Where did he put it all?
“As you all know, the house passed the inspection today,” Reese began by saying. “Which has allowed us to move some things around schedule-wise.” He gestured at…I wanted to say his name was Beau. I was still learning. “Beau, Nathan, and I will spend the rest of the evening finishing the paint job in the lobby so we can get started on the floors first thing tomorrow morning, including the flooring in the hallway, office, dressing room, and kitchen. By Beau’s calculations, we should finish in time for the event. But we need two more guys with us. Colt will be back tomorrow, so I’m just gonna put him on the list.”
“What kind of flooring are we going with?” I asked.
“Uh, let’s see…” He squinted. “Laminate for club area and hallways, stone tiles for lobby, and ceramic tiles for kitchen and dressing room.”
Good choices, especially on the laminate. It had good durability, was cost-effective, and you didn’t need to bring in professionals.
“Much to Tate’s frustration, we’re going with all black again,” Reese added with a smirk. “Including the laminate floor pattern, which will be black floorboards.”
I grinned and glanced over at Tate.
“I’m not budging on the photos, though!” he warned. “And you said we could do the kitchen moss green and the lobby burgundy.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. But good you brought that up,” Reese said. “Tate and Ivy are hosting a photo shoot on Friday. They’ve posted about it online. Make sure you read it.”
If I could get Greer in front of a camera, I wasn’t going to miss a chance to sign him up.
Until then, work continued.
Corey
“Sorry it got so late, guys.” I changed lanes and eyed Jason and Jamie in the rearview. “That wasn’t the plan.”
“It’s okay,” Jamie yawned. “It’s fun to ride in a car in jammies.”
I beamed. “I think so too.” That was why I hadn’t changed into regular clothes.
Jason’s idea of pajamas consisted of sweats and tees, so that worked whenever.
“So I was thinking,” I went on. I felt Sloan’s eyes on me. “Since it’s a little late now for video games and pizza, how about an early breakfast outing? My treat. McDonald’s? Five Guys? Waffle House?”
“That’s unnecessary, baby—Corey.” Sloan cleared his throat and scrubbed a hand over his face.
I grinned. We’d made some slips…
“I like Waffle House!” Jamie exclaimed.
Sloan furrowed his brow. “The closest Waffle House is south of Woodbridge, I think.”
I shrugged. “There’s a Cracker Barrel too. It’s not that far. It would be a fun little adventure.”
“As long as they have pancakes, I’m good with whatever,” Jason said. “Can I have soda for breakfast, Dad?”
I stifled my amusement and kept my eyes on the road.
“We’ll see,” was Sloan’s response.
I loved, loved, loved seeing him switch between Dad and Daddy. Plenty of similarities, plenty of night-and-day situations. But both were sexy.
“How about IHOP?” Sloan suggested. “We don’t have to get up too early—it’s just down the street from Corey’s place, and they certainly have pancakes. And it’s my treat.” He sent me a quick, pointed look.
I stuck out my tongue, which made Jamie giggle.
I was such a good influence on them!
“I like IHOP,” Jason said. “So we’ll do breakfast there? Just me, Jamie, Dad, and baby Corey.”
Oh God.
His wry smirk in the rearview was just too much. Not a lot embarrassed me, but praise Jeebus for the darkness because I was freaking blushing.
“Baby Corey,” Jamie laughed. “Why do you call him that? He’s so old!”
Whoa!
Sloan groan-laughed and shook his head.
THURSDAY
Kingsley | Tate
Kingsley Madden
Tate and I called in sick from work on Thursday, something I wasn’t sure we’d ever done before. But he only had one class that day, and not with anyone who might get distraught by seeing a substitute instead. Otherwise, he was understandably rigid about his schedule since he had plenty of students who suffered from anxiety at the slightest change in their everyday structure.
Leaving the city when people were on their way to work meant virtually no southbound traffic at all, so that was definitely nice.
“Aww, did you see the photo Franklin uploaded to his profile?”
I side-eyed him and rubbed his leg absently. “No?”
He showed me the screen, and I had to smile. That was sweet. Rather, the caption was sweet. The photo was just of a somewhat burned omelet.
Learning how to cook without @OwnerOfWhore here is proving to be impossible, so I will simply hope He sees this and comes to my rescue. Also, someone can’t stop thinking about Him.
“Interesting he’s running with high-protocol writing style,” I noted.
“I thought so too,” Tate mused. “I wonder when he’s changing his username to reflect Jack’s ownership.”
Yeah, same. I’d mentioned it to both Jack and Franklin, but they didn’t appear to be in any rush.
“It’ll happen when Franklin’s ready,” I settled for saying. Because I knew Jack wasn’t going to push him.