Page 118 of Beautiful Broken Love

“Vina?” I looked to find the voice, and it was Abe standing in his pajamas and rubbing his eyes.

“Hey, Abe. What’s wrong?”

“I can hear you talking,” he informed me, then moseyed around me to take a cup out of one of the cupboards. He filled it with water and gulped some down. He glanced at my phone and did a double take before leaning in and narrowing his eyes.

“Is that Deke Bishop?” he asked, and I could see his face light up, even though he avoided mine.

“It is.” I laughed. “Would you like to speak to him?”

“No, no.” Abe backed away, excited but nervous.

“Is that King Abe?” Deke asked, and for the first time that day, Abe connected his eyes with mine. It was brief, but still something.

“He knows my name? H-how does he know my name?”

I moved closer, wrapping an arm around him. “I told him all about you. He signed a basketball for you, by the way. All I have to do is pick it up.”

“No way.” Abe grinned a little, and I dropped a kiss on his cheek. He peeled out of my arm to finish his water, set the cup down, and said, “I’m going back to bed.” On his way, he mumbled under his breath, “That’s Deke Bishop. He knows my name. Deke Bishop knows my name.”

“Cute kid,” Deke chuckled.

“Yeah. He’s the best. And so freaking smart.”

“You should bring him to one of the games.”

“I’m sure he wants to go to one, but he’s sensitive to a lot of noise. He gets overstimulated very fast, so being surrounded by loud crowds and buzzers wouldn’t work.”

“I can get you box seats,” he offered.

“Aw, Deke. You don’t have to do that. Plus, knowing Abe, if he ever did build up the courage to go, he’d want to be front and center.”

“Hmm. Well, maybe I can figure something out.”

“We watched some of your game earlier.”

“Yeah?” He quirked a brow. “Like what you saw?”

“You just love going for threes, don’t you?”

“Where do you think most of my points come from?” he asked, grinning. Then he yawned right after.

“Get some sleep, Bishop.”

“But I wanna sleep with you,” he returned.

“Maybe this weekend?”

“Yeah. This weekend for sure.”

And sure enough, he was in Charlotte for the weekend, and for the first time I let him visit my house. It was weird having this giant man in my home. There were still pictures of Lew on the walls, and it wasn’t as impressive as his condo.

I’d held off on inviting him to my place for a while, but the hotels were getting stale, and our relationship was past that now.

“So, this is Davina the Divine’srealdomain.”

“I swear you have a name for everything!” I said as he walked to the living room.

“What?” He smiled over his shoulder. “I can’t help it.”

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