No, it’s okay. The security system is up and running, and no one has come to either of my doors.
Zeus
Alright. If you need me, call me.
Yas
Thank you, I will.
Then all he could do was watch out the window as she drove away.
The weekend had gone well. Things were probably going to be a little more difficult going forward since she wouldn’t be staying at Sarah’s anymore. On the other hand, they’d agreed to do the friends-with-benefits thing, so all he had to do was make sure to keep arranging get-togethers that didn’t feel too much like dates.
What he hadn’t told her yesterday was that, while he would never ask a date over for leftovers, it was the kind of thing he would do with a girlfriend.
She hadn’t needed to know that.
Mostly, he’d just wanted a second dinner with her this weekend and to solidify the time they were spending together.
Once her car was out of sight, he sat down on the couch with his laptop to do some more research on Pete and Stacy James. Not just for Yas now, but for Drew and Naomi. He also wanted to do some research on where they all intersected, other than The Outlands and Yas teaching classes at Naomi’s shelter.
Unfortunately, Naomi’s social media presence was miniscule, and Yas seemed to have shut hers down at some point. He wondered if she’d done that this week after Pete James, or if that had been in place before. The one place she was still active had nothing but photos of flowers that she’d taken. She definitely had an eye for pretty flowers, something he made a mental note of.
Trying to find their connections wasn’t his main goal, though, so he gave up fairly quickly. He could always ask Yas more about it later.
The more important thing was Pete James and Stacy James.
It looked as if Stacy had gotten clean away from her husband for the moment. He’d reported her missing, but that report had been canceled. Zeus assumed the shelter had helped her take care of that.
At the moment, she was completely off the grid. She’d probably pop up eventually, but he would be willing to bet it would be somewhere far away. Or she might just wait to see if her husband lost interest in following her. He checked, but at the moment, no divorce papers had been filed.
Considering how the shitbag had been acting, going after Yas and Naomi at home, he couldn’t blame Stacy. The most dangerous time for a woman was when she tried to leave.
Which was why sometimes they chose not to at all. Even when they were given a way out.
He would know.
Zeus gritted his teeth, shaking his head and rolling his shoulders. Thinking about it never helped anything. He couldn’t change the past or his mom’s decision.
Letting out a long breath, he refocused on his research.
Yas, Naomi, and the unknown Stacy were women he could help. And he was going to do his best to make sure Pete James never bothered any of them again.
Yasmine
Sunday afternoon meant book club. Not that they read a new book every week; Yasmine was pretty sure it was just Brenda and her friends’ excuse to get together on a weekly basis to socialize. She was pretty sure the three of them actually did read a book a week, and possibly more, but Yasmine didn’t have time for that. She hadn’t even finished her lumberjack book yet.
She’d gotten pulled into book club when Audrey and Cassidy had, thanks to Brenda. Apparently, book club had more people originally, then Brenda, Angela, and Karen had introduced spicy romance to the mix and lost some of the members. They’d decided to replace them with Cassidy’s friends.
That was a little awkward because while Brenda, Cassidy, Audrey, and Claudia all knew about Yasmine and Zeus, Naomi and Jennifer did not. Yasmine had no idea if Brenda had told Angela and Karen. She might have, but she might not have. Either was equally possible.
It was an eclectic group of people for sure. Brenda was foul-mouthed and tended to wear inappropriate t-shirts—today’s said “Get in Loser, We’re Doing Butt Stuff” with an alien spaceship on it. Next to her, Karen dressed like a kindergarten teacher, but she was the one who liked the filthiest books and suggested the more out-there kinky reads. She’d been the one to introduce hucow romance to the group. With her long, silver hair, peaches-and-cream complexion, and manner of dress, no one would guess what she read by looking at her.
Angela preferred romantic suspense or something with a bit of danger, though she wasn’t against the kink or steam. She’d been the one to suggest this week’s book. Right now, she was dressed in loose tan linen pants and a button-down white linen shirt. Her short, cropped salt-and-pepper hair had a gold pin that matched the gold jewelry she was wearing. The color combinations made her brown skin shine, although that might also be the expertly applied highlighter on her cheeks. Yasmine really needed to ask her what color that was.
“So, who finished Wicked Altar this week?” Brenda asked once everyone was settled in her living room. Hope rested at Yasmine’s feet, head on her front paws, after having accepted love and pets from everyone in the room. Including Karen, who had immediately had to go wash her hands afterward because she was allergic, but that hadn’t stopped her from giving Hope a good rubdown.
Now, she was sitting as far away from Hope as she could but still looking longingly at the dog.
