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Aero lifted his gaze to Gunner, who leaned against the counter, holding his plate. The man’s dark eyes assessed him, and he nodded once.
“Okay. I’ll email you the details. Let me know which days you’re available.”
The men agreed, and Gunner left the room, taking his food with him. Gunner was someone Aero didn’t know well but felt a strange connection with. They’d both served, seen combat, and, if Gunner’s behavior was any indication, had secrets.
Bear went back to harassing Kai, so Aero returned to his meal.
Between eating bites of Ma’s lasagna, his favorite, Aero was mentally counting doors in South Street’s main hallway when his mind wandered back to Sam.
She was pretty. He couldn’t deny that. Her small stature was heavily contrasted by her loud, friendly voice and her energy. He’d heard her from down the hall as she taught her students, at one point finding himself outside her door listening to her read The Lorax. He’d leaned against the wall, pretending to fiddle with his tools, as she told the story, giving each character their own voice. When he realized he had listened to the entire book, he hopped up and went back to the other end of the hall to finish what he’d been doing.
Aero was staring down at his plate when Blaze entered the room and clapped a hand down on his shoulder. Aero jolted, spinning toward Blaze and grabbing his wrist. When he realized what he was doing, he immediately let go.
“Sorry,” Aero rasped, picking up his plate to rinse it in the sink.
“No, that was my fault,” Blaze said, the understanding in his dark eyes making Aero feel less anxious.
They’d had several long conversations when Aero first expressed interest in joining the Iron Dragons. Admittedly, Blaze knew more about him than anyone else, but he had never judged Aero or shared his past with the club. Blaze was a good friend, and Aero was lucky to have him.
Since he’d become a prospect, Blaze had given him a place to live, helped him to start his business, and gave him steady work by letting him manage the security systems and cameras for all of the club’s businesses in addition to his other clients. Were it not for Blaze, Aero wasn’t sure where he would have ended up.
Aero placed his rinsed plate in the sink and turned back to face Blaze, who had stopped walking, giving Aero a few feet of space.
“You good?” Blaze asked, and Aero nodded, extending a hand.
Blaze shook it firmly but released him quickly.
Aero thanked Ma for dinner and exited the kitchen to return to his room.
Sam sat on the couch, making up a lesson plan to introduce her students to addition, multi-colored sticky notes littering the coffee table while she wrote notes on a yellow legal pad.
“What’re you doing?” Molly asked, coming in from the kitchen.
Molly, a psychology major from the local community college, had moved in and taken over Gemma’s part of the lease when she’d moved in with Zed the previous year. Molly and Sam got along fine, although that could be due to their lack of contact due to differing schedules. While Sam was up early and teaching all day, Molly worked nights as a bartender. They crossed paths when Molly had a day off or when one was coming and the other was going. Overall, Molly wasn’t the worst roommate Sam had ever had.
“I’m making lesson plans,” Sam said with a sigh.
“Is something wrong?” Molly asked, dropping into the recliner across from Sam. Her dark eyes were bright with anticipation. “Are you sighing a lot? Because psychologically speaking, a sigh can indicate underlying mental distress, like anxiety or depression. Are you anxious? It could also mean—”
“I’m fine, Molly.” Sam cut her off, rubbing her tired eyes. Diagnosing people and commenting on their psychological health was a hobby of Molly’s, and she never missed an opportunity to use the information she was learning in her classes. It was actually rather annoying, but Sam never complained. Today, though, she wasn’t in the mood.
Sam was anxious and unsettled, which was odd for her because she was usually the calm, collected one, which came in handy when trying to wrangle and teach a gaggle of six-year-olds. This newfound anxiety, as she decided it was, made it hard to concentrate on her work.
Molly cocked her head to the side, not missing a beat. “Is it a guy?”
Sam snorted a laugh, then gasped, covering her mouth with one hand.
Aero.
She’d felt jittery and off-balance ever since he’d come into her classroom. His green eyes seemed to look through her, which was disconcerting. Sam also thought he was handsome, which didn’t help.
She’d seen him at Gemma’s baby shower, but he seemed to appear and disappear at will, like a ghost. He’d done the same in her classroom, moving from one place to another without making a sound. It was unnerving.
“Who is he?” Molly smirked, crossing her arms over her chest in triumph at having weaseled the truth from Sam.
Sam wanted to laugh. She’d had the same conversation with Gemma right after she met Zed. Her path forward wasn’t as clear as Gemma’s had been, though. Zed had expressed obvious interest in Gemma, pursued her relentlessly, and made drastic changes to his life just to be a man she could love and respect.
Sam knew nothing about Aero. From what she had observed, he spent most of his time alone, an island among the club members who shared time and space 24/7 and liked it that way. That made her question why he would join a club and live on the premises, all but forcing himself to interact and engage with others when he obviously preferred to be alone.
