Page 239 of Midnight Curfew

Yanking open my car door, I climb inside and drive, back over to where it’s quiet. It’s still storm season, but the weather has been unusually dry the past week, and everyone is outside, enjoying it. Liv and Clay are at their lighthouse, getting some outdoor work done while the weather is good, and Krisjen is shopping with her brother, getting some new clothes for fall. Not that he needs them for school. He’ll be in a uniform at Marymount, but he’s growing fast, and he still needs to dress up for things with his parents when they’re around.

Bike riders soak in the sunset, and kids play at the new splash pad, the town calm again. The college kids are back at school, but the residents have been filtering back in from their sojourns abroad, everyone busy with preparing their homes and children for fall.

Nights in the Wolfe Room will become busier with everyone back in town now, but we’re ready to monitor who’s coming and going via cameras. If they play clean—and with people their own fucking age—there won’t be a problem.

Callum and I play at home, but the residents see us out together and know. I have no doubt we’re the subject of gossip, but Jerome Watson and Vincent Law have been surprisingly cool. The two of them have been busy all summer with Callum, putting the plan together to expand Marymount.

Along with his finance work and investments, Callum has expanded his interests to real estate development and counseling the Bay on ways to grow our fortune.

We’ve all settled into work and plans for the future.

Macon’s latest “instructions” drift through my mind again, and I shake my head.

Pussy bullshit…

Callum and I have been together for two months. Can’t I enjoy learning how he takes his coffee and if he wets his toothbrush before or after he applies the toothpaste before I push us into something else?

I narrow my eyes, though, wishing I didn’t care what people might be saying. I don’t want anyone thinking that I’m temporary.

My heart starts to pound as I remember us in bed this morning, and I feel it in my stomach, too. Still dark, between the sheets, his body on me, his lips on mine.

I’m not temporary.

He’s not temporary to me.

Fuck.

I pull through the gate and park next to Callum’s M3, hurrying to the door even as the scent of a grill in the neighborhood hits my nose.

Heading inside, I see the house is darker than usual, the chandelier overhead dimmed to a subtle glow. Passing the empty kitchen, I catch the shadows from the TV moving over the wall and head to the living room. Callum sits on one of the sofas, his foot crossed over his knee as he stares at the muted TV playing one of the Batman movies Anna-Katherine watches on repeat lately. She lays her head in his lap, his hand resting on her arm, her eyes closed.

She’s dressed in her latest style—a pair of swing trousers but tailored into shorts, a matching vest, and a short-sleeve white blouse with a Peter Pan color. She’s been rounding it out with dark-rimmed glasses and red lipstick like she’s a supersleuth from 1930s Gotham now.

I enter the room, and he looks up as I round the back of the sofa and hang over to peer down at her. Eyes closed, her breathing steady, she’s fast asleep at eight thirty.

Callum tilts his head back. I kiss him, goose bumps breaking out when he finishes with a little peck on the corner of my lips. Once he realized I reacted every time he did that, he does it constantly now.

I rest my arms on the back of the sofa, leaning over, everything inside of me feeling so light. So good.

I love coming home to this.

“I missed you,” I say.

But his brow dips a little; he’s amused but confused. “Why are you smiling?”

Am I? I just laugh, trying to figure out how to approach this.

“How was the family meeting?” he asks when I don’t reply. “Can I come yet?”

Macon only lets family be present, and Clay’s been around long enough to prove her loyalty.

“He wants us to move into the house,” I tell him, unable to hold back my grin.

“Macon wants us all in the house?” he asks. “Fuck, no.”

“That’s what I said.”

“I mean, it’s not like we can go at it anywhere we want.”