Page 318 of Boys Who Taint

Xavier shoves the whole thing into his mouth in one go. “Delicious.”

“I was eating that,” Elliot grumbles.

“Do you ever stop stealing people’s food?” Aspen asks Xav, bumping into him with her elbow.

A mischievous grin forms on his face. “Never.”

“Hey, where’s Sunny?” Levi asks as he looks around the room. “Has anyone seen her?”

“No, last time I saw her was more than a week ago,” Max replies. “I thought, after all the fighting that went down, she might’ve taken a secret vacation somewhere on her own.”

“Really?” Levi responds.

“Sounds like heaven to me,” Elliot says.

“She hasn’t responded to any of my messages, though,” Max mutters, checking his phone.

“Okay, the installation is ready!” Aspen’s dad, Dylan, yells from the backyard. “Come outside, everyone!”

Everyone slowly exits the house through the back door, heading toward the gazebo, where the sprawling flower fields, well-kept bushes, and trees make even me want to take a breath of fresh air. I much prefer the forests beyond Spine Ridge for a trip outdoors, but all the bugs and the rugged terrain doesn’t sway the rest of them to have a barbeque there, so this’ll have to do.

“Oh my God, it’s huge!” Aspen squeals, her eyes growing big as she sees her dad’s installed fireworks, just like a kid who just walked into a candystore, and it makes me laugh.

“Is this even safe?” her mom asks.

“Who the fuck gives a shit?” Silas responds.

“We do,” Felix growls at him.

“What if one of them hits Melody?” Alistair asks.

“That won’t happen,” Aspen’s dad replies. “How long have you known me?”

Alistair rolls his eyes. “Too long.”

Half of us laugh, and the other half throws out awkward looks.

“I know what I’m doing,” her dad says with a smug grin.

Levi’s dad raises a brow. “Right …”

“Can y’all just let me do this? Please?” he says. “It cost me ages.”

“Fine, fine, let’s do this,” Nathan mutters.

“Is it going to light the yard on fire?” Xavier says as he grabs a chair and some more cookies. “If so, I’m sitting.”

“You all have way too little trust in my dad,” Aspen says, snatching a cookie from his hand.

“Exactly.” Her dad pulls out a button. “Who wants to do it?”

Aspen’s whole face lights up.

“You wanna light it yourself, don’t you?” I ask, spanking her ass. “Go on then, Freckles.”

“What? But I wanted to do it,” Heath balks.

“You can do it next time,” his dad, Caleb, says, winking at him. “I mean, I assume we’re gonna do this every year from now on.”

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