Page 33 of Hurricane Love
Well, if that wasn’t an invitation… Wylie tossed aside his ball cap and sunglasses to pursue his prey. The water wasn’t much cooler than the air outside, but it was refreshing nonetheless.
“Did your mother have blue eyes too?” Diego asked after they’d waded around for a bit.
Wylie blinked at the unexpected question. “No, green. Like bottle glass.” Diego nodded. “Why?” Wylie wanted to know. He couldn’t ask a question like that without any follow up.
“They’re striking,” he said, then splashed him in the face and turned away to swim laps. Cat and mouse, that was fine, Wylie could play. Wylie watched Diego for a few minutes, his muscular body cutting through the water like a tiger shark, and thought about how none of his exes had ever given him such a nice, albeit reluctant, compliment.
Christ, was he catching feelings already? Time to plan their first wedding song. He had to play it cool, though, or else Diego might head for the hills. Judging from his freak out earlier that week, he seemed the type to bolt if things got too serious. Wylie was just about to dunk himself under the water to cool off when something grabbed his ankle.
“Eeeek!” Wylie let out an unmanly shriek and jumped aboutfive feet into the air, thrashing to get away, as Diego rose from the depths like a shredded Poseidon with a full belly laugh.
“What the fuck?” Wylie spluttered. “That shit ain't cool. There’re sharks in these waters.”
“I’ll protect you,” Diego said, then lunged at him again. Wylie fought him off, barely, and the two tussled in the water, dunking and shoving each other, attempting to throw one another in the air, but being mostly unsuccessful at it. Finally, half-drowned and with saltwater burning his nostrils, Wylie dragged himself out of the water with Diego nipping at his heels, and they both collapsed with exhaustion on their respective beach towels.
“You might be stronger than me, but I’m scrappy,” Wylie said, in case Diego thought he’d been beaten.
“No doubt. I wouldn’t want to meet you in a back alley. You probably scratch and pull hair.”
Wylie certainly wasn’t above it. He knew it was stupid to think this way, but he didn’t want Diego thinking less of him because he didn’t know how to fight. “Just because I’ve never been in a fight, doesn’t mean I couldn’t hold my own,” Wylie said.
Diego’s teasing expression changed into something more thoughtful. “I could teach you some moves if you want. Some basic self-defense.”
“Okay,” Wylie said slowly. “I mean, couldn’t hurt. I’mma have to beat Fuckface MacPherson’s ass one of these days, anyway."
“Facts,” Diego said and reached for the cooler to pull out his sub, offering the other one to Wylie. They ate lunch while shooing off the seagulls who tried to encroach on their territory.
“So, criminal law,” Diego said between bites. “What’s up with that?”
“I have a plan. I’m going to be a public defender until I get my loans paid off, and then I’ll transition into private practice and start raking in the big bucks. By then, I’ll have a ton of experience and know all the judges. They’ll all love me, obvs, so it’ll be easy.”
Wylie hoped it would be easy. He was good at arguing, good at getting his way, and he enjoyed reading and writing when hewas able to focus. Nancy had said he’d make a great lawyer, and that had to count for something.
“Why defense? I mean, what if you know they’re guilty? Would that be hard for you?”
Diego wasn’t the first person to ask him that. “It’s not really about whether they’re guilty or not, it’s whether the state has enough evidence to prove it. That’s the cool thing about our legal system. When applied fairly, only those with enough evidence against them get convicted. Otherwise, we’d be imprisoning people based on hunches and gut feelings and things other people said, and they might be lying. Of course, there’s human bias, and some laws are just bullshit, but overall, it’s a pretty decent system.”
Diego had his thinking face on, eyes squinting beneath a furrowed brow. “What about, like, serial killers who are really good at hiding the evidence?” he asked.
“It’s a lot harder these days with DNA analysis and phone data, but sure, it’s possible.”
“Would it bother you to defend someone like that?”
“It might, but everyone deserves a solid defense and a chance to plead their case. It’s what separates us from the animals, you know?” Wylie loved law because it wasn’t black and white, but infinite shades of gray with different ways to maneuver and outflank your opponent. Winning was part of it too, for Wylie. He said to Diego, “Not gonna lie, a lot of what I know about law, I learned from watchingLaw and Orderwith my mom. That was her favorite show when I was growing up.”
“I watched a lot of Perry Mason with my grandmother. But aren’t the defense attorneys the bad guys?”
Wylie shook his head. “Injustice is the bad guy, and sometimes injustice wins. In real life too. Once I get into law school, I might change my mind. There are a lot of different practices to choose from. Or, I might hate it altogether. I gotta shoot my shot though, you know?”
Diego nodded. “I think it’s really cool that you’re pursuing it. Ibet your mom would be proud. Did she know you wanted to be a lawyer?”
“No, I used to want to be a professional water slide tester, among other things.”
Diego erupted with laughter at that, his whole body shaking, and he nearly choked on his sandwich. Wylie thumped his back and was prepared to do the Heimlich, but he recovered soon enough. He loved that he could make such a serious man crack up like that.
“Fall back, I guess,” Diego said, still wheezing.
They finished up lunch and laid out in the sun to let their food settle. Wylie donned his sunglasses and admired Diego’s resting form while pretending to nap. He wanted to lick every inch of the man’s skin from head to toe. He wondered how Diego might feel about foreplay–would he enjoy a long, drawn-out session or would he prefer to bump uglies right away? A lot of his exes hadn’t had the patience for any sort of build-up, which put edging out of the question, but maybe with Diego…
