Page 33 of Jet

“Someone’s missing. Let’s head down and see if Kenny is here yet.”

We hustle down the stairs and enter the main room. We must be the last ones here. Booker zero’s in on Kenny in the center, addressing the room with a distraught Stella glued to his side.

“Everyone text everyone you know and get them out there searching for them. We need someone to hack into his social media accounts, and see if he told someone where he was going. No one sleeps until my son is found.”

“I can do the tech stuff,” I pipe up. “Who are we looking for?”

Everyone turns to look at Reed, Booker, and me standing side by side at the back of the crowd. There is a collective gasp, quickly drowned out by Stella screaming and running our way.

She latches onto Reed, hugging him so tight he squeaks.

“What happened, Reed?” Kenny asks, joining in on the hug. A muffled noise comes from somewhere in the center of the two of them.

“I know you’re both pleased to have the kid back, but I think oxygen might become an issue for him soon,” Fizz pipes up from somewhere.

Stella and Kenny let go of a very red faced Reed.

“Why did you leave?”

“Are you okay?”

“Do you know how worried we’ve been?”

“What if the wrong kind of person found you?”

“What were you thinking?”

Reed waits for them to take a breath before speaking. “I should have texted you. I came here to stop Nicky from leaving, and then Booker said I should just stay the night because it would be safer, and I forgot. I’m really sorry I scared you.”

“Fucking hell, Reed,” Kenny says, wiping a hand down his puffy face.

“It worked, though,” Reed says with a huge smile. “I fixed it. Nicky isn’t leaving.”

Kenny whips his head around to me. “You’re not?”

“No. Reed and I cleared the air. I’m going to be staying.”

“Dad, he said he’d buy a house and everything,” Reed says, now bouncing up and down with excitement. The little shit really doesn’t do things by halves. He either loves you or hates you.

“That’s the plan,” I say, looking at a still shocked Kenny. He does want me here, right? Maybe permanently, isn’t what he was thinking?

He pulls me in for a bone-crushing hug. “Stella, he’s staying.”

She quickly pulls me out of his arms and into hers.

“I can’t wait for the family Christmas photos this year. I want my three boys all in matching pj’s.”

I look over to Booker, ready to exchange a smile, but instead frown at the uncertainty clouding his beautiful face. Gently extracting myself from Stella, I walk over to him and cup his jaw in my hands.

“It’s going to be okay,” I whisper, and hope takes over his features.

I wrap my arm around his waist and turn to Stella and Kenny. “I’m keeping Booker. I know we’re stepbrothers, and people might find it weird, but he’s mine now.”

Kenny and Stella share a look I can’t decipher. “We figured that this is where the two of you would be heading,” Kenny says in a gruff voice. “We want you to know that you aren’t going to get any shit from us. We’re happy our boys are happy.”

A lump swells in my throat.

“You’re definitely okay with this?” It’s not going to change my mind about Booker, but I want to be sure. He’s crawled inside my skin and burrowed into my heart. He’s a sexy parasite.

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