Sky and Xia slept in the next morning, leaving the mess for later. Which meant they really left it for Dylan to clean up, since he couldn’t bear the sight of the kitchen when he came down for breakfast.

“How can we live like this?” he demanded, half to himself. “It’s just not civilized!”

Sawyer shrugged. “Mom’s sushi is better on the second day, I think.”

Sky was delighted to see the house sparkling clean when she woke up in the late morning. It gave her extra time to work on a new song, something with a beat.

This did not set well with Sawyer, who was struggling with remedial reading comprehension homework. Math was easy. It was these fluffy pointless things like themes and emotion that seemed like so much nonsense on the page.

“Stop that offensive noise and teach me how to drive,” he said. “I need to be able to leave this house when it’s too loud to hear myself think.”

It wasn’t the best way to ask, but Sky took what bonding time she could with her youngest son.

To Sky’s surprise, he turned out to not be too bad at driving. He applied his laser focus and picked up the skill fairly quickly. Sky still wasn’t entirely sure he should be allowed to drive by himself, though. The problem was when that laser of concentration got focused someplace else while Sawyer was behind the wheel.

Later, she got a surprise call from Forest, who wanted to catch up. She didn’t here from him often, as opposed to Hunter, who she talked to almost daily. So she dropped Sawyer off with the car and headed over to see him.

The fact that he now owned the house they’d lived in as children was way down the list of Forest’s weird behavior, but it led to complex feelings whenever she visited.

The house was definitely not the strangest thing about Forest.

Not by a long shot.

She and Forest exchanged pleasantries at the door, but instead of inviting her in out of the cold, he escorted her up to the patio for a longer chat.

Never much for pleasantries, Forest began by quizzing her on the security precautions she had in place at the Sample estate and made suggestions on how to make them more effective.

“What, exactly, are we protecting ourselves against?” Sky asked.

Sky didn’t think that helped her worry at all.

“High five?” Forest said as she got ready to go home.

“Too slow!”

“You’re such a bastard,” Sky said.

“No more than you,” Forest replied.

The same evening, Xia took her boss, Anita Bookabet, out for drinks.

That night, they shared the dance floor of The Garden Gnome pub with Xia’s brother Jian and his love Dragonwife.

Xia liked seeing the steamy looks Jian was always sharing with his wife.

She was not so fond of Jian’s new look, though. “Do us all a favor and shave it off!” She whispered to Jian as she headed to the bar for a refill.

It was a nice evening, but what Xia was really hoping for was a promotion.

Anita knew how to keep her personal and professional life separate, though. No amount of cocktails and buddy stories got Xia any promises.

Eventually Anita packed up a well-buzzed Xia and sent her home to sleep it off with no promotion.

At least the dancing and drinks were fun.

“Would you do me the honor of accompanying me on an evening of dinner and dancing this Friday?” Dylan held the phone awkwardly to his ear.

“Is that a real question?” Andria Sword asked at the other end.

Dylan dug his heel into the carpet of his room, blushing furiously. “I’m quite serious. If you’re amenable, I would be delighted to share your company.”

“Are you asking me out on a date?”

“Yes?”

Andria laughed. “I’d love to!”

He took her to the nicest club he knew that would allow teens, The Sphinx. And there they finally spent enough time talking for him to relax just a little.

“I hope this isn’t too forward,” he suggested after dinner, “but would you like to dance?”

“I’d like to,” Andria admitted. “But you might not like dancing with me. Are you a strong lead?”

Dylan opened his arms as invitation. “I’m more than willing to learn together,” he said.

Andria flushed. “All right then,” she said. “I’ll give it a try.”

“Wow,” she whispered later. “You really do know to dance.”

Sky returned from Forest’s house and found herself with the evening free. It was a good time to get the band together.

She tuned her guitar while she waited for the boys to arrive, but the sound of shouting outside made her dash into the yard.

“What — what’s going on?”

Adam kicked a young man to the curb. “I think you better call the cops,” he said. “I caught this guy trying to break in the bathroom window.”

So this was why Forest was still so worried about security. “Wow,” Sky said. “Thank you for looking out for us.”

“I can’t believe this happened again!” Xia, still tipsy, stumbled into the scene.

Adam thumbed over his shoulder. “Be glad Garry wasn’t first to the scene,” he said.

“I’m lucky you’re my best friend,” Sky said.

Adam shrugged. “Don’t worry. It was fun.”

———-

Where ARE Forest’s fangs in that shot of him grinning. Art fail, EA. Yes, he’s still a vampire.

Not a whole lot of action in this post, but character development moves along. There’s a lot to catch up on.

I never had a burglar in my game EVAR, and the Samples have gotten 4-5 in the last few play sessions. Sheesh.