Page 19 of Best Served Cold

River hummed thoughtfully as I drove out of the lot and toward our apartment. Silence lingered over us for a few blocks.

“What?” I asked.

“Did you like it?”

“It was fine.”

He nodded, then stared straight ahead.

“What?” I asked again.

“Nothing. Just be careful.”

“Careful? Why would I need to be careful?”

“Just…be careful. There’s more to Noah than he lets on. I just don’t want to see either of you get hurt.”

“Only way he can hurt me is if he sits on me with that giant ass.”

River chuckled softly, but it was halfhearted.

“It’s nothing,” I insisted. “Just a dumb bet. I won, game over.”

“If you say so.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and fiddled with it. “I had an idea for our routine.” He tapped the screen and the opening bars to “Burn it to the Ground” by Nickelback played.

Grateful to be able to focus on something other than what had gone down at Ralph’s, I listened as River explained his idea for some changes to one of the routines we performed at the club.

I just had to get through tonight and tomorrow, then it would be the weekend and I’d get a break from Noah and whatever the fuck was going on with him.

4

NOAH

“Here ya go, buddy.” I tilted the bottle down and angled the nipple toward Felix’s mouth.

He opened wide, his tiny hands reaching for it.

Chuckling, I put the nipple against his bottom lip.

He snapped his mouth closed and began suckling, making those happy little noises that never failed to cheer me up.

“Is that good?” I asked. He kicked his chubby legs and smacked my cheek with one hand. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Leaning back in the old rocking chair I’d refinished, I adjusted Felix in my arms and used my feet to move the chair in a slow arc.

The warm weight of him was familiar, and the way he stared up at me with those eyes, so much like my own, comforted and soothed the ever-present anxiety that was my constant companion.

Gradually, Felix’s suckling slowed, and his eyelids began to droop.

“There you go.” I kept my voice low and rumbly, the way he liked. “Get that in ya so you can go to sleep and give Uncle Noah a break.”

He popped off the nipple and yawned wide.

“You and me both, kiddo.” I sighed and put the nipple back on his lower lip. “All done, or do you want the last bit?”

He clamped down on the nipple but didn’t suck.

Gently, I pulled it free and shifted him so I could burp him.

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