“Ah,” Mercy said, patting Reese’s shoulder again. “I think I see.”
Reese struggled to sit upright – somehow, he’d slumped down and was more or less lying against Mercy’s side – and blink the moisture from his eyes. The yard spun around him, Mercy’s face a blur when he finally managed to get it in his sights. “You do?”
He thought Mercy smiled. “Yeah. I’ll go have a talk with Tenny, and–”
“No!” Sound echoed off the concrete of the patio, and Reese realized he’d shouted. His pulse jumped and kicked; his stomach squeezed painfully. “You can’t. Don’t. He’ll know I told you.” And then he wouldreallyhate Reese.
Mercy squeezed his shoulder. “It’s alright.”
“Don’t tell him.” He’d never given an order like that before. It startled him. “Please.”
“Okay, okay. I won’t.” Mercy frowned. “But you can come talk to me about it, if y’all’s…situation…is bothering you. Maybe when you’re sober.” He breathed a laugh, and then grew more serious. “You’re not in trouble, Reese. Okay? It’s okay that you and he – but you’re upset tonight, and that’s not cool. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Hurt? “He doesn’t get the best of me when we spar,” he said.
Mercy laughed. “Shit, kid. You’re something else.” He slapped him hard on the back – hard enough that Reese felt a belch gather suddenly at the base of his throat.
No, not a belch.
“Let’s have some more water and then get you set up on the couch.”
“Okay,” Reese said, turned, and vomited onto the concrete.
~*~
“What was that?” Leah hissed when Ava settled on the sofa beside her.
Ava picked up her wine glass and fired a mildly questioning glance over the rim. “What was what?”
Leah glanced toward the hallway; when Ava and Carter slipped back in the front door, Carter had cast a fast glance toward the sofa where Leah was sitting, then ducked down the hall, presumably to the bathroom.
She fixed Ava with the sternest look she could manage – she’d been told it wasn’t that stern at all – and said, “You and Carter sneaking off for half an hour.”
Ava’s brows went up. “Sneaking off? I said I would talk to him, remember? About how he was doing?” She paused, and it looked like she tried not to smile. “You were the one who brought it up to me on the phone: that he seemed sad.”
Oh. Right.
“Afraid I’m moving in on your turf?” Ava asked, all innocence.
Leah gave her a play shove, face heating. “No. I don’t have any turf. There’s no turf.”
Ava laughed.
“And even if there was, I wouldn’t want to be on it.”
“You sure?” Ava asked, grinning. “I think he’s very familiar with turf. He could give you the grand tour.”
“Oh my god,shut up.” But Leah laughed, too, feeling as flustered and dumb as when they were in high school, teasing one another and laughing breathlessly as they made fun of their vicious classmates.
Across from them, sitting with her legs curled beneath her in Mercy’s recliner, Sam swapped a look between them. “Wait,” she said, smile dawning. “Are Leah and Carter–”
“No,” Leah said.
“Not yet,” Ava said, the traitor, “but they could be.”
Movement caught her eye, and she turned to see Carter on his way back to the kitchen, paused at the mouth of the room, gaze skimming across them.
Had he heard?
