and innocent. His smile was teasing as if he had a secret, but his eyes gave him away. He stared at me like a predator, his bluish-green eyes pinning me in place.
“Oh, fuck me,” Lee said from behind me. “Not now, Foster. We’re going to be late.”
“Uh uh uh,” he hummed as he lifted a finger and wagged it at Lee, pushing off the wall. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend, Leland?”
Lee dropped down the stairs to stand beside me. “Foster, this is Miller. Miller, Foster.”
The light in his eyes brightened when Lee said my name. “Excellent.”
Lee placed his hand in mine and tugged. “And we are going to be late. Bye, Foster.”
I turned around and followed Lee up the stairs, but I could hear Foster coming up behind us. Looking back, I met his gaze again. It felt weird having him follow us up the stairs without acknowledging his presence.
“Are you going to Carson’s too?” I asked, trying to satisfy some of the curiosity I felt toward him.
“No,” Foster said as he sped up to join us. “D&D isn’t really my thing. Carson tried to get me into it, but it never stuck.”
“Oh.” I didn’t feel comfortable asking where he was going. It wasn’t my business.
“Since bad Leland did such a terrible job introducing me, I’ll do it myself. I’m Foster Hayes, Carson’s best friend, next-door neighbor, and business partner.”
“Business partner?” I asked, unable to stop myself. “What do y’all do?”
Foster’s smile turned wicked. “We own a club.”
I blushed, not asking what club. I already knew. They owned the club they lived above. I had wondered what connection Carson had to The Church knowing he lived above it, and now I knew. He fucking owned it. I was in way over my head.
I climbed the rest of the stairs in a daze. I looked at Lee to see him glaring at Foster, but couldn’t figure out why. My brain wasn’t ready to work yet.
“Bye, Miller,” Foster said as he approached the door across from Carson’s. “It was lovely meeting you.”
“Bye.” I lifted my hand and waved as he disappeared behind his door with a wink.
“Come on, silly,” Lee said with a laugh as he pulled me into Carson’s apartment.
I looked around the familiar room to see we were the first to arrive—again.
Carson shot us an easy smile as he worked on setting up the table. “Hey, guys.”
When his eyes met mine, I couldn’t help the smile pulling at my lips. I watched his gaze trace the curve of my mouth, an answering smile coming to his own. I glanced over at Lee to see if he’d noticed our little interaction, but he was glued to his phone, still anxious for any news.
I placed my bag by the door and crossed the room to the dining room table. “Hi.”
Carson stood up, giving me his full attention. “I’m glad you came.”
“Me too,” I said quietly as I looked around the table. I smiled, noticing Carson had once again placed me in the chair next to his. Taking my seat, I picked up my pencil and twirled it between my fingers. “I’m a little nervous.” I froze, the words having slipped out on their own, but I couldn’t take them back now that they were out there.
“About?” Carson asked, his voice and posture not changing as he flipped through his papers.
I looked up and stared at the seat across from mine—Red’s seat.
“I see. Is there something I can do about it?”
I thought about his question as I stared at Red’s chair.
Was there anything he could do?
“No.”
“I can talk to Red about toning it down while he’s here,” he offered. “He is capable of acting like an adult when he has to.”
I started shaking my head before Carson had finished. “That wouldn’t be fair to Red. He feels accepted here. I don’t want to take that from him.”
I didn’t want to punish him for my problems.
As a little—when I’d been a little—I would have killed to have had a group of people accept me as everyone in the group accepted Red. Little to previous little, I couldn’t take that away from him.
Carson’s expression was bright with something that looked like pride as I met his gaze. “You make an excellent friend, Miller.”
Our conversation stalled as the others started arriving. Niles wandered in first carrying a slice of greasy pizza on a simple paper plate.
“Sorry for the food,” he said as he collapsed in his chair and dropped the plate on