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He was disappointed and I smiled.
“I’ll try getting her to have dinner with us another time.” I promised.
Opening the chicken wings and everything else, Eli grabbed plates while Dillon busied himself gathering utensils and drinking glasses.
Though we had darkness hovering, the three of us ate, cleaned up before Dillon went to take a shower.
“Eli, can I ask you something?”
The teen put away the last drinking glass then faced me.
“Do you like living at the group home?” I wanted to know.
“Not really.” He shrugged. “But it’s the best I can do until I turn eighteen. I’m almost seventeen so too late to get adopted, I think.”
“What are you planning on doing after you graduate?” I asked.
“I’m not sure, yet.” Eli replied, sitting across from me. “I was thinking of becoming a lawyer, but the thought of graduating with a mountain of student loan debt is crippling. And there are resources for kids who aged out of the system like me, but it’s not much.”
“I see—”
Dillon called for him and Eli smiled and jogged off.
5
WASP
It was late when I returned from the drag show. Usually, the shows were longer, but Levi was under the weather and just wanted to go home. While he performed the number of songs he usually did, he didn’t interact with the guests as much as before.
When he got off the stage, I had a cup of ginger tea waiting for him, as well as a bag of medicines for a cold.
I eased the motorcycle to a stop outside the large gates and stopped to relieve Duke. After we talked for a bit, he patted my shoulder.
“Okay, I’m heading home to my lady.” He told me.
“She’s okay with you doing this?”
He nodded. “She understands. There was a time when she was the one in danger. And my friends rallied around her.”
“She seems like a good woman.”
Duke grinned, a big, goofy grin that threatened to swallow his entire face.
I wandered onto the property, making my way toward the guesthouse when the sound of moving water caught my attention. I stopped at the house to set my helmet on the front steps then made my way across the yard toward the steps leading up to the pool deck.
I blinked as the person moved through the water and it took me a little time to realize it was Carter. When he rose above the surface, every part of me came alive—parts of me that had been dormant since my ex left. Holding my breath, I tried getting my brain to tell my legs to take me back across the yard.
Instead, I found myself moving up the steps to sit on one of the chairs, elbows on my thighs, watching him until he resurfaced again.
“You’re back.”
He pushed hair out of his face then dragged a palm down his face.
But my eyes were still travelling down his perfect body and up again.
“Yeah—this was a short one.” I explained. “Only two encores.”
He laughed, braced his palm to the deck and pushed himself out. I grabbed the towel beside me and approached him.
