“That thing you did last night,” he sighed, shaking his head. “Wow.”
“You’re going to have to be more specific,” I grinned. “I did alotof things last night.”
He craned his neck to look wistfully back at the destroyed bedroom. The disheveled bed.
“I mean, that one thing. With the…”
He stopped suddenly and looked at the others. His face turned red.
“Go on,” I laughed. “You can say it in front of the others. After all, they were there, too.”
Teasing the boys was always fun. But teasing Colson was the best.
“The whole fucking night was just off the charts,” heexhaled softly, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
“Yeah, well we had a lot to celebrate.”
“Still do,” he noted.
The sky was an early morning gray, but with hints of a brighter light already peeking through. The sun would burn everything off, turning the city gold and silver. By noon, the view would be pretty spectacular.
“So what now?” asked Theo.
It was a simple question. The answer however, was anything but.
“We could disappear,” offered Colson.
Ripley shook his head slowly. “Or… we don’t.”
I glanced between them, marveling at how the two biggest men in my life could be radically different. But also, so very alike.
“There are advantages to both,” said Theo.
“Of course there are,” I rolled my eyes.
Ripley nudged my shoulder, nearly knocking me into Colson.
“Hey, you’re the one who set the whole Prescott empire on fire,” he quipped. “I’m thinking you’re the one who gets to decide if we stick around to watch it burn.”
I turned to look out over the streets again. So many people. So many lives.
So many millions of open-ended possibilities.
“Well, I don’t want to run,” I sighed to no one in particular. “I’ve done enough of that.”
“Good,” Ripley nodded firmly. “Then we don’t.”
“That’ll mean media attention,” added Theo. “Interviews. Investigations…”
“Tell them bring it, then,” I said definitively, realizing I’d already made the decision.
“Yeah,” Colson agreed. “They can all get in line.”
“They won’t want just her, though,” said Theo. “They’ll want all of us. There will be… questions.”
“About us?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
