aimed in our direction.
“What did he have to say?” I asked curiously.
I mean, I’d been curious before, but now I was rabid for information.
From what little I knew of him, Charles hadn’t really been an enemy.
Had he?
If anybody had a right to be mad, it wasn’t Charles. It was Slate, yet I wasn’t getting any vibes off of Slate that told me he held any hostility when it came to the man.
“He said that he was here with his family,” Slate murmured, pulling me closer when the air conditioner on the bus started to make me shiver. “That he was having a good time until he saw me.”
I snorted. “What’s with the open hostility?” I questioned. “If anybody has a right to be mad, it’s definitely not him.”
He grunted out an agreeing sound.
“He’s been like that since I left for prison,” Slate shrugged, making my head bounce slightly. “Charles has always been an odd duck. What’s even weirder is that he came to see me right before the last day of my trial. Came by and started making all these weird comments about my house. How much Vanessa had hated it. How she’d hated the car that I’d gotten her, and even more how she hadn’t really loved me. A bunch of bullshit because when Vanessa realized that I had found out she’d slept with Charles, she’d been devastated. I could tell. Though I’d decided to leave her, she’d definitely not been too keen on it. She’d wanted to make it work.”
“So weird,” I murmured, allowing my eyes to click to Charles and his family. “They don’t even look like they like each other.”
Slate’s body shifted as he openly stared at Charles, who was looking forward as if he’d just had his plaything taken away from him. Like a spoiled child who was used to getting exactly what he wanted.
“They don’t,” Slate agreed. “What’s even weirder is that I’ve seen him here and there in town since I got out. Never in my life seen her before. Or those kids. Nobody mentioned him having a family, either. I’ve caught up with quite a few cop buddies since I got out, and he’s come up quite a few times. None of those times were any of them mentioned. Not a single one.”
The bus that was holding still to allow more and more people on finally closed its doors, making me breathe a sigh of relief.
Now that I was on my ass and laying my head against a very comfortable, but still really hard, chest, I realized just how tired I was.
“You know,” I murmured quietly. “I didn’t realize how tired I actually was.”
His arm curled tighter around mine as he said, “Then catch a nap, because we’re going to be busy when we get back to the hotel.”
The naughtiness in his voice wasn’t lost on my tired self.
“Is that right?”
He shifted so that his mouth was at my ear.
Lowering his voice to almost subvocal, he said, “Oh, yeah. There are a couple of things I want to do to you before we leave. Make you remember Disney in the best way possible.”
“But my legs are sore,” I teased.
His arm tightened around my shoulder. “Don’t worry, baby. I’ll make sure to do all the work.”
And he did.
Oh boy, did he.
Chapter 17
Have y’all ever met someone that lies for no reason? They just walk around with Liabetes?
-Harleigh’s secret thoughts
Harleigh
I didn’t want to go home.
Was that stupid?
I was tired as hell, I had eight thousand things that needed to be done at home, yet I didn’t want to go.
One, I was tired.
I didn’t realize just how much walking there’d be when it came to Disney.
I’d forgotten since my last trip just how exhausting it really was.
Yes, I’d assumed there’d be quite a bit, but I hadn’t realized just how out of shape I was until I was forced to walk everywhere.
The bathroom.
The next ride.
Dinner.
The list went on and on and on.
“You want to go watch the fireworks at Magic Kingdom up close?” he asked.
I thought about the confrontation he’d had with Charles earlier, and his promise that he wouldn’t be leaving again until it was time to go to the airport.
“I thought you said you weren’t leaving the hotel room again?” I asked curiously.
“Momentary lapse of judgment,” he laughed. “Plus, I know that you want to go to the fireworks and see them in person.”
That was true, I did.
But I also didn’t want to go alone.
I wasn’t stupid.
I was raised to know that