“I’m going to regret this conversation, aren’t I?” I asked, shaking my head as I reached for the envelope.
“Yup,” Kade snorted at the same moment that his husband said, “Of course not!”
“Kade!” Jeremy elbowed his husband in the side. “Behave!” He smiled at me. “Ignore him. You need a break and I think you’ll really enjoy this.”
My curiosity piqued, I slid a paper from the envelope, barely catching the paper strip that slid free as I unfolded it. “You got me a ticket to the Pennsylvania Youth Theatre production of Cinder-wolfaon Solstice Eve?” I asked with a chuckle. “Really?”
“We did,” Kade confirmed with a wide grin. “Even got you a hotel room so you can stay for a few days and then you can go back to being all work and no play by picking up the new Omegas on your way back.”
“There’s more!” Jeremy was nearly bursting with excitement now that I was seemingly onboard.
I smiled at his excitement. “What’s that?”
“You know the star!” he announced with a laugh. “Leia is playing Cinder-wolfa!”
“The pup from Blood Valley?” I asked, feeling my eyes widen. “Rafe and Colby’s girl?”
“The same,” Jeremy agreed, his eyes dancing. “I can’t wait!”
I couldn’t help but shake my head. “So, this is a group trip?”
Kade laughed. “Not really. Jem and I are going, but we’ll only be there for the day of the performance. We thought we’d meet up with you for dinner and we have the seats next to yours at the youth playhouse. The rest of the time is all yours.”
“Leia is really the star of the play?” I asked. When Kade nodded, I shook my head in amazement. “For a kiddo that was born blind, there’s not much to suggest she’s disabled.”
Jeremy laughed. “Nope. She is definitely one of those kids who defines the phrase differently-abled, isn’t she?”
“Sure is,” Kade agreed, stretching his arms and stifling a yawn. “And now that we’ve talked you into a little R and R, we should get back to our place and relieve the babysitter.”
“Have a good night,” I said, stifling my own yawn before calling after them, “and thank you for this.”
Jeremy smiled broadly in response as his husband drew him out the door, leaving me to open the search engine on my phone and start investigating what else there was to do while I was in town for the show.
Chapter One
Monday before Christmas
Julian
“Why are we here again?” I muttered, throwing back the shot that Julie plopped down in front of me. After the initial meeting with the children who made up the cast of the neighborhood theater solstice play she was foisting off on me, Julie had spent the rest of the day turbo-teaching me the basics of being a drama coach slash theater producer, leaving me across from her in our favorite neighborhood bar with a spiral notebook of scribbled notes and a pounding headache.
“To hopefully find a dick to replace that stick in your ass,” she shot back, downing her shot. “I leave in the morning and you’ve been pissy all week.”
I scowled at her. “And you have no idea why.”
“Because you need to get laid,” Julie announced loudly with a smirk, nodding toward a man walking in the front door. “He’d be perfect.”
“That is not..” I trailed off as the hottie strolled past our table and propped his hip against the bar. “Holy crap.”
He was just tall enough that I’d have to look up to kiss him without him towering over me. Well-worn jeans clung to his thick thighs without being tight, more like they’ve been perfectly worn in through years of service and the long-sleeve Henley tucked into them looked soft and fit well without being so tight that you can see every muscle straining against the fabric. His entire look was what my mom always calledleaving something to the imaginationand there’s definitely something to it, because my imagination was suddenly running wild.
Julie snickered. “Why don’t you go say hi?”
I’d seriously been straight up salivating as I wondered what was hidden under his clothes and had to swallow the drool building in my mouth before I could answer. “Naw, he wouldn’t be interested.”
“What? That’s bullshit,” she huffed. “Why not? You’re a snack!”
I snorted. “Look at him,” I said with a laugh. “He’s an almost silver fox and I’m a middle-aged, high-school music teacher.”
