It's All Geek to Me (Nerds & Geeks Book 3) by Vicki Lewis Thompson Page B

“Tug, we’re not dating.”
    Tug. Frazer made a mental note to remember his name.
    “Like I said when we arrived,” Dulcie continued. “Frazer’s here to supervise my use of this app.” She pulled the phone out of her pocket and held it up for emphasis. “There’s absolutely nothing going on besides that.”
    Her brother-in-law smirked at her. “That’s not the way Henry tells it.”
    Frazer groaned. “Look, Tug, I –”
    “Hey, you remembered my name, man! That’s awesome! I’m glad you’re not stuck up like the last brainiac Dulce brought home. That dude took one look at my tats and I could tell from his attitude he was thinking this guy’s so beneath me . His loss.”
    Frazer had thought this guy could flatten me . “So what do you do, Tug? Mixed martial arts?”
    “I teach English lit at Berkley.”
    “No shit.”
    Henry was there in a flash with his jar. “You swore.”
    “Um, yeah, but I’m out of change.” He glanced at Tug. “Can you break a twenty?”
    “No worries.” Tug shoved a beefy hand into his sweatpants pocket and came up with two quarters.
    “But you can’t pay for him, Daddy!” Henry seemed genuinely distressed. “He’s not your boyfriend or anything!”
    “That’s a fact. But he’s Dulcie’s boyfriend, and I’m Dulcie’s beloved brother-in-law, so we have the Dulcie connection going on. That connection allows me to pay his fine.”
    Henry frowned. “Are you sure?”
    “Positive.” Tug leaned down to look the boy in the eye. “Do you want the money or not?”
    “I want it.”
    “Then accept the fact that Frazer and I are bonded like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo.”
    “Wow.” Henry held up the jar and Tug deposited both quarters. Then the little boy left quickly.
    “Thanks for bailing me out.”
    “No problem.” Tug gave him an assessing glance. “You’re okay, Fraze. You could have told Henry to bug off.”
    “No, I couldn’t.”
    Tug smiled. “See, that’s what I’m talking about. And that app of yours is way cool. Ready for the next game?”
    “Not sure.” Frazer told himself it couldn’t be any worse than Pin the Tail on the Donkey. “What is it?”
    “Twister.”
    Oh, yeah. It would be worse. He thought about pretending he had a bad back, but Grandma Betsy was playing so his pride wouldn’t let him wimp out.
    Tug, who seemed to have nominated himself Master of Ceremonies, put Frazer and Dulcie on the same team. She had to take off her five-inch heels to play.
    Frazer had never seen her barefoot and certainly never when she was bending over with her cute little ass in the air. As he navigated the colored circles on the Twister mat, he learned two things – Dulcie was extremely flexible, and being up close and personal with her warm body distracted the hell out of him.
    Even so, they were triumphant and advanced to the final round. At one point, when they were both upside down and balancing precariously on the vinyl mat, she glanced at him. “Having fun?”
    “No.”
    “After presents and cake we can leave.”
    He almost said thank God but wasn’t sure if that was considered swearing or not so he modified his response. “Great.”
    “You’ve been a good sport. I’ll make it up to you.”
    He wondered what she meant by that. Then Tug called out another move and they were back in the thick of competition. He didn’t mind competition. He’d certainly played his share of video games over the years and his hand/eye coordination was excellent.
    He’d always been flexible, too, but that didn’t mean he wanted to demonstrate that ability in public. Not too surprisingly, he and Dulcie ended up winning the Twister competition. He sort of hated to beat Grandma Betsy, though. In the final round she’d successfully straddled two circles and shouted I’m one hell of an old lady! Henry had been right there with his Swear Jar and she’d happily paid her fine.
    Now seven-year-old Anna, who was Tug’s oldest and Henry’s big sister, was ready