Page 74 of A Much Younger Man
Chapter Seventeen
This timewhen I made it home, there were no cars in the drive and no men waiting on the porch.
No Beck either, although I’d had a last-minute walk-in and stayed to talk to Travis and Lena for a few minutes.
I picked up my mail, let myself inside, and freed Rico to make up for the night before when he’d had to stay in lockup.
“Hello, gorgeous,” I said.
“Boop.”
I strolled into the kitchen and opened a beer. “Boop.”
“Boop.”
I sorted my mail and threw away the junk before opening my guitar case and settling down to practice. Rico was still a little suspicious of all the new sounds. He decided to hop off my shoulder and edge along the back of the couch to get away while I played.
“Everybody’s a critic.” I wondered if I could get him to echo that. “Say it, Rico.Everybody’s a critic.”
“Not that younoticed.”
We’d have to work on that.
I did spider exercises until my hand cramped. Four came and went, and I dutifully continued practicing. At four thirty, there was a knock on the door.
I left Rico to eye the instrument while I went to answer it.
“I heard you. Not bad.”
“‘For Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.’”
Beck and Callie came inside. He held his arm out for Rico, who sidled up it and perched on his shoulder. “Everybody’s got to—”
“Start somewhere. I know.” I wiped my hands on my jeans. “Are you hungry?”
He strolled over and picked up a few seeds for Rico. “I am, yes. I just walked about four miles. I could really use some water.”
“I have iced tea too.”
“Water’s fine.”
I got him a bottled water and took the previous nights’ takeout from the refrigerator to heat it while he sat at the counter. “I guess you can start with the salad.”
He took it and the fork I gave him and dug in. “Mm. Why couldn’t your guy last night eat this?”
“First, he’s not my guy—”
“Figure of speech.” Beck waved his fork.
“Caesar dressing has anchovies and eggs usually.”
“Really? You can’t taste them.”
“The anchovy is mostly for the salt and umami and the egg gives it a creamy richness. My guess is Bistro makes theirs fresh, which means raw egg yolk, so if you have any immunity issues—”
“I don’t.”
I hesitated. “When was the last time you were tested?”
