Page 21 of Fluttering Heart

“What is this place?” Lou asks in wonder. I squeeze his hand, so fucking grateful that he doesn’t mind spending the day with Beau and that he actually seems excited for today’s activities.

“We’re gonna demolish parts of this house,” Beau says with a twisted smile. “I need to destroy some shit,” he says, then walks over to the man coming out of the building.

“Is he for real?” Lou asks, concern clear in his tone.

“Oh, yeah. You haven’t known true release until you throw a hammer at a wall. Come on, cutie, it’s gonna be fun.”

* * *

“And then Iwas likeyah, andpa-chau.” Lou brings down an invisible hammer while we wait to be seated at a Mexican restaurant Charlie recommended.

Beau’s smiling, ear to ear, watching him recreate his favorite moments from the demo.

My guess is that Lou probably had a lot of buried shit he needed to get out too—a lot older shit than Beau’s—but we all had a damn good time at the demo site our uncle Enzo told Beau about.

We eat a late lunch quickly, and quietly after all that excitement, all of us starving.

Then we head up for a pre-game nap.

I’m thankful when Lou pulls me to his room. There’s not even a question of whether I’m going to nap next to him, but when we wake up two hours later, I do need to go back to my room to change into my fifty-seven Heart sweater—gotta represent.

I’m thankful for once, for all the gear Charlie gave us when he was traded to the Pirates, so we can not only support him when he plays against his old team, but so I can lend Lou a big sweatshirt too.

We did end up choosing the crowd seats, which happen to be the best seats in the house, right behind the Pirates’ bench. Nothing to sneeze at even compared to a decked-out suite with a rock star. The game is as fun as it always is for me, and thankfully, the Pirates win. It’s in no small part thanks to the fact that Charlie and Santa are doing their best to impersonate a wall, and of course Jules Dupont gets two goals and two assists.

We hold up our promise to Sterling and go say hi after the game is over. Lou’s clearly keeping himself in check while we chat about the game, but he lets his excitement show when we all go down to the family room to see Charlie, and Jules walks up to us.

He greets Sterling with a kiss and us with a heartfelt hug, then he shakes Lou’s hand with a genuine smile.

“Sterling told me how cool it was to see you guys enjoy his show so much last night.” He leans in a little toward Lou to whisper conspiratorially. “He actually said,their energy was badass.” He mimics Sterling’s deep voice.

“Oh my God,” Lou says. “I loved it so much!”

“Me too,” I pipe in. “It was the best first date ever.”

“Yeah,” Lou agrees with a chuckle. “I don’t think I’ll be able to top it for our second date, but I’ll try.”

Jules stays quiet, though his face betrays how confused he is. I can’t bring myself to explain it to him, though, because I have to stare at Lou.He wants to plan our second date.

We’re leaving tomorrow so he has to mean in Chicago, right?

He can’t just be saying all of this to save face,right?

“Do you like soup?” he asks, bringing me out of my head and looking up at me curiously.

“Uh, Ilovesoup,” I emphasize.

“Here come the dorks,” Beau mutters from beside me and I jab an elbow in his ribs to shut him up.

“Great.” Lou jumps up with excitement. “I know a great restaurant where half the menu is full of soups.” His eyes dance with happiness. “Back in Chicago.”

“We’ll make it happen, cutie,” I murmur with a smile, and throw an arm over his shoulder to bring him close.

Damn, it’s too good.

We go back to the hotel after saying goodbye to Charlie, and for some reason I decide to make us wait to have sex until we’re back home.

I think it’s because I want it to be special, and what would make it more special than to be together that way for the first time in one of our homes? It’s going to feel real then, it’s going to feel like it’s solid, and when I explain this to Lou, he smiles tenderly at me.

---