“Not as old as you, brother.”
I scooped Ivy into my arms and tossed her in Folk’s general direction.
She shrieked with a laugh that became the soundtrack to the best morning I’d had in years.
By the time she declared herself hungry, she could swim the length of the pool in one breath and dive to the bottom to retrieve Folk’s waterproof phone, an achievement that made her happy enough that she wouldnotstop talking.
I showered the salt from her skin with the beach shower. It was cold enough to shut her up for a few seconds, but the respite was brief.
“All right, all right.” I wrapped a towel around her. “Take your costume off and put these dry clothes on.”
In my peripheral, I tracked Folk as he turned his back on us and moved away to retrieve his sun-dried T-shirt.
Don’t leave.
Mind reader that he was, he didn’t. He waited at the end of the path for us and took Ivy’s bag while I carried her to my car. “Where’s your bike?”
He pointed vaguely behind him.
Up close it was starting to dawn on me how tired he looked. The injury to his lip wasn’t bad, but it was clear he’d had a night of it.
Don’t ask.
I couldn’t. In case he told me. But the idea of letting him out of my sight right now was unfairly painful.
“Are you going home?”
His low voice wrapped around me.
I nodded, words forming and evaporating, what I wanted to say just out of reach. “I need to feed Ivy and get all her shit together to take her back to her mum’s.”
“How long is she gone for?”
Whether Folk meant to lean closer or not, I couldn’t tell. But I felt that narrowed distance everywhere. “Four days. But my ex likes to mess me around, and I’m on a haulage run tomorrow, so she’ll probably do something to fuck that up.”
“Like what?”
“Turn up on my doorstep when she knows I’m not there. Bitch to the neighbours that I’ve let her down. Or leave Ivy at school and tell them I was supposed to pick her up.”
“That’s not nice.”
“It’s fucking hell when I’m two hundred miles away in the rig. Knowing Ivy’s waiting for me and I’m—” Yeah. Wasn’t finishing that sentence.
Didn’t need to. Folk’s eyes swam with empathy, and he rubbed a warm hand over my forearm. “This is why you need a partner for real. So you have backup when these things happen.”
“I know, but needing an emergency babysitter doesn’t make my shitty life more attractive.”
“Dude, if you were any more attractive, I’d go up in flames.”
A real laugh bubbled out of me. “You’re ridiculous.”
“I’m honest.” Folk scrubbed a hand down his face. “And I’m here for you, Seth. As much as I can be. You know that, right?”
Strangely, I did. Our friendship was new and disjointed, but it felt ancient too. A bond that would never fade. “What about you? Are you going home now?”
Folk’s hand slipped off my arm. He flexed his body, stretching his back, rotating his fists as if the joints were sore. “I’m going anywhere that has a hot dinner and a mattress. I’ll probably end up in Locke’s bed, but who knows?”
Locke’s bed. In the residence above the rowdy clubhouse. And it would be rowdy today. The yard too. A hot summer afternoon brought every club member and their noisy bike to the compound. If that was Folk’s plan to get some sleep, it had major flaws.
