Call of the Wild by T Paulin

Author:T Paulin [Paulin, T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

The Renn Faire was being held in a city park where it wasn’t unusual to see people doing fire-breathing tricks on non-Renn Faire weekends. The usual assortment of dreadlocked musicians were around, looking accusingly at the short-haired suburban families who’d invaded for the day.

Few people looked twice at the four of them, except for some mothers who noticed Joey’s grime level.

Valentine leaned over and said quietly to Eli, “We need to hose down this kid. You get him into that water park over there and I’ll go buy him some clean, dry clothes.”

Eli agreed to the plan, and loudly suggested the guys head over to the park’s interactive water feature.

Khan rubbed his stomach. “I’ll go do some recon on those food smells. You boys have fun splashing around.”

Khan headed off toward the food trucks while Eli led Joey over to the water park, where toddlers ran squealing through the sprinklers and teenagers huddled nearby, pretending they didn’t want to do the same.

Joey was reluctant to take off his shoes and shirt to play with the other kids, until Eli took off everything but his jeans and jumped into the fray.

Within minutes, he had not just Joey soaked, but half the kids in attendance. A dozen of the less angsty teenagers even jumped into the fun. Parents stood just outside the splash zone and watched as Eli play-fought over the free-spray hose, then gave the smaller kids shoulder rides.

He had just swung a dripping wet and squealing Joey around in a circle and set him down when he noticed a number of mothers were watching him, Eli, and not their kids.

He looked down to see what had the women’s attention, and noticed his well-defined abdominal muscles. They were extra defined today, thanks to the subtle brown shading of Brenda’s makeup. A giggling girl asked him for a shoulder ride. He suddenly realized the teens that had joined him in the water were all females, with soaking wet tops.

With an embarrassed gasp, he ran for his folded clothes at the perimeter and quickly donned his red T-shirt. He’d meant to scrub off the brown makeup before leaving the apartment, but Brenda had demanded access to the washroom and rushed him out. On a typical day, Eli didn’t remove his shirt in public, so he hadn’t anticipated any problems.

Valentine stood at the splash perimeter with dry clothes for Joey in her hands. “Nice abs,” she said to Eli.

He thanked her and tugged on his shoes and socks without meeting her eyes. Did she really mean he had nice abs? Or was she letting him know that she knew they were mostly drawn on? She couldn’t know, he told himself. Who would even notice that the shadows on someone’s abs didn’t obey the laws of physics and shift with the ab-owner’s relative angle to the sun?

A genius.

A genius would notice such a thing.

Eli laced up his shoes and tried to remain calm. His wet jeans clung to him accusingly. He could feel heat in his cheeks from blushing.

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