“I think Corey would like that, but it’ll depend on getting him to take some downtime.”
“If anyone can lay down the law, we all know you’re the man to do it,” I told him. The lights
flashed and the music cut off, signaling closing time. I’d hung around hoping Sam would find me
again, but obviously it wasn’t meant to be. That was fine; I was willing to bide my time with him after
seeing the faint glimmer of interest. “Guess that’s our cue. Do you guys need any help cleaning up?”
“Nah, I think we’ve got it.”
As if conjured by my thoughts, Sam appeared in the doorway. He’d finally shed the worry from
earlier, and he looked happy but ready to fall over from exhaustion.
“Everything okay out there, Sam?” William stood, leaning back to stretch. He groaned and I had to
fight the urge to make a crack about him being an old man.
“Yeah, I was just…” Sam’s gaze drifted to the boys who were still playing on the floor.
“Do you need to unwind for a minute? You’ve been running around all night. You must be
exhausted,” I asked, already crossing the room to Sam. If we didn’t have an audience, I would have
taken him by the hand and forced him to relax for a few minutes. “I bet the boys wouldn’t mind
playing for a few more minutes.”
Sam shook his head. “Thank you, Sir, but I have too much work left to do.”
I slid my hand around to the small of Sam’s back. “Let us worry about that, boy. You need to sit
down before you fall over.”
William pursed his lips to keep from laughing as I urged Sam to play with Corey while we
cleaned up. And yeah, so I might have almost told him ‘the Daddies’ were going to clean up, but I’d
caught myself before making a fool of myself. I turned back when I reached the entrance to the
playroom, winking at Sam when he gave me a sleepy smile.
“Something I should know?” William asked as we wandered through the bar—him picking up
glassware and me collecting empty bottles. There wasn’t much to clean, which was shocking with as
busy as it had been.
“Nope, just thought I’d help out. He looked ready to fall over,” I pointed out. William tossed me a
rag from the wash bucket, and I started wiping down tables. William followed, putting up the stools.
“Not going to lie, I’m interested, but that’s as far as anything’s gone. I’m not even sure if the feelings
are mutual.”
“If it makes you feel any better, Sam wouldn’t have listened to you if there wasn’t a spark there.
