t have to go back out front but I shook my head, mentally pulled up my big-girl knickers and returned to the floor. When I reached the booth, I slid in next to Risk, but he didn’t move over by much even though he had the room.
Our thighs were plastered together and I was very aware of it.
“So,” I cleared my throat. “What’s it like being famous?”
The three superstars snickered at me.
“It has its pros and its cons,” Hayes answered. “We do what we love on a global stage, we’re successful, we earn great money and we get to perform to Sinners everywhere and see the world at the same time.”
“I feel a big but coming on.”
“But,” Hayes grinned. “We no longer have privacy with the level of fame we’ve reached. Everything we do in public is documented. We can’t fuck up because if we do, it makes headlines. We have to watch our Ps and our Qs. People, if we’re not careful about who we keep in our circle, use us for money, fame or exposure for their own career.”
I frowned. “I don’t like the cons.”
“Neither do we,” Angel winked. “But the pros outweigh the cons so we cope.”
I glanced at Risk. “Do you cope?”
“Now I do,” he answered. “These guys are my brothers, if I didn’t have a good bond with them, I don’t know if I would have been able to climb out of the hole I dug myself into.”
I didn’t want to bring up any bad memories for him so I nodded. I was as still as a statue when Risk lifted his left arm and draped it over the back of the booth. I could feel the material of his jumper brush against me. I found myself imagining him lowering his arm so it rested around my neck and shoulder. I would snuggle into him and stay there forever. I cleared my throat and mentally shook those thoughts away. We kissed, and I knew Risk wanted to continue to kiss me when he wanted, but I was certain that was more to do with the sexual tension between us more than him just wanting to hold me.
We both knew nothing could happen between us, nothing long-term anyway. Nothing had changed in our situation: my life was in Southwold and Risk’s wasn’t. It was rubbish, but that was just the way it was. I hated it, but I accepted it a long time ago. I was sure he had too.
“Frankie baby!”
I jumped as a voice hollered across the diner, when I turned and saw the owner of said voice, I groaned.
“Jesus, not now.”
Before Risk, Hayes or Angel could ask what was wrong, I got up and walked over to the entrance. Sky Ekeles, a sixteen-year-old local, and frequent customer of Mary Well’s, sent a beaming smile my way as I approached him. Sky, dumbly, liked me and he made it his business to stop by as often as he could to hang out with me while I was on shift. I hadn’t seen him in a few days so I knew he’d want a cuddle.
“I’m not working right now, little boy.” I came to a stop in front of the kid. “I’m with friends so you can’t be here unless you’re ordering and eating.”
“I know, I just stopped in to see if you were here and since you are,” he smirked, “I’ll have my usual.”
The audacity of him made me laugh.
“Sky—”
“One hug, you know that’s all I want.”