Page 55 of Stealing Home

“How are you doing, Casanova?” I ask Cole.

“Me? Don’t worry about me. How are you doing?” He questions.

“I’m good, I promise.” I say as King sings along to the song.

“What song is this?” Cole asks.

“Are you serious? Have you never seen A Goofy Movie? You need a movie education, sir.” I tell him.

“I’m just adding it to the movie list for our movie date nights.”

“Cole Evans! I can’t believe you’ve never seen it! The song is “Stand Out” and it’s my favorite actually from the movie. It’s by the one and only Powerline. Sir, I’m so disappointed.” I tell him

“So sorry to disappoint. But you get to be with me when I watch for the first time. Doesn’t that count for something?”

“I guess.” I smile at him.

We all get to go up and sing a song. Ty chooses Garth Brooks’ Friends in Low Places, Cole sings Chase Rice’s Lonely If You Are, while Heather and I chose to sing Lou Bega’s Mambo No. 5 together. It’s been a fun night and we are all ready to head back to the hotel. Everyone with a tab closes out and we all walk back to the hotel together.

We get off the elevator to our floor and go to our suite. We all go sit in the living room. Heather is sitting on Ty’s lap in the chair, and Cole and I are sitting next to each other on the couch. He puts his arm behind me on the top of the couch.

“That was fun. Didn’t think I’d enjoy a karaoke bar so much. We need to bring Dean to one back home when he’s back up and running.” Ty says.

“That’s an idea I can get behind.’ Cole agrees.

“At least back at home there won’t be a small dick, Toby to ruin it.” Heather says.

“Amen to that! But for real, thank you guys for tonight with him. Ty, you do not know how much you stepping in means to me.” I say.

“Not a big thing. A, you’re family. It’s what we do.” Ty tells me.

“Well, I thought that before, but tonight really made me realize that.”

“How are you feeling about the Toby part of the night, A?” Heather asks.

“Well, it wasn’t great. But I also knew I could run into him while we were here. I didn’t think he’d be at JD’s, though. He used to complain about having to go there. So hearing that’s he been frequenting there is weird. But how the entire team came to stand up for me when they realized what was going on was amazing. I hate that he put two and two together and now knows where I moved to, but he also knows now that I’m done in no uncertain terms.” I tell her.

Cole moves his arm from the back of the couch and puts it around me to squeeze my shoulder.

“I was ready to punch him in the face.” He says

“I know, that’s also why I stepped in, little brother. Can’t have you in the news for that.” Ty tells us.

“I appreciate you, big brother.”

“Okay, I’m ready for bed.” Heather says.

“Me too.” Ty says.

“I’ll take the couch again tonight.” Cole offers.

“Are you sure?” Ty asks.

“Yeah, it’s fine. It wasn’t uncomfortable.” Cole responds to Ty.

“Okay, good night you two.” Heather says as she gets up.

“Night.” Ty says, following her.

---