Eli snorted. “Should it?”
“I sure as shit would be madder than hell if Kayden did something like that.”
Kayden frowned. “I told you about the time I tried to hit on someone when I was drunk and tried to make it up to you.”
Moira shook her head. “And I have told you that was me you were hitting on, you inebriated idiot.”
“Oh...right.”
“Watch,” Eli said, turning to Milo. “Babe, do you want to sleep with that sexy dilf?”
Milo’s eyes went wide. “Ooh, do you want to share? Are you finally up for sharing?”
“Elijah,” Moira scolded.
“No, I do not want to share, I was asking if you’d like to go sleep with him right now,” Eli said and then muttered. “Sorry, should have seen that coming.”
Milo’s eyes somehow got wider, horror replacing the eagerness. “What? God no. Not unless you’re there. That would be fun. You and?—”
“And thank you,” Eli said, pushing his hand gently under Milo’s chin to stop him from speaking further. “New subject.”
“Is he...drunk?” I wondered as everyone found a place to sit or stand without crowding each other. It was Marcus who thought to close the door, which was probably a good thing. The whole group had already attracted enough attention without waking the entire ward.
“We were at an influencer gathering,” Elijah explained apologetically. “Someone thought they were drinking light drinks, but they were made by someone with about the same level of hide the booze that Mason has.”
“Sorry,” Milo said, and he was leaning on the back of the chair Micah was sitting in, slowly scooting it along the floor. “We didn’t think you were gonna pop back up for like...another couple of days.”
“I don’t need you to wait around for me...or hunt me down,” I said, glaring at Arlo. “Thanks for telling me you always knew where I was.”
Arlo stared back, utterly unfazed by my annoyance. “I do hope you aren’t waiting for an apology. There are only so many years in a human lifetime to hold onto something that will never come.”
“If it makes you feel any better, he wouldn’t let anyone see where you were,” Ward said with a shrug, bumping Arlo’s shoulder lightly. “Not even me. I don’t think he trusted me.”
“I trust you with my life,” Arlo said gravely.
“Yeah, well, I trust Milo completely, but that doesn’t mean I trust him around a bar,” Eli said.
Moira glanced over her shoulder. “I’ve got one of those.”
Kayden grinned sheepishly. “I know my limits.”
“And yet you seem to sail right past them with regular abandon.”
“You said you like drunk me. You said it was cute.”
Jace frowned. “You’ve never said I was cute.”
Mason laughed. “Jace, I love you to the ends of the earth and back, but cute is not a word I would use to describe you...ever.”
“I should be happy about that,” Jace said with a scowl.
Matty and Marcus had said nothing, and she approached slowly, looking over me and then Levi. I waited, letting her make whatever decision was weighing on her mind before smiling as she laid a hand over Levi’s arm before reaching up to run gentle fingers over the uninjured side of my head.
“Before I give you the hell you deserve for the scare you gave us...was it worth it?” she asked softly.
“Absolutely,” I said in an instant. “I...well, I did what I set out to do.”
“He saved me,” Levi admitted. “My life, I mean...and in another way too. The way that really counts.”
