Laughter

"Mmm, I don't know." Pete tosses Carol a wink before grinning at Nikki. "I don't think either one of you have received too much credit."

Taking a sip of his water, his grin remains. "We'll just say you're both great cooks and leave it at that before I get into trouble for bringing it up."

He takes another bite of food, savoring the flavor. "I do a little cooking, but I usually wind up with unrecognizable blackened food, so then I eat out too much."

Pete really was enjoying the meal. It was different than hanging out with his buddies. This was... family. Some guys might prefer not to eat with Carol too, but for Pete, it was a bonus. He missed his mom a lot some days, and having Carol around reminded him of maybe what it was like. And maybe without even realizing it, in this very short amount of time, he'd adopted her, for as long as she would still be here with them. Even after he'd scraped his plate clean, staying at the table just to talk felt good.


Alec quirks an eyebrow as Trey walks away, and he shakes his head. He wasn't impressed. Turning back to his room, he shuts the door so the tennis ball can't escape again, and flops down on his cot once more. As he does, his eye catches sight of his cell phone. Once again, he considers contacting Ryan. Misty had almost convinced him early to call Ryan, but after he'd let it sit and had thought more about it, he no longer wanted to. She'd yelled at him for no reason other than defending himself against her crazed ex-boyfriend. And telling him to stay home if that's the way it was going to be? So be it. She wasn't going to put rules and restrictions on him - not when he was trying so hard to get out from under that sort of thing.

The tennis ball flies again, whacking the wall and flying back to smack into his palm.


"Hey, hey... vampire," Eli corrects. "Vampire." Chowing down on another fry, he settles back to watch the movie.

Even though it had been a long day, Eli manages to stay awake through the movie, eventually clearing off the dishes and returning with some ice cream for them both. It was a quiet evening... different not having Alec show up. But Eli had to admit to himself that it was kind of nice.


Gage laughs and nods. "Mmm... I think I could handle having my arms around you."

Following Sapphire around the course, one would never know that Gage hadn't laughed this much probably his entire life. Though the sky grew dim and the lights came on in the course, Gage was perfectly content just having a good time with Sapphire and letting time pass as it would. He had to work later but he had a few hours yet and he wasn't going to miss this for the world.