Free Long Way Home by Carolyn Gray by Carolyn Gray Page B

near his family again—Nina’s new family, at least—had finally won over, and he’d quit
    Joffrey’s traveling company, settling in Dallas, at least for now. No regrets there. Nina hadn’t

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    had it easy at first, suddenly being a parent to three kids, but his new nieces and nephew were
    great kids. They didn’t remember their mom, and Nina, being generally awesome as she was,
    had won them over quickly. As had he. He was their favorite uncle.
    He still wasn’t sure about Nina’s husband, Mason, though. The guy was flat-out strange,
    and Gev always felt apologetic around him and resented being made to feel that way. Mason was
    gone so much, Gev was halfway convinced he had married Nina just so she could take care of
    his kids. So Gev had moved back, and he helped out where he could.
    And in return, Nina fed him. At least Mason didn’t mind that.
    Gev pulled on his sweats as he left his room and padded into the kitchen. He noticed a pair
    of heavy, black, silver-studded boots on the floor by the door. Great. Chad had picked up a stray
    again, apparently. That boy was gonna get himself into some serious shit if he wasn’t careful.
    Gev pulled out a carton of milk from the fridge. Singles, because he liked to drink from the
    bottle, which disgusted Chad. Not that Chad drank milk, but he complained the cat did, and it
    wasn’t nice to pollute it for the cat, right? Gev had argued cats shouldn’t have milk, but Chad
    never listened.
    Whatever. Gev put the rest of the carton back in the fridge, then bent down and picked up
    his running shoes. He had apparently left them here for some reason, or Screech had dragged
    them in. That cat had a worse shoe fetish than Chad did. Gev sat on the kitchen floor to untie the
    knotted laces and put them on.
    “Gev? You up, man?”
    “In here.”
    Chad entered the kitchen, yawning, wearing only boxer briefs, scratching his crotch, his
    bleached-blond hair in disarray. “What the hell you doing up already? Didn’t you have a
    performance last night?”
    “Yup.” Gev popped up off the floor. He bounced on the tips of his toes a few times,
    adjusting his feet. They had to be just right, or else he couldn’t be free to not think about how the
    socks were bunching up in his shoes while he ran. “Break for a few days. Forgot to tell you, I’ll
    be gone for about a week.” Satisfied, he moved into the living room and sat again to stretch. His
    calves ached a little. Not enough sleep, he figured.
    Chad followed. “Why?”
    “Some of us are going to drive to New Mexico to help out with a dance camp.”
    “Dance camp? You? Why would you do that?”
    “It’ll be great.” There was no point trying to convince Chad of that, but Gev was looking
    forward to the trip. Give a few workshops, perform for the kids, make new connections, and see
    a few old friends. All the things Chad hated.
    Chad leaned against the counter, folding his arms across his chest and propping one foot to
    the side. “Sucks,” he said, as Gev had predicted.
    “Not really. It’ll be fun.” Gev rolled his head in a circle, stretching his neck. “Francesca
    and I are going to do a workshop on partnering.”
    Chad shuddered. “I can’t believe you like that bitch.”
    Gev smacked him on the leg. “Be nice. She’s fantastic. We’ve been working a lot together.
    She’s helped me.”
    “We both know you needed that .”

    40

    Carolyn Gray

    Gev reached over to pinch Chad, but he danced out of the way. “Okay, okay, I’m kidding.
    Good for you, then, I guess. Sounds like a lot of hard work. But good. Great, even.
    Congratulations. You’ve worked hard for it. This mean you’re moving?”
    “Why would you ask that?”
    “Rockies are a hell of a lot prettier than Dallas.”
    Gev stretched his legs out, pointing his toes, then flexing them again against the
    postperformance ache. “Not planning on it, no. It’s in Clovis.” He pulled his heels in and
    grabbed his ankles.
    “Oh.