Page 64 of Love Unlimited

Ash shrugged. Not really, but it wouldn’t take much to tip over into it.

Landon/Lena: Sometimes when I’m around you, I can’t tell if I’m regressing or not.

Ash: it’s pretty slippery for me. i don’t always know

Ash: i think the only important part is thinking about ur daddy

Ash: if ur happy and ur daddy’s happy that’s all that matters. little or big

Landon/Lena: I don’t think I could have done this on my own.

Landon/Lena: I might not be meant for being good.

Ash: watch how your daddy watches you

Dustin looked over at them again. This time, it was all soft and hazy pleasure before his eyes returned to the keyboard.

Landon/Lena: That’s it? We just sit here and it’s like a scene?

Ash: yeah! it’s the best

Lena apparently considered that for a while as she finished her sandwich. When she was done, she took Ash’s wrapper with hers and put them both in the trash.

Then, she pushed her bean bag over until she was half under the desk, pressed up against her Daddy’s sock-covered feet. She wriggled around, getting comfortable on her back. She couldn’t see it, but the expression on Dustin’s face was both adoring and reverent.

Ash: ur daddy likes you down there

Ash: he thinks ur cute

Landon/Lena: I feel cute.

Ash: you are cute!

They had to stifle their giggles so they wouldn’t bother Dustin. If they did, though, Ash didn’t think he would mind.

Chapter 10

Zhong

Zhong flipped the burgers, the juices sizzling as they hit the flames. Dustin reached around him to add the buns to the top rack of the grill, cramming in as many as he could fit.

We haven’t used the grill for this many people in a long time, Dustin commented.

Zhong looked out over the lawn. He and Ash had somehow found themselves invited to the barbecue with Lena’s family, and the space was alive with activity. Ash and Lena’s mother were squared off against each other in a soccer match with two kids each on their teams. Lena and her father were chatting with Ash’s mother, who had also somehow ended up at the gathering. Three of Lena’s siblings and her brother-in-law were hanging out on the deck chairs. And Lena still had two more siblings with kids who weren’t even here.

It was a lot of family, which was probably why Dustin was hanging out with Zhong by the grill.

Zhong watched one of the kids score in the pop-up soccer net, and then run up to Ash for a high five. Ash, as usual, shone like a jewel in a skirt made of tattered strips of fabric that spun out around them as they moved. They looked happy, weaving in between the other players and then guarding the five-year-old, Matt, so he could make another goal.

That led to a round of cheering and some carefully coached handshakes with the other team, so Zhong supposed the game was over.

Ash wandered away from the game, chatting with Lena’s mother. She signed slowly but fairly fluently, which had been a surprise to him. In fact, all of Lena’s family signed, easily switching modes of communication depending on who they were talking to. If anything, it was Samar, Lena’s brother-in-law, who’d been most often left out of the conversation when everyone tumbled out of their cars this morning and exclaimed over the house and backyard, catching up on family and friends.

Zhong had been surprised to find himself caught up into the group. Lena’s father had asked for his advice on building trellises for his own garden, and Lena’s sister had shared some cute stories about Lena as a kid. Then she’d pulled Zhong aside and asked him if he thought that Lena was happy with Dustin. He’d given a good report, thinking of Lena’s bright laughter and the way she seemed to be settling into living here. It made him feel warm to think about, like he was looking out for the couple.

I like having people here, Zhong finally answered Dustin. We should do this more often.

Dustin closed the grill. Yeah, I think we should.