“They don’t play with me anymore.”
“Do you cheat?”
“No.” He bats his eyes… but it’s not because he’s lying.
I don’t ask, because I know he won’t tell me what his secret is with the others listening.
When Joshua disappears the water in the shower turns off and I know it won’t be the three of us for much longer.
“I expect to hearallthe stories.”
“This,” Thomas says, stealing me away from Chase. “Is where we follow Johnny’s example. We’ll tell you some of the shenanigans and the embarrassing things… but you’ll have to keep coming back if you want more.”
“Glad to hear something I do is worth adopting.” Johnny looks like he’s ready to head to the gym. Loose tank, basketball shorts… but no shoes or socks.
And his hair is still wet enough I can pretend to recoil from it.
Thomas hits him in the face with a well-aimed kitchen towel.
“No jokes about wet dogs,” Johnny says, using the towel to dry his hair. “We have company.”
“Does that mean I don’t get to tell any either?”
“You do not, wicked girl.” He pulls me away from Thomas and into his arms. “Game night is a time of truce. Once we start the first game, we don’t get to be assholes until we all agree it’s time to stop.”
“You have to have games for that?”
“No. But it definitely helps.”
Joshua joins us, he’s changed into something clean as well. A different pair of jeans and a different white t-shirt.
“He does own other colors of shirts.” Chase says, leaning over to me. “He just likes the virginal look.”
Joshua rolls his eyes and opens the fridge. “Would you like something to drink?”
He glances at Thomas. “I’d guess we have anything you’d want. It looks like someone went a little crazy at the store.”
“I only got two extra types of soda.”
“And a bottle of wine,” Chase says. “Oh, and a full veggie platter. But otherwise… He didn’t go off the rails.”
“So where’d this pie come from?”
“That was Johnny.”
“Guilty,” he says pulling down glasses. “I just wanted a pie.”
He sets the plastic cups down on the island beside bags of chips and then rounds it to me. “I happen to like sweet, delicious things.”
Johnny tries to distract me with kisses and almost manages it.
Until my phone rings.
It’s my dad’s ringtone and I pop up onto my toes to kiss Johnny on the nose. “I have to take that.”
My purse is still in the front hall, but when I dig my phone out, I head straight back to the kitchen. There’s nothing dad will say that they can’t hear—and with their wolfy ears, they’ll hear everything—and I don’t want to miss any of the nonsense that goes on in this house.
“Hi Dad,” I turn and drop to sit on the sofa.