Page 49 of Dirty Dancer

“Is that a test to see if I’ll listen?” The dryness in Theo’s tone earned an equally dry look from Rome.

“You’ll listen.” He didn’t even have to add an or else, because Theo just spread his hands.

“I’ll listen, but thank you all. I know we’re supposed to do some of the work in the shop at the tech school and that’s fine for the basics, but I’d rather build the new engine in a more controlled environment.”

That led to a few more questions about the style of the engine, the rpms, and more items that I really didn’t understand. Mickey had a hand wrapped around my nape and had begun to massage the tension there lightly. I let my eyes fall half-closed, just enjoying the flow of conversation.

Liam and Jasper had kicked off a joint venture with the launch of five new trucks to handle transport for the clothing stores and more. Liam had been looking to expand for a while. Between Mickey’s safe houses, the reclamation projects here in the city, and Jasper growing the transport business, it seemed a good time to combine them.

“It also means we can dedicate more trucks to the tour so you don’t have to shift the schedule as much,” Jasper pointed out. “Unless you want to change it, and we’re always fine to make it work.”

“But it will be easier on everyone whenorif you need to do it,” Kellan said, then dropped a kiss on the top of my head. “I approve.”

Tilting my head back, I smiled up at him. Mickey was going to knock me out at this rate. I was melting into the sofa. Kellan wasn’t helping by rubbing my thigh. It was just…nice.

“Speaking of tours,” Freddie said. “I’m going to need to step out of the next one—maybe not all of it—and I already talked to Boo-Boo about it.”

“What’s up?” Jasper asked as he focused on him. I caught Freddie’s gaze and winked. His smile relaxed some of the tension in his face.

“I want to go to school.” He leaned forward, capturing the attention of everyone. “So hear me out…”

He laid out his plan and his reasons. Mickey’s hand stilled on my nape at the mention of Ms. Stephanie. It was my turn to reach for his free hand and he gripped it in return.

“I’m okay, Little Bit,” he murmured, brushing a kiss to my temple. “Just a surprise—but a good one.” I squeezed his hand. I was so proud of Freddie, he didn’t hold back, even bringing up his near slip. While the guys had known about it, I think it was as much to confirm that he’d told me as to lay out where it fell in his reasoning.

When he finished, Freddie spread his hands.

“It’s a lot, I know, but… I really want to do it. I never realized how much I was looking for something more in my life until this idea hit me. Boo-Boo asked me to talk to those kids and I couldn’t think of a worse person. Then I did and it took time, but I got through to them. Maybe I won’t be good at it…”

Self-doubt crept into those last words.

“You’d be good.” Rome rose from where he’d been seated and flipped closed two of the empty pizza boxes. “I would talk to you too.”

Freddie blinked, disbelief and shock vying for supremacy on his expression.

“What he said,” Vaughn agreed as he stretched. “What do you need? Like—school wise? Besides the downtime, which I’m sure Dove already approved enthusiastically.” He grinned at me and I answered with a smile of my own.

“Absolutely, in fact I’d sign up and go to school with you if you wanted.” Granted, I’d been out of schools completely since I was eight and all of my education came through tutors.

“Hmm… do you have a list of schools?” Liam asked, his phone out. “We need to find the best options for you, particularly if you don’t want to head out of state or live near the campus in another state.”

“No,” Freddie said, swiftly. “The state U here has a social work degree.”

“That’s a good start,” Mickey said. “Once you get licensed, there’s always continuing education courses, and some of those are online as well. But a lot of what you need to know you do, this would be more about expanding your knowledge base.”

“State U here has entry requirements. Assessment tests…” I could practically hear Liam’s thoughts whirling.

“I hate tests,” Freddie admitted. “Hopefully that’s not a sticking point.”

“I can help,” Theo offered and I flicked a look to where he was leaning forward. “Like you guys did with me. Turns out I’m really good at testing strategies. According to Ms. Franklin at the center, she said I have a good way of approaching them. So if you want, I can walk you through it to see if it helps.”

“If you don’t mind,” Freddie said. “I heard they had classes on how to study, probably something I should consider too.”

“Yeah, that shit was annoying,” Theo muttered, but at Jasper’s side eye, he raised his hands. “I said it was annoying, not that it wasn’t useful.”

“Better,” Jasper said, then looked at Freddie. “Whatever you need.”

“Well, it’s going to cost—” Freddie started and it was his turn to swallow his words as Liam glanced at him. “Liam, you can’t pay for all of it.”

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