Page 65 of Regal Feather
Cece
You’re not a part of our pack??
Sergio
Whatever
I’ll draw the best thing, you’ll see
Kara
Weren’t you supposed to be early to finish a commission?
Sergio
Creatives need tasks to get out of the funk, Kara, it’s a thing!!!!!!!!
Kara
Sure
Mónica
Ev, do you need to get out of the house? I can pick you up on my way to Kara
Ev
It’s okay, Ma’am
I appreciate it, though
Kara
It’s fine, we’ll kidnap you another time
TWENTY-ONE
santos
Had I fallen on gravel or gone to a battlefield and come back barely standing? It was fucking ridiculous how I was limping as I got to the front door. At least I didn’t lose my keys or anything else. Just every semblance of dignity and pride.
All ego, too.
I just wanted to get inside the fucking villa I’d been teased about when Carlos’s friend dropped me off, and find an excuse to get Ever into a hot bath with me. If he was even home. While I was in the car, I saw he’d texted twice. He must’ve asked around, too, because I had a text from Carlos saying that he’d let Ever know I was with a friend of his. I didn’t spend energy on how I felt about him knowing and just reacted to the bubble text with a thumbs-up emoji.
The plan was to get inside, plop down on one of the couches in the main living room, text Ever back, and hope he was in his room and could come down to make some tea or something. Tea was supposed to help with muscle fatigue, wasn’t it?
The plan went out the window when I managed to get the heavy door open, and I could hear Ever rushing it downstairs. Wearing one of those thigh-high socks that couldn’t be as anti-slip as the label promised. I grimaced. The last thing we needed was the two of us acting like old accident-prone men.
Thankfully, he made it downstairs without face-planting on the floor.
Not so thankfully, he crushed into me without a care in the world.
I was torn. The possessive instincts in me, the ones I was pretty sure I should squash down, loved it. I loved how fucking effusive he was. How little he cared about appearances or what was proper or not. I loved that he ran to me like a damn puppy who hadn’t seen his owner in a couple of hours.
The other part was in real need of that hot bath.
“I’m okay,” I wheezed. “Didn’t mean to worry you.”
