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I almost tripped over the coffee table as I lunged for the window. Ducking underneath it, I tried to angle my head so I could see Rafe’s front porch. It wasn’t the best view, so I placed my head on the sill and reached up to slowly ease the window open.

When I poked my head sideways out of the gap, just up to my eyes, I could see Rafe’s friend standing on the porch. Rafe was in the doorway, leaning his shoulder on the frame. He was barefoot, wearing sweats and a cute, dorky T-shirt with some game logo on the front. His newly pink hair was pulled back in a messy bun, and he was fiddling with his eyebrow piercing as he nodded at something his friend said.

A surprisingly strong sensation twisted my gut at the sight of him. Not wanting to examine that too deeply, I ignored it and pricked up my ears, trying to hear what they were saying.

And whether they were talking about me.

“…looked like he had a donkey dick,” his friend was saying. I smirked.

Oh yeah. They were definitely talking about me.

“The billy goat beard isn’t really my thing, though,” the friend continued, and my smile faltered as a frown twitched my brows.

Okay, maybe they… weren’t talking about me.

“He said he’d seen us there last week.”

Rafe snorted. “I remember him. He was a creep. So he just flat-out propositioned you at the grocery store?”

“Yeah, while I was picking a sandwich. He said, ‘I saw you and your cute friend here the other day. How’s about I become the filling in that tasty little sandwich?’”

Rafe burst out laughing, and I abruptly realised it was the first time I’d ever heard a genuine laugh from him. It was surprisingly loud and brash, with a cute little snort. My chest grew weirdly tight, but then my frown deepened when I processed what his friend had said. Who the hell was this dude with a billy goat beard and a donkey dick trying to have a threesome with Rafe?

“What did you say?” Rafe asked, still chuckling.

His friend was laughing too as he told him, “Well, I was pretty creeped out, so I just said, ‘That’s a really weird thing to say to someone in the middle of a grocery store, dude.’ And he said, ‘You can get weird in the middle of my grocery store any day of the week, baby.’ So I just forgot about the sandwich and noped it out of there.”

“Ew, what the fuck?” Rafe was laughing again, and I found myself smiling at the sound of it.

“Yeah, so maybe we find a new place to buy groceries, dude.”

Rafe huffed and grumbled, “But that’s the only one nearby that sells Carolina Reapers. I refuse to make my hot sauce with anything lower on the Scoville Scale.”

Rafe made his own hot sauce? It wasn’t all that interesting, I supposed, but I found myself absorbing the tiny scrap of information about him greedily.

I really didn’t know that much about him, despite us having been neighbours for years, and now I kind of wanted to find out more. Wasn’t sure why.

“We’ll go in disguise and stock up,” the friend was saying. “Don’t forget you promised me two bottles this time when you make your next batch.”

“I remember.” Rafe was smiling. Properly smiling. It was still small, but it was unguarded and made my belly clench again. “Drive safe, bro.”

“Will do.” They briefly hugged, before the friend turned to make his way off the porch. Rafe stepped back and closed the door.

I stayed where I was for a second, then yanked my head back, smacking my cheek on the window frame. Straightening, I shoved my head on and hurriedly strode for the door.

Rafe’s friend was heading down the porch steps when I stepped outside. He pressed the button on his key, making his car chirp as its lights flashed, then jumped out of his skin when I called out.

“Hey there.” I fixed my most charming grin on my face as I strode across my front lawn toward him. He was clearly into guys, right? If he’d noticed some creep’s donkey dick at the grocery store? If a dude was into dudes, I could, without fail, charm the pants off him.

Seriously, I’d never failed.

Not that I wanted to get the pants off this guy, but I did want some information.

“Oh crap,” I heard him croak, before he started walking twice as fast toward his car.

Oh hell no. I’d learned my lesson from this morning. I started running, not caring if I looked slightly unhinged.

The friend squawked and started running too, almost tripping over his own long legs. I managed to reach his driver’s side door before he did and leaned my elbow casually on the car roof as he skidded to a stop in front of me.