Page 55 of Just A Little Joy

“What’s the deal with you and Travis? Are you two, like…together?” Rory asked before flopping back in his chair and hugging his knees to his chest. His eyes went soft, and he stared at the ceiling before adding, “Because Travis is kinda hot.”

“Aren’t you taken?” Nico asked with a grin. “Does your Daddy know you’re out there looking at other men?”

Rory waved him off. “He knows I’m not dead. A little look never hurt anyone as long as I’m not touching. He doesn’t care.” Nico gave him a look that said he clearly didn’t believe him, so Rory added, “ Daddy is an architect. He appreciates pretty things.”

“How would that work? Like, you point someone out to him? What do you do?” Jakob asked.

“Heeeeeeeellllllooooo,” Rory drawled out. “None of this matters. All I wanna know is what I asked Casey.”

“We are kind of sort of maybe a little bit,” I said with a definitive nod. I went for more wine but sloshed it down the table in front of me.

“Oh, party foul. That means you gotta drink double,” Nico said.

He reached over to refill my cup, but spilled more himself. He took a swig directly from the bottle. Rory decided that seemed like a good idea, so we passed the bottle around the table. Our village was momentarily forgotten while we tried to finish it off because wasting wine wasn’t cool.

“Ohhhh, Owen, your house is spinny,” Jakob said when he tried to stand, couldn’t manage it, and tumbled onto the floor. That sent the other boys and me into peals of laughter. It took a few tries, but Jakob managed to crawl back into his chair. “You gotta talk to Barrack ’bout it.”

“Barrack? I don’t know him,” Owen teased, but then he ruined it by burping. His hand flew to cover his mouth with eyes wide.

“Yeah, you do. Big guy, lots of tattoos, sleeps in your bed,” Nico added helpfully.

“Ohhhh…Barrack…Barrett…Bear,” Owen said with a laugh.

“That’s the one!” Nico said proudly. “Jakob, I think he found ’im.”

“What are we talking ’bout?” Jakob asked.

“I don’t ’member,” Nico answered with a sad shake of his head. “Kinda sleepy. I think I need a nap.”

“Yeah, me two,” Rory chimed in.

“Me three,” I agreed.

Rory pulled his phone from his panda onesie and started texting. Nico then Jakob followed him. It struck me that my first instinct was to text Travis a.k.a. Daddy, but had we reached that point? Yeah, we’d said dating and exploring, but driving my drunk ass home seemed extra. It was his night off, and he could be busy. He had lots of irons in plenty of fires. Uber it was for me.

Boo.

Cars were plentiful in the area, so I figured I’d call for my ride after their Daddies were on the way. It was too much fun just hanging out with the boys to leave earlier than I had to. This was what I’d been missing since I’d moved here.

Usually, I hung out with my local friend, but that hadn’t worked out this time, and I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t branched out. But tonight my tipsy…okay, drunk…ass didn’t need to figure it out. All I had to do was have fun until it was time to go.

I’d call in a minute.

“Hey, sleepyhead, it’s time to go home.”

“Wha…? Huh?” I was so confused. I remembered wandering away from the dining room, but that was the last thing. There was a vague recollection of a conversation about a quick lie-down before I called for an Uber, but the actual calling wasn’t coming back to me.

“It’s time to go home,” Daddy repeated. I heard the commotion of the other boys behind him, but all I wanted to do was watch my Daddy.

He’d squatted down next to me so we were eye level. His eyes were crinkled and soft with a little smile twitching his lips. Those pink lips that were a teeny-tiny too thin but worked perfectly with his scruff-covered jaw were too much of a temptation. Almost like it wasn’t under my control, I reached out and traced my finger across the seam. Daddy pursed his lips. Twice.Disappointed didn’t begin to cover it when he straightened and reached out a hand to pull me out of the chair.

“C’mon, sleepy boy, you can sleep it off at home.”

The effort it took to sit up was too much for me. My legs weren’t working right. Maybe they were broken? Maybe they’d forgotten how to work?

“Okay, well, if you’re not gonna wake up, then we’ll go with Plan B.”

My body always gave up the truth before my mouth did, especially around him.