“I’ll grab some,” Rin said, taking both the empty bottles with her.
“You have a competition coming up, right, Logan?”
I nodded. “Next weekend. It’s not far, so I’ll just drive down. Bastian has his fight a few days after.”
Cecil leaned back and put his arm around my mother. He’d shifted to the side of the table so he could do that. I never imagined my mother finding someone, but she and Cecil were a good match. Everyone could see it.
Hopefully, they’d feel the same way when we told them the truth.
“Think you’ll win?”
“I’ll do my best.” I needed to get back on the water. The last few days had been so different and unplanned that there hadn’t been time to go to the beach. Not that the waves here in Clarity were the best for surfing. But I’d get back on the water before the competition started.
Val got up and went to the kitchen. Trinity wasn’t back yet.
Bastian answered about his own fight. “I think I have a decent chance.”
“They’ll never tell you they’re going to win,” Mom said. “They don’t like to jinx it.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Not to mention no one likes the guy who only talks about how he’s going to win.”
“Tell me about it,” Brooks said. “The fighting scene is filled with assholes like that, and they almost always lose. The worst one was this guy?—”
While he told the story that I’d heard multiple times before, I stood and went to thekitchen. There was no reason for Rin not to be back, and with Val…
Trinity’s voice sounded flat and lifeless. “I’m doing the best I can.”
“Not good enough.” Val’s voice, in contrast, was sharp as a knife. “Since you live with them now, you can?—”
“There you are,” I stepped into the kitchen and moved swiftly, taking one of the new wine bottles from Rin. I stepped in between her and Val, giving the woman my back. “Wanted to make sure you didn’t drown in the wine.”
“Nope. Just had a hard time choosing which bottles to go with.”
“They’ll be great.” I ushered Rin out of the kitchen.
Val’s gaze bored holes in my back. Bring it on. I could take more than a stare. What could she want from us? How did that involve Trinity?
“Thank you,” Rin murmured under her breath. Her scent was laced with that same bitterness I now knew as her anxiety and fear.
“What was that?”
“Not now.” She went straight to my mom to fill her wine glass.
Dessert was delicious, but I barely tasted it, watching my Omega. She felt it too. And I was counting down the minutes until we got home, and she could no longer hide from me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
_____________
TRINITY
Aiden turned to me in the parking garage of our building. “I’ve cleared it with the others, but I would like to take you out tomorrow night.”
My mind was still a bit muddled from dinner, but I nodded. “Where? When?”
He slid his hands into his pockets and smirked. “By the time you get home from work tomorrow, it will all be arranged. You don’t have to worry about anything.”
All the questions raced in my mind, but I chose to trust. That was the whole point of this. Getting to know him in the way I was getting to know the others. “Okay.”
