Free Starfish and Coffee by Kele Moon

Alex playing shortstop. He was swift, quick thinking, and cool under pressure. Matt could see it. He wished he had seen it, that he’d gone to one of Alex’s games over spring break all those years ago. He wasn’t really sure why he hadn’t, because he’d always noticed Alex. Since his parents first bought the beach house when Matt was in seventh grade, he’d been aware of Alex, who was one of those guys everyone liked. He stood out in his group of friends. The best looking. The most athletic. The hottest girlfriend.
    Matt may not have noticed or cared about most of the locals he’d passed on the beach and in the quaint coffee shops and ice cream parlors of Mirabella Island, but for some reason, Alex stood out, and for the first time Matt was really trying to figure out why.
    He threw the stuff away, being careful to look for Holly who was cleaning the rental units the tourists had checked out of this morning. The pile of shit by the garbage cans was growing. More was being tossed out than kept.
    “How long has it been since you’ve cleaned out this shed?”
    “Never.” Alex appeared from the deep recesses of the rusting shed, pulling several large, warped pieces of wood. “Four years maintaining these places and I’ve never gotten around to it. Who knows how long it was before that?”
    Matt walked over and took the wood from him. He lifted them off the ground easily. “We could break these up and burn them tonight.”
    “Yeah.” Alex seemed to pause, a hitch of something sounding in his voice. “We could do that.”
    Matt turned curiously, the wood still in his arms, and stared back at Alex who was just standing there as if struck by something. His eyes were wide and dazed as he studied Matt, his gaze trained on his biceps that were straining from the weight of all the wood.
    Matt turned around when that look started affecting him. As bullish as Alex’s lithe, cut body made him feel, Matt was suddenly grateful for his big, broad body because he’d seen it, the spark of interest in Alex, and even if it was half insane, Matt still wanted to be interesting to Alex Hunter.
    A million questions formed in his mind, the same ones that had been brewing since yesterday morning in the kitchen. Some he didn’t want to name, but others were easier. Like, what was Holly to Alex really? And why did he go all the way to Key West to go fishing when there was plenty of fishing to be had right there in Mirabella. What exactly was he hoping to catch?
    Instead he asked, “What do y’all need all this wood for anyway?” because he was hard again, and he needed a distraction against it.
    Shirtless, with nothing to hide the reaction, Matt was floundering and uncomfortable, but still too hungry to be around Alex to give up the afternoon. That brief moment in the kitchen yesterday had flared something to life, something better left dormant, but Matt found himself clinging to it instead.
    “Hurricanes.” Alex frowned after Matt dumped the wood by the garbage cans. “There’s a fuckload in there. We’ve got enough for all the rentals.”
    “Right, for the windows.” Matt winced, feeling stupid. “Are you gonna replace it all?”
    Alex shrugged and turned back to the shed, cool and easygoing as if the moment had never happened. “Will and me can just pick some up later this week. We got Old Man Grover’s credit card. He lets us get what we need.”
    “I could help you,” Matt offered, knowing he was being obvious but finding himself unable to stop. He was looking for a way to stretch the afternoon out longer. “We could grab the groundkeeper’s truck from my mother’s place and get the stuff after we’re done here.”
    “Okay.” Alex surprised him by agreeing, and Matt thought he heard it again, that hitch of something in his voice that made Matt’s cock jerk inside his shorts. “If you’re offering free manual labor, I’m not gonna turn it down.”
    Matt realized he wasn’t the only one looking to make the