Dream Keeper (Dream Team 4)

“How’d it go?” Axl asked when he was closer.

“It was great,” he shared.

And it was.

Even if her ex left a pall over the evening that they both felt, she did her best to keep things light and positive. She remained funny, flirty, open, all of which he dug about her. And after Corbin left, they didn’t let anything get heavy and it ended up being a good night.

And making out and feeling each other up on her pink (but comfortable) couch was awesome.

“Date two still tonight? That is, after you meet at Juno’s school to dive right into those important stepdad-but-not-yet-stepdad things,” Axl kept at him.

It was usually Auggie who gave shit when it was warranted.

But he was rethinking his place as the shit-giver in their crew.

He didn’t get the chance to tell Axl to kiss his ass.

Elvira had wandered out.

Damn.

“So, obviously, last night Gwen, Tracy, Camille and me decided it was high time we hit Smithie’s for a sisterhood session,” she remarked.

Of course they did.

Gwen was Hawk’s wife. Tracy and Camille rounded out that posse. It often included Hawk’s best friends’ women, Tess, Mara and Tyra.

Fortunately, last night it wasn’t the whole crew.

But still…

“Seemed to me, one of the dancers was dancing on air,” she went on.

Absolutely.

He was done giving shit.

Marques was coming toward them, likely to get in on the act.

Billy was not.

This wasn’t a surprise.

Billy was edgy. Billy didn’t banter. Billy’s version of getting-to-know-you time was asking if you had a backup clip or checking the straps were secure on your Kevlar vest.

Therefore, Billy, right then, was studying the bank of screens that made up the front wall, where their workstations pointed. Screens that had a variety of real-time footage playing on them for missions they were currently involved in.

This was because Billy was all business all the time

Aug didn’t know Billy’s story. Nobody did. Except Hawk. And maybe another member of the team, Hawk’s Number Two, Jorge.

“There were some cute girls up on that stage, Marques,” Elvira noted when Marques made it to where Axl was standing at his station (that was next to Aug’s), still grinning at him. Elvira was in front of that space. And Auggie was booting up his laptop and ignoring Axl grinning at him.

“Not ready to be tied down yet, Vira,” Marques replied.

“You boys never are,” she muttered. “Then you meet the right woman and boom! down for the count.”

Finally, something that made Auggie smile.

Because that sure was the truth of it.

The door opened and he stopped staring at his laptop so it could read his face in order to boot up and he looked that way.

Mag and Mo were coming in together.

Mo was usually taciturn.

But his expression stated he was all in to break from being a man of few words in order to bust Auggie’s chops.

Mag already had his mouth open.

Auggie beat him to it. “It went great, all right?”

Mag was undeterred.

“Who woulda thought that we should have enlisted an eight-year-old to get both of your heads out of your asses?”

Auggie let out an exaggerated sigh and crossed his arms on his chest so he could be comfortable while they all gave him stick.

“What’re you gonna do about the ex?” Mo asked.

Misread.

Mo’s expression didn’t say he was going to bust Auggie’s chops.

It said that Pepper shared with the women last night and Lottie had shared with Mo.

“What about the ex?” Axl asked.

Auggie sighed again.

Then he told them, “Pepper’s ex wants her back. He stopped by last night. Juno forgot a sweater, and instead of calling Pepper and asking her to take it to the school, they showed without warning in the middle of dinner. He wasn’t thrilled I was there.”

“Ambush,” Mag noted.

“Absolutely,” Aug concurred.

“Where’s Pepper at with this?” Axl questioned.

Aug shook his head.

“You don’t know?” Axl pressed.

“Yes. I do. She’s not on board. She doesn’t want anything to do with the guy. Not in that way,” Auggie stated.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but there’s always a connection between parents,” Mag commented. “Are you sure she’s over him?”

“She is one hundred percent over him,” Aug assured.

Mag gave Axl a look.

Mo and Elvira were watching Auggie.

Mo knew the history, Auggie could tell.

The rest, apparently not.

Including Elvira, and she wasn’t liking what she was hearing.

And normally, he’d be where Elvira was, because Mag was right. You shared history, a kid, you found ways to make things work.

This was not that.

But they would worry it was.

So Aug gave more. “He cheated on her.”

“Women forgive cheaters, especially if there’s a kid involved,” Mag said.

“For six years,” Auggie added. “He was fucking another woman the entire time they were together.”

He heard a whizzing noise that was Marques sucking in a breath.

“Not a lot of women get over that,” Marques said on his exhale.

Everyone relaxed.

Everyone, that was, except…

Auggie shifted his attention beyond Marques to where Billy had come to stand close, but not so close it could be mistaken he was standing among the loose group.