Page 91 of Missed Steps

Mark’s shoulders bow in defeat. “Five minutes.”

“Twenty.”

“Ten.”

“Twenty-five.”

Mark turns a glare on me.

I grin and kiss his cheek again. “Thank you. And I love you, too.”

Mark tenses, only for his breath to leave him in a long whoosh. “You play dirty,” he grumbles. “Twenty-five minutes. And then the next twenty-five after that I’m going to spend making an absolute mess out of you.”

“I love you,” I say again.

“Love you too,” Mark twists to kiss my mouth and I straighten up, casting Damien a smile before walking away.

“I like him,” Damien says before I’m out of earshot.

“You have twenty-five minutes,” Mark says. “I’m timing it.”

I rub my mouth to hide my broad smile. Mark is sucha child.

Chapter Thirty-Four

My leg aches as I walk toward the entrance, and I’m delayed by several people who Mark introduced me to at dinner who try to make conversation. I duck out of all the calls politely as I can, and I rest for a moment outside the dance hall in the walkway leading to the back entrance. It’s organised chaos inside, dozens of workers moving through the crowds with practised ease, and stepping outside is like stepping into another world. I’m having a good time—Mark is making sure of it—but now that I’m out of the hall, tiredness begins to nag.

Eddie’s large form suddenly appears at the door. His gaze darts to my hand on the wall, to the leg I have lifted from the ground.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

“All good,” I say, trying notto get antsy with him looking at the prosthetic. “I think sitting down for dinner stiffened me up a bit.”

“Can I get you anything?”

“Nah,” I say. “It’s not bad. Nothing’s sore.”

Eddie stands there and I swallow at the awkwardness that fills the silence.

“I’m just meeting my brother. He’s at the back entrance,” I say.

“I’ll walk with you.”

I straighten up and ease the weight back onto my leg with a sigh. We walk together, and I hype myself up inside. Things between us are mostly straightened out; and I think it’s my turn to try to put in effort to get along with Eddie. “Bethany looks great,” I say.

I see the way Eddie’s expression brightens out of the corner of my eye. “She looks fantastic,” he agrees.

“She’s getting along well with Sebastian, too. How come those two never met in the apartment?” I ask. As I recall, the first time Bethany met him was at the volleyball match where Mark and Tommy were duking it out, but from what Bethany said, she’d been a regular at their apartment well before that.

Eddie snorts. “He’s introverted as hell. He’d hide in his room whenever she was around. He’s gotten over that now that he’s met her.”

Sebastian was introverted? “Really? He seems to like going out with Tommy. And they go out clubbing.”

“He’s comfortable once he’s got a person.”

“Tommy’s a good person to have.”

“Sure. Once he’s not trying to elbow you in the eye.”