Ava claps her hands as if it’s a done deal. “Daddy, Arlo finishes work at six. He can come to Aunt Liv’s house after work, can’t he?”
“Is that so?” I ruffle her hair, knowing she’s going to be so much trouble when she grows up, and I can’t wait. Then I hold my hand out to Arlo. “I’m Levi Ryan, by the way, the keeper of this bundle of energy.”
“Daaad,” Ava groans.
Arlo stares at me for a moment before he seems to catch himself and then smiles. “Nice to meet you. I’m Arlo. So, you’re Liv’s brother?”
I nod. Our hands meet only for a brief moment before he takes his away, but it's long enough to cause tiny sparks of energy to run up my arm and make the tiny hairs stand up.
“Actually,” Arlo says, crouching down to Ava’s level again. “I have all the materials I need in my workshop.” Then he looks up at me. “Why don’t you come over this weekend? I can show you how I make the wings.”
“Sounds good,” I say. This version of Arlo doesn’t match the flirty guy I met at the bar, but the thought of seeing him in his own environment more than piques my curiosity.
Ava lets out a loud happy screech, but before I can warn her to tone it down, she says, “I’m going to show Aunt Liv my wings.”
“Be careful crossing the road,” I say after her, but I’m only ten percent sure she heard me. Fortunately, she’s always been very careful on the street, and it’s not like Stillwater has fast-flowing traffic, especially on Main Street, where people like to stop to chat.
It’s not until I turn around that I notice how close Arlo is. At The Academy, we had the bar between us, but now, without a physical barrier, it’s hard to miss how he’s taller than me, but only by an inch or two.
“I’m sorry about Ava. She’s completely obsessed with ladybugs at the moment. Two months ago, it was kangaroos. I swear she’s running through the alphabet,” I say.
“Then I expect next month it’ll be monkeys.”
“So long as it’s not moths.” It’s one thing to have the fridge covered up in ladybug drawings, but I’ll draw the line at moths.
“Or mice,” he says.
I shudder at the thought.
Arlo takes a small notepad from his pocket and scribbles something on it before tearing off the sheet and giving it to me.
His handwriting is neat, as though he spent years practicing it and couldn’t possibly write it any other way now.
“That’s where I live. My workshop is there too. The store is closed on Saturday afternoons, so I’ll be free then,” he says.
I look at the address. It looks familiar, but I can’t think of why.
“Well, well, well. I wouldn’t believe it, but my eyes never deceive me.”
A shiver runs down my spine when I hear the voice that once ran me out of town and is responsible for so many of the nights I cried myself to sleep from missing my family.
I turn around slowly and stretch my lips in the fakest of smiles.
“Mrs. Martin.” I look at her from head to toe before meeting her cold eyes. “You look like you’ve aged thirty years in the last ten. However do you manage that when you haven’t worked a day in your life?”
Arlo gasps next to me, but I keep my eyes on the poisonous viper in front of me.
Her fake smile drops, and I see the evil in her eyes. If she was a dragon shifter from the fantasy books I love reading, she’d be showing her scales right about now, and smoke would be puffing from her nose.
“What business have you got being back in Stillwater? Didn’t you ruin enough people’s lives once already? Back for more?”
I tilt my head. “How could a'simplelowlife queer boy'have such power? It’s not like I’m related to the mayor and in bed with most of the town’s committees.” She narrows her eyes when I use the insult she spouted at me ten years ago, but I only lean close and whisper, “The question is, how many people’s lives haveyouruined since I left?”
I straighten up and take a step back from her, twisting my nose at her repugnant and over-the-top expensive perfume.
“You stay out of my way.” She gives me a look that no longer scares me, but it’s the side-eye she gives Arlo, followed by the fake smile, that sends a shiver up my spine again.
The devil woman turns around and walks toward the door, but not before pausing by the checkout desk.
