Page 44 of Black Bay Enforcer
By the time they finished eating, the storm had moved off, the thunder growing distant. The primary power had returned, and the rain no longer beat a heavy tattoo against the windows. They’d just finished cleaning up when Kong looked at his watch and asked, “Are you ready for your surprise?”
She nodded eagerly but he didn’t move to retrieve anything. “Two more minutes,” he told her.
Katherine waited, and sure enough, two minutes later, there was a knock on the door.
“It’s open!” Kong called out.
“Are you decent?” someone returned though Katherine was pretty sure it was Grady. “Cus I don’t want to see your hairy ass, man.”
“My ass is not hairy!”
“Because you wax it?”
“What the fuck? Get in here.”
The door cracked open just a slice. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“We’re dressed!”
Katherine hid a chuckle behind her hand as people trooped in – Grady, Lark, Paige, Jace, Leo, then Jayla, Lynx, and Perrin. Some of them were carrying board games.
“Who’s ready for game night?” Lark asked.
Kong turned to look at Katherine. “You told me that you missed spending time with your friends. The game nights.” Hesitantly, he tacked on, “I thought we might make a new game night tradition for you, with new friends.”
He’d remembered. To say Katherine was touched was an understatement. When he’d said he had a surprise for her, she thought he’d gotten a special dessert or something like that. Never would she have guessed he’d go to so much trouble for her to make her feel at home. A thickness of emotion clogged her throat until she couldn’t speak. So, instead, she hugged him.
“Come on, now,” Leo protested. “None of that mushy-gushy stuff. It’s ass-whoopin’ time. Get your game face on.”
Smiling, Katherine pulled away from Kong just in time to see Leo hunch his shoulders, his thick arms flexed and bowed at hisside, muscles bulging, and the tendons in his neck standing out prominently as he made a fierce face.
“You look like you’re trying to take a shit,” Perrin told him dryly, smacking his chest with the back of her hand.
Leo smirked at her. “Admit it, Perrin. You find me gorgeous yet intimidating.” He waggled his eyebrows.
Perrin rolled her eyes, unimpressed, while Jayla gripped Leo’s face and squished his cheeks between her palms. In a voice usually reserved for babies and pets, she announced, “No one can resist this squishy face.”
“Are we doing this or what?” Grady called out to be heard over the ensuing laughter and chatter. “Host’s choice. Pick a game.”
Katherine was looking through the games they brought, most of them classics like Monopoly, Trivia Pursuit, and Pictionary, when there was a hesitant knock on the door. She looked at Kong. “Were you expecting more people?” They already had quite a crew.
With a frown, Kong shook his head, but he yelled out, “Come in!”
The door opened to reveal a man Katherine hadn’t met before, but one look at his scarred face told her who he might be.
Everyone yelled out, “Erik!” confirming her guess.
Almost sheepishly, the man held up a case of Corona bottles. “Am I too late to join?”
He’d come! Kong was having a hard time containing his excitement, his heels practically bouncing with joy. Anytime they were doing something as a group – even if it was just getting together to watch a movie – they, all of them, always invited Erik. Sometimes he’d give them a flat no, other times he’d say he’d think about it and then never show up, so when Kong had asked him to join them tonight and Erik said he’d think about it, Kong had figured he’d be a no-show. But he was here! He had to hold himself back from running over there and hugging him. First, volunteering for missions, and now this? His friend was healing. Finally.
“Not too late,” Kong blurted a bit more enthusiastically than he’d intended. “We were just picking what game we wanted to play.”
With a nod, Erik stepped inside and looked around as if he wasn’t sure what to do with himself.
“Here, sit.” Kong reached to take the beers from him and then felt a touch of panic set in at his lack of furniture. Why didn’t he have more furniture?
Perrin came to the rescue, sinking to the floor and patting the space beside her. “Pull up some carpet and get comfortable.”
