Until May (Until Her/Him)

“I’ll call my dad’s cousin, Kenton.” She quickly scoots off my lap and heads for the kitchen, and I get up to follow her. “He might be able to tell us if there are more cameras, and if he can’t, Justin will be able to.” She looks over at me as she digs through her bag and shakes her head. “I don’t know why I haven’t thought about it before now, but Justin might even be able to find out who Mike is.”

“How’s that?”

“He’s a computer genius.” She drops her eyes to her phone, then puts it to her ear as she walks to the fridge and opens the freezer. “Hey, Uncle Kenton,” she greets while pulling out a pint of ice cream. “I could be better.” I watch her grab a spoon out of the drawer under the coffee pot, then walk back to the island, taking the top off it. “I hate that I’m calling because I need help, but my boyfriend found a camera in my house, hidden in a smoke detector, and I want to make sure there aren’t more.”

She digs into the ice cream. “Thank you,” she says quietly, then asks, “Should we call the police?” Her head bobs as she bites her bottom lip. “All right, see you soon.” When she hangs up, she heads to the pantry, saying, “He and Justin will be here in less than an hour, and he said not to call the cops until they’ve had time to go through the house but that we should bag the smoke detector in case the cops are able to get prints off it.”

When she comes back, I take the baggie from her and carefully place the smoke detector inside as she takes a huge bite off her spoon.

“Are you having ice cream for dinner?” I ask, wanting to take her mind off the camera and everything else.

“Yes, and don’t judge me,” she mutters, and I move to stand behind her, then take hold of her wrist so I can lift the spoon to my mouth and take a bite.

“Much better than whatever I was going to attempt to make you for dinner tonight.” I kiss the side of her head, and she looks over at me.

“You were going to cook dinner tonight?”

“I’m not sure if reheating leftovers is considered cooking, but that was my plan,” I tell her, and she laughs, the sound causing my muscles that I didn’t even know were tight to relax.

“Did you get a chance to go see your dad today?” she asks after a couple of minutes, and I lean back against the counter next to her. Since the gala almost two weeks ago, I’ve only seen my dad a handful of times. I haven’t wanted to be at the house when my mother is there, not when I know I won’t be able to keep my cool around her after the way she and my sister treated May.

“I messaged Marla, and she let me know my mom was at the house.” I run my fingers through my hair. “I’ll see him this weekend while she’s in New York.”

“You can’t let what happened at the gala prevent you from going to see your dad.”

“Did you have a chance to look over the fencing options for your yard that I sent?” I change the subject, and she sighs.

“I did. I liked the black wrought iron with the scalloped top.”

“Good, I’ll call tomorrow and get the install scheduled. With it being winter, it shouldn’t take long for them to start the job.”

“Are you going to tell me how much it’s going to cost?”

“Nope,” I answer, and she glares at me. “Are you going to accept the ten grand I’ve been trying to give you?”

“Nope,” she mimics, and I shake my head while grinning at her, then watch her look around before she whispers, “Do you think there are more cameras?”

“I don’t know, baby,” I tell her softly, and she ducks her head.

“Can I see the video?”

I want to say no, want to protect her as much as I can, but I know that me not showing her the video isn’t going to do that. I grab my phone, then load up the video and press Play. As she watches it, I watch pink stain her neck and cheeks, the only reaction she gives to seeing us in such an intimate moment. “Why would they do that?”

“I don’t know.” I shut off my phone.

“I just….” She shakes her head, cutting herself off. “It’s weird you can’t see anything.” Her brows drag together. “I mean, you can. You know what we’re doing, but you can’t really see anything.”

“You’re right,” I agree, because you can’t see anything. Her breasts are pressed against my chest, and you can’t really even see her face at all. “That’s because I’m the target. Whoever is doing this doesn’t want to hurt you. They want to hurt me.”

“How would this hurt you?”

“If I was still playing for the Sparrows and this went public, I might’ve gotten suspended, but now it might prevent me from getting a job at a school, coaching or working with kids.”

“Are you…? I mean, is that something you want to do?”

“Until you, soccer was the first thing I thought about when I woke up in the morning and the last thing I thought about before I fell asleep each night. It doesn’t feel like the most important thing in my life anymore, but it’s still in my blood.” I watch her lips part and her face get soft. “So I guess the answer is yes. One day, I’d like to coach or work with kids.”