Be right out.
I grabbed the file and put it in my satchel along with my laptop before heading for the door.
MARINA WAVED at me as I walked to the front of Phoenix House. She promised she’d be leaving soon too, and that she’d see me next week.
I walked out into the hot sunshine.
A yellow Jeep sat idling at the curb. I had my own car now, but it was in the shop, and he’d driven me in today.
Jeremy looked up at me, already smiling. He lifted his sunglasses up off his face, setting them on top of his head. “Hey.”
“Hey,” I said as I climbed into the Jeep.
He leaned over and kissed me, long and sweet. “Good day?” he asked as he pulled back.
“Long day,” I corrected. “How’s the backyard going?”
“It’s a fucking mess,” he said with a scowl. “I can’t believe we didn’t know how shitty the soil was. The inspection should have found that out. But now we’re stuck with it.”
We pulled away from the curb, and I let my hand hang on the outside of the Jeep. The radio was on, and the news was being announced. I heard them say Andrew Taylor’s last appeal had been denied and he had run out of options. The newscaster moved on to national news, saying former President Donald Trump had gone on a hunger strike and that officials in the prison he was in were considering their options. I reached over and switched off the radio. “We’ll figure it out. We always do.”
He sighed. “I know. I just want it to be perfect. Dad said I was worrying too much about it.”
“You probably were. If you just called in someone to do it—”
“I can fix it—”
“Because of course you have to be such a man about it—”
“The best man,” he said, puffing out his chest. Forty-one looked good on Jeremy Olsen. It was giving me the idea that perhaps I would also look good on him.
“The best man,” I said, leaning over and biting his earlobe. “What say I show you when we get home?”
He laughed. “Dad’s over with Charlie. They wanted to see what I was doing before they decided what to do with their own backyard. Rain check? Specifically after the show tonight?”
“After the show,” I agreed. “Maybe I can even find that toy again and we can make the night even more egg-citing.”
He tilted his head back and laughed.
JACK IT was crowded as usual by the time we arrived. We avoided most of the people by immediately heading for the stairs to the Queen’s Lair. Jeremy smacked my ass as he followed me. I growled playfully over my shoulder.
“And I don’t know why you think this is a good idea,” Paul was saying when we reached the top of the stairs. “Jesus, Helena. There are public indecency laws. I can almost see your asshole in that outfit.”
Helena rolled her eyes as Darren finished lacing up her boots. Paul wasn’t wrong. Helena’s ass was hanging out, barely covered by anything. It was a good ass but more than I’d ever seen her put on display. “I’m getting older, Paul. One day all of this majestic beauty will start to fall apart and I’ll be left with nothing but sagging skin and an undeserved sense of accomplishment that makes everyone around me uncomfortable. Since I still have it, I am going to flaunt it.”
“Children,” Charlie muttered to Robert. “No self-awareness whatsoever.”
“Youth is wasted on the young,” Robert agreed. “But we should let them have their moment. I like our sagging skin. It makes us look distinguished.”
“You don’t complain when I wear a jockstrap and nothing else,” Vince said to Paul. “Isn’t this pretty much the same thing?”
Paul threw up his hands. “No, because I don’t want to stick my dick in Sandy.”
“Oh,” Vince said. “That’s good. Because I wouldn’t like it if you did that either. You can stick it in me when we go home. I can wear that cowboy hat you like.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Save a horse, ride a Paul.”
“Gross,” Helena, Darren, and I said at the same time.
“You’re late,” Helena snapped at me, staring at me in the reflection of the mirror as she put the finishing touches on her makeup. “You were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago.”