Page 13 of Summer Holiday Lifeline

Ozzy nodded. His lips moved, and maybe in the shape of the word “good” but it was hard to say, since there was no accompanying sound.

“My-my!” Shelly all but shrieked as she yanked on his arm. “The ca-at!”

“Shells!” Jet darted forward, freeing Myles from her grip and sweeping her off her feet. “Show me the cat, eh? I like cats.”

“She’s bea-u-tiful.”

Their voices dwindled as Jet carried her back the way they had come to a window seat in the front room.

“So.” Ozzy straightened, hooking a thumb into a belt loop and running his hand over the top of his head. His hair, longer—though to be fair, he’d always kept it buzzed in the army and while on the street—and greyer than Myles remembered, stuck up between his fingers. “How was the drive?”

His purple-haired kissing partner smacked his bicep.

“What?” Ozzy rubbed the arm, as though the blow had stung.

“‘How was the drive?’ It was three days longer than it should have been. How do you think it was?”

“I don’t—what do you want me to say?”

“Hi.” Purple Hair leaned over the counter again and held out a hand to Myles. “I’m Tris.” He tilted his head, eyes narrowed. “But you probably already figured that out.”

“I guess I had, yeah,” Myles admitted, though he was glad of the introduction, because Ozzy’s partner’s name had momentarily escaped him. Something he didn’t really want to think too hard about.

Tris’s grip was firm. He didn’t flinch at the smear of grass and dirt stain on Myles’s palm.

“Sorry about that.” He snapped his hand away to wipe on his jeans.

Tris’s smile was kind. “No worries. I’ve heard a lot about you. From both these guys.” He indicated Lucky and Ozzy with a flip of one hand. “And from my brother, too.”

“Your brother?”

He nodded. “Rod. He never met you, but you were legend, apparently.”

“Tris.” Ozzy placed a hand over his boyfriend’s.

“I never set out to be.” Myles shifted his feet, scrubbed his hand over his jeans, and waited for the floor to swallow him.

“Come on.” Lucky squeezed his fingers. “I’ll show you where you guys will be staying, and you can get cleaned up. Oh, don’t worry about them.” Lucky waved at the window seat where Shelly sat with a calico cat in her lap and Jet slouched next to her, a small sketchbook open in front of him. “Kreed will feed them, and Tris will bring them up after.”

“Sure.” Tris waved and disappeared into the kitchen.

Kreed clapped a hand on Myles’s shoulder. “No rush, yeah. I’ll send something up, if you like.”

“No need. I’ll get cleaned up and come back down.” He didn’t look at Ozzy again as he followed Lucky up the stairs. Every step deepened his regret at the bravado that had convinced him to agree to the third-floor suite when Lucky had asked.

To be fair, though, that conversation had happened weeks ago, and he hadn’t anticipated the brutality of the long-ass drive.

Lucky took one look at him once they reached the top and swore.

“What?” The word came out covered in burrs, which didn’t seem to stick to Lucky at all.

“You look like day old fish left out in the sun.”

“Well, thank you.”

“Get in the tub. Have a soak. I’m telling Jet to put your things in the back room downstairs. Marcus moved out last fall, so it’s free now, and you are not doing these stairs every day.”

“It’s the drive. It’s not normally this bad.”