Page 11 of The Bartender Special

It activated another wave of heat that traveled up from Benny's stomach and pooled in his cheeks.

If confusion and embarrassment were quarters and pennies, Benny would be Scrooge McDuck swimming through stacks of silver and copper in a vault.

At least Benny wasn't the only one trying to understand what was happening.

“Hold on, hold on.” Carol's eyebrow arched as her hand poised in the air, index finger pointing at Jack.

Benny wasn't even going to chance a look at her brother.

Since Benny had sat down with the group pre-Jack kiss, Marcus had gone from polite to lost in his phone within five minutes. His attention had, thankfully, not been on the multitude of questions Carol and Co. had asked Benny about The One Who Said Nothing and Guy. If Benny hadn't caught a flash of his phone to see it was a text message conversation, he would have worried Marcus was searching the blog out or Googling him. Now, though, Benny knew his crush was staring at the scene unfolding in front of him.

Not that he blamed anyone.

The bar had gone suspiciously quiet.

Aside from Carol, that was.

“Are you telling me that you two are a thing?” Carol kept her finger trained on Jack, but her suspicion was all over the place. “Jack Knox, the bartender who’s known for not liking people, and Benny? I didn't even know you knew each other.”

Jack’s arm was as fast as his lips. He pulled Benny against his side, forcing them both to face the music head on.

“Just because you know most things that go on in town doesn't mean you know them all,” Jack answered. “You didn’t even know about this one’s blog until he posted it, right?”

Carol took a beat before fanning the flames. “True, but I guess I'm just surprised is all. I mean, his entire thing right now is about lost love over this ‘Guy’ and—” Her eyes widened. She jabbed her red-tipped nail in Jack's direction again but was looking at no one but Benny. “Wait. Are you saying that he is Guy? The Guy from your blog?”

Benny might have imagined it, but he could have sworn crickets were chirping in the distance.

His heartbeat started to gallop.

His ears and cheeks burned hotter.

The memories of nine years' worth of DearMe posts became giant neon signs glaring in his mind's eye. They all warned him to never let his truth see the light of day.

No matter what.

This time, though, Benny wasn’t just alone in front of a computer screen.

He wasn’t just lamenting about the love he’d been carrying within for the golden boy of Arbor Bay.

Right now, he was with Marcus Robertson.

Close enough to look at him.

And so Benny did.

Hands down, Marcus was one of the most beautiful men Benny had ever seen. Golden-haired with soft curls that paid tribute to his boyish charm, blue eyes that held the depth of an ocean of compassion within them, a face filled with movie star angles, and a smile that had spent its existence learning how to win what it wanted.

But Benny had never cared too much for the qualities like these that had made many people in Arbor Bay swoon.

No.

It had been the warmth beneath that Benny had been wholly affected by.

That warmth and the memory of that perfect day, years ago in the park.

The day he'd fallen in love with the perfect guy.

The day the blog had first met Guy.