Page 64 of Rock Giant

She looked up at him.Paul smooshed his lips together into a smile.“Forever,” he mouthed at her back as she crossed the suite and then sandwiched herself in between Nash and Jez.

Luthor emerged from the bathroom, looking rumpled.He took one look at Rock Giant and sighed.“Just no bloodshed, okay.”

“She doesn’t want me to do that, ergo, I’m not doing it.”

“Who doesn’t want you to do what?”Xane followed Luthor through the door, still zipping up.

“No one.”Luthor distracted his boyfriend by squeezing his arse.“Let’s go schmooze.”

Chatter commenced.Drinks were drunk.Jez drank too much.Ronnie plied everyone with Haribo, and only afterwards mentioned they were vodka soaked.

Paul swallowed a few of them, mostly out of boredom when the conversation turned to logistics and industry gossip.He spent a while talking to Balin about pedal brands and pick-ups, but it wasn’t exactly deep and meaningful.Throughout, he kept half an eye on Jodi.She seemed happy.She was smiling.Joining in with the conversation.All the Ghost Boys seemed pretty touchy feely with her.He guessed it wasn’t just Nash she’d forged a bond with.He was looking at her “new” family.Jez was almost asleep on her shoulder, and Nash had a possessive hand on her thigh.

“Where’d you all meet?”

Balin, all dark hair and darker eyes, frowned at him over the top of his beer bottle.“They’re happy, you know.”

“I can see that.”

“It’d be cool if you didn’t fuck it up between them.”

“If it fucks up, it won’t be my doing.”

“Dude, you’ve been eye fucking her since we arrived.”

“She’s hot.And more my thing than the rest of you, and what’s up with asking where you all met?”

“Apparently you two hooked up one time in the past.”Balin replied, still giving him nothing.

“She tell you that?”

“Nash.Nash told me that.I assume she told him.”

“It was a while back,” Paul confessed, happy to share that, if not the more intimate details of the occasion.“Weird night.Get you another beer?”

Balin swallowed what remained of the bottle in his hand.“Sure.”

“God, the bus, the bus.”Nash was expounding.“I cannot believe how much shit magically relocates.I mean, what is that about?You put something down, and next thing you know it’s in a fucking cupboard, or the under-seat storage, or someone else’s luggage.”

“Or clogging the shower,” Lee added.

“Truth.”Nash pointed a finger at him.

“Twelve pencils all gone,” Jez woke enough to contribute, before falling into a stupor.

“They’re in the cupboard with the cat food,” Balin said, walking over to join them.

Paul followed him, new drinks in hand for the two of them.He made use of the bottle opener, then found a perch on the edge of the coffee table alongside Ginny, who offered him a smile, then laced her fingers with his and gave his hand a squeeze.

“Who gives a shit about pencils?”Lee said.“All the fucking condoms magically vanished the other night.I had to finagle one out of Jez, who’s like, ‘I’ve only got a couple left, man’, then this morning, I’m brushing my teeth and there’s a full box of them nestled in alongside Jo-Jo’s lady products in the vanity unit along with five random socks, a baby harmonica, and a packet of fucking feta cheese.Like, what?Also, ain’t that stuff meant to be kept in the fridge?”

“Who the fuck bought it, anyway?”Nash added.

Jodi, clearly, based on the nibble she gave her lower lip.He’d wager she was responsible for the randomly migrating objects, too.

“Faeries,” Paul suggested, half an eye still on Jodi, who began rolling a packet of love heart sweets—almost certainly from Ronnie’s stash—back and forth along her thigh.

“Assuming you mean that’s who’s relocating stuff, not buying feta.Although, maybe they can be blamed for both.”