Page 20 of Secret
CHAPTER TEN
Kasey rolled over and groaned as his phone rang, pulling him out of a deep sleep. He stretched, reaching toward the nightstand as he grabbed his cell. Seeing Xander's name, he quickly answered. "Hey, what's up?"
"You're not up yet?" Xander sounded shocked.
"Should I be?" Kasey glanced at the clock, seeing it was just after noon.
"Um, yeah. You've missed half the day," Xander informed him.
"But I enjoyed half the night." Kasey rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Too early to talk? Need to call me back?"
"Nah, I'm good." Kasey sat up, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. "What's up?"
"You still willing to spend a few days with Faith if we go out of town?" Xander's voice held a tone of hopefulness.
As nervous as Kasey was about being responsible for Faith for several days, getting time away meant a lot to Xander and Matt. He couldn't let them down. "Yeah, if she's okay with it."
"She is, maybe excited even. Anyway, since things have been so slow with work, we thought we'd head out this week for a few days. Do you think Faith could stay with you Wednesday through Friday? I've talked to Bryon, and he agrees to call Dyson if anything comes up."
Kasey stumbled toward the kitchen, needing to get coffee into his system. "Sure, that's fine. She's okay with staying at my place?"
"Yeah, she said you've got a better TV for her games." Xander laughed.
Kasey grinned. "It's true."
"Probably, but don't let her spend all the time gaming. You know she'll sit there all day if you let her."
"Nope, I have plans to keep us busy. Don't worry about that."
"And hey, she's going to probably try and talk you into helping her push us for a trampoline. The answer is no. I don't care what reasons she gives."
Kasey laughed as he poured water into the coffee maker. "She's already talked to me about it. I just hadn't gotten around to discussing it with you."
"No," Xander grunted. "Not going to happen."
"I'll try and find something else that excites her that she can harass you about. Maybe archery, paintball, oh, even better, I'll take her to the range and let her learn how to shoot."
"Seriously fine with any of those. At least her feet will be on the ground." Xander mumbled something Kasey couldn't hear, then said, "Matt says thank you. I do too, Kase, we owe you big for this."
"You owe me nothing. Faith and I will have a great time. Do I need to have any certain food on hand, or worry about any allergies or anything?"
"Feed her better than you do yourself, but other than that, she's good with whatever. No allergies or issues." Xander lowered his voice. "She still has nightmares sometimes."
Kasey frowned, hating that she still struggled, but he knew all too well that things from your past haunted you forever. He was still fighting his own demons. "She'll be okay. We'll handle them if they happen." Sadly, he was an expert in nightmares.
"Good, then I'll call you later in the week to set up a time for us to drop her off. Thanks again, Kase. We couldn't trust just anyone with her." Xander sighed.
"I know. She's a good kid, Xan. You and Matt have nothing to worry about. We'll have a great time while you're gone. I assume you're bringing Zeus with her."
"Ah, forgot about that. I was going to ask if you're okay with that. He can be a handful."
"Yeah, I'm fine with it. It will make it easier on Faith to have him around. There's nothing here he can hurt. He'll be okay if we leave him and go out for a few hours?"
"Yeah, you can lock him out back or in the garage if you don't want him in the house, but he won't be a problem. The worst he'll do is curl up on your bed and leave your pillow covered in dog hair."
"I can handle dog hair." Kasey grinned. "Tell Faith that I'm looking forward to her being here."
