Page 41 of Ballads of Lines Blurred

Before getting on the road, I pulled up the text conversation I had with Dash.

Me: Is he home?

Dash: He should be. We’re not working and I’m in East Dremest. I don’t think he had plans.

Me: Thanks.

Dash: Be gentle.

Me: I will. We need to sit down and have a real talk.

Dash: Good idea.

Next, I sent a text to Milo, hoping he wasn’t working tonight. I couldn’t remember if he said he was or not.

Milo: It’s one of my Fridays off. I’m on tomorrow night though.

Me: Can you meet me at Slater’s? I’m leaving the gym now. We need to talk.

Milo: And here I thought you were going to suggest sex.

Me: Not yet, though I had fun with you two last night before everything went downhill.

Milo: Me too. I’ll see you there.

I started my SUV and got moving. It wasn’t a far drive, but I was in West Dremest and Slater lived twenty or so minutes north, depending on the traffic. Hopefully, I could miss most of it since rush hour hadn’t started yet.

There was no plan in my mind, other than wanting the three of us to sit down and talk. Not about sex or who we were to each other, which right now wasn’t much. I wanted us to get to know each other’s pasts. To learn so we could move forward. Maybe then Slater would finally let us all the way in and see me as more than my age.

Milo was sitting in his car when I pulled up. He got out as I parked and met me with a sweet kiss.

I grinned against his lips. “We have to work this out with Slater.”

“We do.”

“Let’s go. We have a lot of talking to do and I have a feeling there will be some tears.”

“Lovely. Just what my day was missing.”

Milo threaded his fingers with mine, and we went to the front of the house where the tall windows were and the sliding door. Slater was inside, pushing a vacuum around the living room. The sliding door was open to let the fresh air in. I didn’t bother knocking. Simply opened the screen door and stepped in, not wanting to give him a chance to turn us away.

His eyes caught us, and his shoulders slumped. Great. He wasn’t happy to see us. The vacuum went quiet, his finger off the trigger now. It was one of the cordless stick vacuums.

“I didn’t know you were stopping by,” he said.

“Yeah, well, we like to keep things interesting,” Milo replied with a grin. He shut the door.

Instead of offering niceties or apologies—I wasn’t sorry—I got right to the point. “We should talk. Can we sit?”

He nodded. “Do you want something to drink? I have water, coffee, soda, or lemonade.”

“You’re one person,” Milo said.

“The guys come over here to work, so I like to have drinks and food on hand.”

“Smart. Lemonade, please.”

“Same,” I said.

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