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“Why are you wearing a tie?”
“Had to go to the bank this morning,” he answered easily enough. “Now you.”
The bank. “I did not have to go to the bank. Why did you have to go to the bank?”
Shaking his head, Kellan said, “The shop. I’m looking at loans for rebuilding. Insurance will only cover so much, and they won’t cover anything until the arson investigation is done.”
“Huh.” I hadn’t even thought about that. “Did you own the shop?”
“I had an interest in it and was planning to buy it.” The patience in his tone tweaked me.
“Man, I gotta stay sober longer. I missed all kinds of shit getting high.” It was only a little bit of a joke. As it was, Kel gave me a faint smile.
“Staying sober sounds like a plan. Now, tell me what’s eating at you.”
“Right,” I said, then took another long drink. My stomach growled, and I was tempted to ask about food but Kel was staring at me. “I had an idea. I don’t like the idea. Only I told Doc, and we both think it might work. Well, Doc didn’t say he thought it would work, but he also didn’t disagree.”
I drained the water bottle.
“It has to do with Sparrow,” Kellan said on a sigh.
“I think—torture is only going to get us so far. Ithinkhe’s more afraid of us than of his brother…” So I told Kellan what I’d mentioned to Doc. “It’s a guess, but I think it’s an option we might want to give Boo-Boo. For the record, I don’t like being the one who came up with it.”
I didn’t want her to ever have to see anyone in her family again if she didn’t want to see them. Kellan scrubbed his hands over his face.
“Let me think about it,” he said. “We could still squeeze the location out and not have to make her deal with that.”
I hoped so.
I seriously hoped so.
“Okay, that said, I have a question—like, when is that food gonna be ready?”
“That’s your question?” He looked somewhat amused. “Maybe thirty minutes. Needs to cool.”
“No, my question—” I held up a finger and moved to the door, then scanned the hall before walking over to the new bar that overlooked the living room.
Just wanted to make sure we were alone.
“Okay,” I said. “Normally, I’d ask Jas, but right now you’re calling the shots, so…I asked Boo-Boo out on a date.”
“Good for you,” Kellan said with a grin.
“Yeah, but—can I actually take her out right now? The whole idea was for us to be…you know, normal and do normal things people our age do.”
“What are normal things people youragedo?” The droll response made me laugh.
“Fuck if I know, I just thought…I like her, Kel. I like her a lot, and I want to do something nice for her.” Wanted it to be a fun date, one she could enjoy.
Something she would remember, and maybe…it would lead to other things. I hadn’t expected the openness about her sexuality or enjoyment, but watching her with the twins had been somewhat of a revelation.
“I’ve fucked girls. I’ve never dated them.” Even then, what I did definitely didn’t look at all like what she was doing with them. “Boo-Boo’s not like them.”
“No,” Kellan said. “She’s not. She’s worth it, though.”
“You don’t have to tell me that. I feel kind of selfish, but with everything going on, I don’t want to forget that I asked her out.” Did that make me an asshole?
“Be selfish with her,” Kellan said, and that shocked the shit out of me.
