and presses a kiss to my cheek. “I’ll call you sometime this week.”
I nod, fighting the urge to wipe off his kiss. It’s not something new. He always kisses my cheek, but somehow him doing it in front of Nolan feels wrong.
Which is ridiculous as hell. Nolan is nobody but my roommate.
“Bye, Patrick.” I usher Sam off the porch as Patrick heads for his brand-new coupe.
“Did you have fun at your dad’s?” I ask Sam as we make our way back to Nolan’s truck.
He bobs his head. “We played laser tag Friday night and I whooped his ass.”
“Your dad was always awful at laser tag.” I should probably get on to him for cussing, but he doesn’t do it often, so I let it slide.
“You’ve played him before?”
“Yep. Our first date. I, too, whooped his ass.”
He laughs as we pile into Nolan’s truck as Patrick pulls out of the driveway. Nolan watches the car as it passes by us, then he peeks over at me.
“Good?”
I nod.
He turns around to Sam and puts his fist out for a bump. “’Sup, shithead?”
“Hey, Nolan.”
They clash their knuckles together, then Nolan turns back around, puts the car in drive, and starts down the road.
“Did you just call my son a shithead?”
“Yep.” He says it so matter-of-factly, and I grin, loving how he doesn’t back down even though I am definitely giving him my best mom stare right now.
“And why is he a shithead?”
“Because when Dean nailed me in the nuts with the football, your son laughed for ten minutes straight, then proceeded to make fun of me because I allegedly cried.”
I lift a brow. “Well, did you?”
“Hell yes I cried! Have you ever been sacked in the nuts with a football flying through the air at like forty miles per hour?”
I snicker. “Can’t say I have.”
“Exactly, so pipe down over there, no-nuts.”
“Yeah, Mom,” Sam says, “if you don’t have nuts, you don’t get a say.”
“Can we leave my nonexistent nuts out of this?” I glance between the two of them. “I’m feeling very ganged up on right now.”
They shrug in unison, and I grin.
“Nolan, do you play video games?”
“I’m really good at Mario Kart,” he answers.
Sam grins. “We’ll get along just fine then.”
He then slides his attention to his phone, and we ride in silence for another couple of miles.
“You good?” Nolan asks out of the side of his mouth, so low and quiet I barely hear him.
What he’s really asking: Are we good?
He doesn’t want things to be awkward between us anymore, and I don’t either. I just want to move on and spend the rest of the next two months without worry.
“Yep. You?”
He nods. “Golden like a shower.”
“What’s a golden shower?” Sam pipes up from the back seat. I didn’t even realize he was paying any attention to us.
I bury my face in my hands, mortified my son just asked about a golden shower.
“It’s when you dump apple juice on someone you don’t like,” Nolan answers, not appearing the least bit fazed.
“Oh. Then why are you like one?”
“It’s an expression for being happy.”
“Ah, I understand now. You’re so happy because you finally stood up to a bully.” He snaps his fingers together. “Man, I should give Jaxson a golden shower. He’s always being a jerk. He deserves it.”
“Oh my god,” I mutter to Nolan. “I hate you so much.”
His body quakes with laughter and he shakes his head. “Good save though, huh? Gotta remember there are little ears around.”
He doesn’t seem annoyed by Sam and his naivety.
Instead, he looks amused, like he’s looking forward to what the kid might say next.
All my worries about Sam and Nolan spending time together fly out the window.
10
Nolan
“Nolan, you home?”
“Yeah!”
The front door latches into place and Maya’s shoes smack against the hardwood floor as she makes her way through the apartment to where I’m at in my library.
“What are you doing in here?”
“Looking for a new book. Finished mine.” I hold up the paperback I finished last night.
Rain started pouring early this morning and the jobsite was shut down, so I now have the rest of the day off. With it still dumping rain, I don’t have much else to do besides read.
“This is my room.”
“I’m aware.” She narrows her eyes, and I sigh, focusing my attention back on my shelves. “I promise I didn’t touch your unmentionables, and I definitely didn’t see the bra hanging on the closet door handle.”
Her cheeks heat and she rushes into the room to remove the bra from my sight,