I asked Creed, flicking him in the back of the neck. “I’m beat,” he answered. “Got shows the next three nights so I should probably turn in early tonight.” I flopped back into the seat and looked out the window, thinking how strange was the march of time, that the archetypal party boys of yesterday were now in for the night by ten o’clock. Not that I was complaining. In fact my brain offered up an appealing flashback from last night; Steph naked and on her knees. I hoped she was still awake. We passed right by Cord’s neighborhood on the way back to Scratch. I was tempted to ask if we could stop at his house for a minute. Even though my nieces were surely asleep at this hour I never passed up the opportunity to look at their precious faces. The sight of them always stirred something soft yet protective in me. I imagined the feeling was probably ten times more intense for their father. But there was really no good reason to disrupt their whole household so I just waved goodbye to Cord as he hopped out of Creed’s truck and into his own, taking off almost immediately. My car was parked where I’d left it a few dozen yards away from the door of Scratch but I lingered in Creed’s truck for another moment as we watched Cord’s taillights disappear. “You did good today,”
