Page 56 of For the Night

Ty rumbled a laugh and playfully punched Colt in the side. “Don’t even try. My list of pilot jokes is far longer than anythin’ you can come up with about engineers.”

“Like I said, y’all document everythin’. I keep my shit up here.” He tapped his temple. Then he turned to me and Lane. “Here’s a sayin’ for ya. A jet is flight ready when the engineers have made so many doodles that the weight of the documentation exceeds the weight of the jet.”

“Doodles?” Ty retorted incredulously. “I’ll show you fuckin’ doodles!”

And they were off…

It was like high school here sometimes.

Lane and I shook our heads at the children.

“Jag är inte nervös längre om man säger så,” I said dryly, telling him I was no longer nervous.

Lane laughed.

“Nora!” I heard Ash shout.

I spun around, trying to spot him. I’d been waiting for him to get here! There. He emerged between two groups of serious people, and I was so relieved to see he’d shown up in jeans and a tee. No uptight clothes for us.

I jogged over to him. “Hi!”

“Hey, you. Sorry I’m late.” He draped an arm around me and ushered me toward the porch steps. They’d be opening the doors any moment now. “My youngest called and asked why she can’t eat nail polish to see if it tastes pretty, so that turned into a whole thing. I had to Google the damn ingredients and explain toxicity.”

I gigglesnorted. “That’d be Lily, then?” I’d heard some cute stories about her. Ash and Nathan suspected she might be on the autism spectrum, and Ash had mentioned her when Franklin was nearby. Which had prompted a whole conversation because Franklin and Jack’s daughter was also named Lily—and she was autistic.

Now, they had plans to go golfing together.

“The very one.” Ash nodded with a dip of his chin.

As if on cue, the big doors opened, revealing Reese and Penelope with stone-faced expressions and fancy clothes. Goodness! Penelope in a pencil skirt and a snug button-down…? Sign me up for a teacher fantasy. Or a librarian fantasy. Or anything, really.

“Finally. We’ve been waitin’ forever,” Ash told them.

“Oh my gosh, it’s starting!” someone called from the crowd.

“We’re right on time, fucker.” Reese flashed his watch. “See? Four o’clock.”

Ash came up to him. “Is this like the guards watchin’ the palace in England? Do I get points for making you smile?”

I cleared my throat and tapped his shoulder. “You don’t get points for that in England, but you might get arrested, depending on how far you go.”

Penelope’s lips twitched, and she turned away.

I grinned.

“Enough joking around,” Reese said. “We’re not here to have fun. That’s not what TPE is about.”

Lucian came up behind us with Cam, and they furrowed their brows.

“Pardon?” Lucian asked. “Our core kink is not fun?”

“I said what I said, man,” Reese grated out. “Come on, quit wastin’ time.”

When I spotted Macklin coming up the steps with his Owner, we exchanged a brief glance, and he nodded subtly.

It was on!

Anticipation buzzed within me, and I followed Ash inside the house. Considering we’d been banned from being in here up till now, many had bags and clothes to store away; I’d stashed my shorts and top in the bed of Penelope’s truck. I’d left my phone there too, safely tucked under a folded tarp.

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