Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 78043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
It was Brady’s fault.
And possibly my worries…I might’ve picked them up from Brady too, though.
“No worries.” Not big ones anyway. “Dean is contagious and I didn’t realize it.”
“Bless you.” Joel seemed to think treating it like a sneeze was the best way to fix things. “We’ll get tea on the way home. That always makes everyone better.”
He was teasing, right?
Joel climbed out of the car before I could figure out a way to ask about that, though, and then he distracted me again before he shut the door. “Does Brady not understand about Santa?”
My first reaction as I got out of the car was to treat that question logically, but when I saw Dean blinking at him oddly, I realized that might be a mistake. We definitely needed more information first, so I tried to be subtle about gathering it as I shut the door. “What do you think?”
Had we ever heard Joel talk about Santa?
We’d always gone home and spent winter break with our families. He’d mentioned getting presents and having dinner. I remembered that because they always had duck at Christmas and I just couldn’t get past that.
Yeah, I was going to wait on any Christmas assumptions.
“Santa is not as judgmental as he seems to think.” Shaking his head, Joel sighed and started heading for the door. “He’s very forgiving. Otherwise, he’d end up with too many toys leftover and not enough houses to put them in. People just make one bad decision after another.”
It wasn’t until Dean sighed that I realized Joel was halfway across the parking lot talking to himself. When we were both in motion again, I glanced toward Dean, glad he was confused too. “He’s fucking with us, right?”
Dean let out a long breath. “If Brady still believes in Santa, there’s a good chance that now Joel thinks he has to believe too.”
Oh fuck.
“But he also might be fucking with us to give you something else to worry about.” Dean huffed. “He’s done that to me before, so I’m confident he knows that trick.”
Joel was an adorable pain in the ass.
And that little nut was currently bouncing at the door, waving at us. “I need noodles and dessert. Hurry. Don’t forget I’m special.”
“He’s just a dramatic attention whore at the moment.” Dean’s grumbling wasn’t nice but it was accurate based on how big Joel was smiling at the old people who walked past him.
“Have a good evening. I hope you’re special too.” Joel’s smile was still so big I couldn’t decide if he was messing with the old people who’d looked at him weird or not. “If your partner doesn’t think you’re dessert special, you need a new one.”
Fucking with them.
He’d been fucking with them, right?
Dean’s sigh said he wasn’t sure either, and it was probably fucked up, but it made me feel better. I also felt good when he just changed the subject instead of figuring it out. “What kind of noodles were you thinking about?”
“Long ones.” Joel’s delivery was so perfect it took me a few seconds too long to realize he was telling the truth. “I want to wind them up.”
My father was right…I’d always attracted weird people.
“Then how about alfredo?” Dean realized faster than I did that Joel had been serious, but I had a feeling that was because of the Daddy part of him. “And if you make a mess, it won’t stain.”
“It’s that one shirt.” Joel shrugged and waved his hands around. “I don’t spill stuff on anything else.”
That was debatable…but it was a good distraction and kept Joel rambling about it until we’d been seated by the hostess.
In the back of the restaurant where they sat the weird people who were talking to themselves.
Yep, not a single person around us and that wasn’t supposed to be suspicious at all.
“This is so romantic.” Joel just wiggled in his seat and stretched his feet out so he could play with my legs. “Now we don’t have to behave.”
That was her strategic mistake.
Joel behaved in public when we had an audience but she’d taken away the audience. “What do you think Brady and his Daddy are doing for their scene tonight? I only heard something about vibrators.”
“I thought it was vibrations.” Dean blinked a few times as he looked up from his menu. “Weren’t they talking about music or something?”
No.
They never talked about anything normal.
“Either way, I’m not sure we’re the kind of neighbors who should ask about that kind of stuff.” Saving Dean from whatever was making his eyes so big was my first goal and making sure Joel knew not to be a pain in the ass was the second. “I think we’re the type who just say hi in the stairs. Today was an anomaly.”
Hopefully.
The neighbors weren’t assholes but I wasn’t sure I was ready for their level of nosy…or helpfulness. Brady would end up giving me an ulcer if I started overthinking our decisions after every visit…and he might kill Dean.