“Fine. But you can only play it after dinner. No whining.”

She walked out of the bathroom and closed the door. She heard him whisper ‘yes!’ as she walked away.

*******************

At 6:30 the three of them walked over to Bette and Tina’s. Bette answered the door with a glass of wine in her hand.

“Hey! How are you guys?” She leaned in to give them all hugs.

Just then Angelica ran past her mom with her tiny little hands opening and closing.

“My Shay!” the four-year-old squealed as she ran over to the boy and hugged him.

He looked down and smiled.

“Hi Angelica. You want to watch me set up xbox? I’m going to beat Aunt Alice in a game.”

“Yay! Bad Aunt Alice!” She took his hand and led him into the living room.

Bette laughed and closed the door behind Shane and Carmen.

“She loves him. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen her stare out the window and watch him play outside. You guys want a beer?”

“Yes please. Where do you want the stuff we brought? In the kitchen?” Carmen asked.

“Yeah that works. Actually you can go ahead and put the salad on the table.”

Carmen walked off to go talk to Tina, Kit, and Jenny; Shane and Bette walked out onto the deck and greeted Alice and Tasha as Shane grabbed a beer from the cooler.

“Hey Shaney. Long time no see, too busy in Domestica for little old me?”

“Hi Alice, it’s nice to see you too.”

“So what’s this I hear about you only reqiring sex once a week now?”

Shane glanced at Bette, who shrugged.

“Oh come on,” she said. “You can’t expect me to keep something like that a secret. The great Shane McCutcheon, who normally takes a new victim every night has decided to lay low—there is no way you could have expected me to keep that to myself!”

“Spill. Come on Shaney I want details. What happened? Kid kill the libido?”

“It’s not as easy as that, Al. Shay is always there—always.”

“So send him over here to hang out with Bette and Tina—it’s not like they have any sort of sex life to worry about bothering—plus they have all the kid eqitement like the plastic cups and stuff.”