Page 22 of Stone
Stone chuckled, turning his watch.
“What do I tell him?” she wondered aloud.
“You can tell him we’re headed back if you want to stay there, or tell him you’ll be out all night if you want to sleep on my outside swing tonight. Nothing more than us talking and sleeping outside,” Stone said.
She stared at Stone. Was he asking as a friend, or was he indicating he wanted something more? She wasn’t prepared to ask the question, but she wanted to spend more time with him.
She typed a text to Locks, then stared at Stone.
He grinned. “Are you going to tell me what you decided?” he asked.
She nodded. “I want to talk some more and sleep outside on the porch.”
He nodded and grasped her hand, leading her toward his house.
Stone’s nose itched, like something soft was touching it.
“Why does he have his arm around Mom?” a voice questioned.
“They have their clothes on,” another voice pointed out.
“I didn’t know Stone had this on his porch. It’s hidden on the side of the house. I wonder if he’d let us host a sleepover here,” Phoebe’s voice, which he recognized, said.
“Touch his nose again. I want to talk to him before Mom wakes,” another voice whispered.
Stone cracked open his eyes. Beck, Regan, Taylor, Blake, Phoebe, and Deborah were standing by his swing. The triplets were bent over as close to his face as possible without touching their mom.
Regan, at least he thought it was Regan, motioned her finger between the two of them and held her hands up.
He mouthed,“We talked and then fell asleep outside.”
He held his hand up to the girls and then slowly maneuvered himself off the bed without waking Naomi. He motioned for the girls to go around to the front of his house to the front door.
“How about I fix us all breakfast, or I take all of us out to breakfast at Broken Hearts Brewing or the diner?” he asked.
“Are you trying to bribe us?” Taylor asked.
“No, I’d like to get to know you better and thought everyone might like breakfast,” Stone reassured them.
“Okay. Are you going to wake Mom up?” Beck whispered.
“Yes. Which do you want?” Stone asked.
“Out to eat,” Taylor declared.
“Okay. Let me wake up your mom, and we’ll get changed so we can go,” Stone agreed.
The girls nodded and stood waiting.
Stone walked around to the swing bed. Naomi was sleeping peacefully. He hated to wake her because they hadn’t gone to sleep until close to five. It was eight a.m., and three hours wasn’t much sleep for her.
He bent down by the bed, pausing to blow his breath into his hand. Ugh! Morning breath. He wasn’t going to get too close to her face, or he’d knock her over.
“Naomi, your girls want breakfast,” he said.
Her eyes popped open, and she sat up. “What?”
“Your girls plus Phoebe, Blake, and Deborah found us asleep. I told them we’d talked and fell asleep and offered them breakfast. They chose to go out to eat. What do you need to do to be ready?” he asked.
