* * *
It was about two a.m. when we slipped through the Victorian’s front door as quietly as we could. Hal was wide awake on the couch though, and reading something on his tablet. He raised a brow as he said, “I’ll never understand why you two don’t just spend the night at the garage. Owen’s fine. There are nine competent adults in this house to look after him if he happens to wake up, which he never does.”
I perked up at that and asked, “Nine? Does that mean both Hudson and Noah are spending the night with Kel?”
“No, sorry to disappoint you, but that throuple thing you keep imagining for them has yet to materialize. The ninth person is that guy Eliot’s been dating, who finally decided to spend the night.”
“Oh, good for El. Did you meet his mystery man?”
“Just briefly. I’ll try to gather some more intel in the morning and report back.” He held out the baby monitor and said, “Here’s this, by the way. I took over for Lark and Dylan so they could go to bed early.”
“Thanks.” As I took it from him, I asked, “Are they okay?”
“Lark was feeling nauseous, so Dylan thought it was best for him to lie down.”
Even though I was feeling confident about the upcoming court date, my poor brother had been literally worrying himself sick. Yet another reason why we all just needed the custody hearing to be over with.
After we said good night to Hal, Lucky and I went upstairs and checked on Owen, who was sleeping peacefully. We really could have easily spent the night at the garage and slipped back in before he woke up in the morning, but I’d accepted the fact that I was a bit of a mother hen and liked knowing my son was close by while I slept.
We got ready for bed and crawled under the covers, and then Lucky grinned and said, “I was so busy worshipping your gorgeous naked body when we were at the garage that I forgot to show you my new treasure.”
“That rusted hunk of metal in the middle of the room? I saw it.”
“I know you did, but I wanted to bore you senseless by describing it in vivid detail. In short, it’s most of a 1955 Harley-Davidson Panhead, and I can’t wait to get started restoring it.” He’d visited a junkyard with our friend Skye the day before and had been buzzing with excitement about his find.
“I’m so glad you’re getting back to doing what you love. It was depressing when you gave away all your spare parts and works in progress.”
As he slid his hand under the hem of my T-shirt and lightly caressed my lower back, he said, “If only I’d talked to my dad sooner. I could have avoided all of that and a lot more unhappiness.”
“I get why that was tough, though.”
“You know, one of the best things that’s come from working with him is that we relate to each other like adults now, instead of like a parent and child. Since I moved away when I was pretty young, I think that froze our relationship at a certain point in time. Now that it’s had a chance to evolve, it’s so much easier to talk to him.”
“I’m so glad he decided to stay in San Francisco long-term.”
“I knew he’d like it here,” Lucky said. “I also knew it wouldn’t take him six months to figure that out.”
We shifted positions a bit, settling in. After a while, I told him, “Even after we find our own apartment and have more privacy, I still want to continue our date nights. I love having that time to really focus on each other.”
“Absolutely. We’re never giving up our Saturday nights.”