Page 94 of Tamed (The Courtside King Duology 1)

“I do.” Kai returned her smile. “I’m friends with his roommate.”

And just like that, she lit up. “Oh! You know Scott.” She beamed. “Such a handsome boy.”

“Yes.” He chuckled. “I’m Kai. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.” She smiled and canted her head. “Kai. That’s a wonderful name. In Navajo, it means willow tree.”

He quirked a brow. “You don’t say.”

“Oh, but I do.” Her eyes glinted playfully. “Now, back to Scott. How did you two meet?”

“We both used to work at George Mason’s fitness facility.”

“Ah.” She nodded, glancing around. “He’s here, you know. With his boyfriend. I assume you’ve met Tad?”

“I have. He seems very nice.”

“He makes Scott happy. I can tell.” She smiled. But then her expression turned pensive. She turned back to the sculptures. “Have you ever….” she quietly asked, “seen my Max with this model?”

Ah. So, she knew about them. At least on some level.

“Yes. On a couple of occasions.”

She peered up at him with hopeful eyes. “Can you tell if… Sean makes him happy?”

Kai thought about that, the answer seemingly simple and yet, from what he’d observed, also multi-faceted. “I think so,” he answered truthfully. Why else would Max have struggled so hard to let Sean go? “At least, when Max allows him to,” he added on.

She nodded, sighing. “My Max is stubborn.” She peered around as if searching for him, then donned an optimistic smile. “Perhaps one day he’ll let life give him joy.”

Kai chuckled. “Well, if anyone could foster that end, it’d most definitely be Sean. He’s very determined.”

“Max said they don’t talk anymore.”

Oh. Well, that answered the question of whether they’d ever managed to work things out.

“I’m sorry to hear that. They had a very strong connection.”

She looked back at Sean’s sculpture sadly, her eyes lingering on his face. As if beseeching him through his statue to not give up. To keep fighting to break through her son’s defenses and finally free his safeguarded heart.

She looked back at Kai a moment later, donned another smile and drew in a nice big breath. “It was lovely talking to you, Kai. I won’t keep you any longer. Enjoy the show. So much wonderful art.”

He tipped his head and watched as she disappeared into the crowd, then recommenced with his leisurely perusal. Down the corridor that circled the gallery’s perimeter, inspecting the pieces professionally illuminated on the walls.

“Kai.”

Speak of the devil. He turned around. “Max. Nice to see you again.”

Max crossed his arms and smirked. “Don’t fuckin’ lie.”

Kai chuckled. “How’ve you been?”

“Busy.” Max glanced around. “Events like this take a lot of time to plan.”

“You did good. Looks like quite the success.”

Max nodded and scratched his cheek. “Yeah, it does. Not sure why the turnout’s so big, but I’m not complaining.”

“All that hard work, paying off.”

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