I rolled my eyes. “I know Mason wasn’t just going to chat with you. When I asked him, he told me he was making out with you.”
“Like hell,” Levi said, looking at Mason, who was still grinning as he earned a quiet chewing out from a grumpy-looking Jace.
“Oh, I know that wasn’t happening, but he was obviously trying not to tell me what was really going on out there,” I said with a scowl. “So I was kind of hoping you’d be honest with me.”
“One of these days, you’re going to have to explain why your family is the way they are,” he said with a shake of his head.
“Now you’re going to avoid telling me? Really?”
“We...talked, okay? He had something he had to tell me, and he did.”
“Thanks, Mr. Vague.”
“Dom, I?—”
Micah’s voice rose. “Fine, whatever! Jesus, Mom!”
“Micah, where do you think you’re going now?” Moira asked as the teenager yanked out of her hold and stomped toward the doorway.
“For a walk!” Micah shot back over his shoulder, and I watched conflicting feelings wash over Moira’s face. On the one hand, doing something physical, like a walk, was precisely the sort of thing we had been encouraging him to do when he gotoverwhelmed. On the other hand, if he left the hotel, it was nighttime, and he was still thirteen.
Levi gave me a look and jerked his head toward Micah. Realizing what he meant, I nodded. Catching Moira’s attention, I gestured to Levi and myself before pointing at Micah and making a walking gesture. She frowned, her nose wrinkling until Kayden leaned in and said something I couldn’t catch. She heaved a big sigh before gesturing for me to go, looking unhappy but accepting.
We followed him, and the moody kid was so wrapped up in his own thoughts he didn’t notice until he was almost through the lobby doors. When he was outside, he stopped and turned around, his face twisted in frustration.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“It’s kind of late to be wandering around on your own,” I told him with a shrug.
“I’m not a kid, goddammit,” he ground out.
“If you want to walk without talking to us, we’ll just follow and leave you alone. We’re just here to keep an eye out for danger,” Levi interrupted quickly and quietly. “I know when I’m thinking about something pretty hard, I’m not paying attention to much around me. I was pretty bad about it when I was only a little older than you, and I’m not exactly better now.”
That took the edge off Micah’s anger, but I could tell he was still pissed about the idea. “Fine, whatever. Just...leave me alone.”
“Deal,” I said instantly. I didn’t care if the kid wanted to walk around and cool off in his own way, but I didn’t need him accidentally wandering into some asshole who was going to see the scrawny thirteen-year-old as an easy target.
“Quick thinking,” I muttered to Levi after Micah had stomped down the sidewalk to put distance between us. Of course, we weren’t going to let him get too far, but I didn’t blamehim. If this was what it was going to take for him to calm down, then I’d let him have his illusion. “Very nice. When did you get skilled with teenagers?”
“Mm, I think it comes from remembering what it was like to be a teenager. Plus, far too many people see teenagers as either children or as adults who need to be trained.”
“I mean...kinda.”
“But they’re not children, which people need to remember. But they’re also not adults. They’re in this shitty in-between stage where they can’t decide if they want help or to be left alone. So...give them the space to try to be adults, but always keep in mind that they’re still just kids.”
I eyed him as we walked. “I uh...did you ever consider having kids?”
His eyes widened. “What? Good God, no. Really?”
“I mean...you sound like you have a pretty good hold on how to raise them.”
“Anyone can sound like a parenting expert when they aren’t doing the parenting day in and day out,” he said with a laugh. “And I have no intention ofeverbringing a child into my life. Christ, Dom, can you imagine?”
It was hard to argue with that, and if he was trying to shut me up, it was working. “Right, yeah. I should have thought about that.”
He snorted, reaching down to take my hand. “It’s okay. You’ve had a pretty normal life, so it’s normal to think about those kinds of things more than I would. And well...maybe it’s nice to have you ask a normal question like that and mean it. Perhaps if my life weren’t so...well, my life, then I might consider it.”
“You realize that’s going to make me circle back around to asking if you’ve ever considered getting out and having a normal life.”
