“Then it’s settled.”
“What is?” she asks, pulling her head back slightly to look at me more closely.
“Tomorrow, we’ll just be Nero and Nina. And I’m still going to call you.”
***
“I’ll go ahead,” Drako announces as we leave the association, as if that were even a possibility.
I shoot him a tired look over my shoulder as I open the front passenger door for Nina.
I couldn’t pick her up—but there’s no chance I’m not taking her home.
Unfortunately for her, that means putting up with Atlas, Apollo, and Drako a little longer. The smile on her face, however, suggests she’s enjoying it.
“That’s not going to happen,” I say.
Nina looks at Drako with a mocking expression, which he returns with narrowed eyes and crossed arms.
She gets into the car, but through the open door, the two of them maintain their silent duel.
Finally, Drako huffs, opens the back door, and throws himself into the seat, condemning Atlas to sit between him and Apollo.
I close Nina’s door and walk around to the driver’s seat, sliding in just in time to hear Drako’s final complaint.
“She just got here and she’s already sitting by the window,” he grumbles like a child.
I roll my eyes.
“You’re also sitting by the window,” Nina points out, turning her head back after fastening her seatbelt.
“Perks of having boobs…” Drako mutters.
Apollo bursts out laughing while Atlas hides his face in his hands and shakes his head.
I pull out of the parking area and onto the road.
“What?” Nina asks.
“That’s the only thing you have that I don’t—and it guaranteed you the best seat right away.”
“That’s not the only thing I have that you don’t,” Nina shoots back before I have time to warn her not to poke Drako.
He has no limits.
But his response tells me he has fear—and that’s enough for me.
“If I said the other thing you have that I don’t, I’d get kicked out of the car, and I really don’t feel like walking home. There’s no Uber on this island, and all the taxi drivers are probably drunk in their beds after the party.”
Now it’s Nina’s turn to throw her head back in laughter.
“I was talking about my pretty smile,” she says, winking at him.
Drako nods with a dopey grin on his face—the same one I saw her bring out of Apollo several times tonight, and even shadow Atlas’s expression.
The drive to Nina’s house takes no more than ten minutes, filled with constant conversation about everything and nothing among the five of us.
Nina is excited to be back home after years away, and I find myself wanting to know everything about that time.
