CHAPTER 102

  Raleigh:

  "Can I go outside?"

  "Why?"

  "I'm bored."

  "With Cindy?"

  "...Sure."

  "Okay. I have to talk with Conner, anyway."

  I rose from the seat, leaning backward to stretch my aching limbs. Lucien looked up briefly.

  "He's still upset at her?" I asked.

  Lucien nodded. "Yes, unfortunately. I've tried talking to him, but whenever we breach that topic, he just shuts me down fast," Lucien rolled his shoulders. "I don't know how to talk any more sense into him."

  "Maybe let him realize it on his own. This is a family matter for them, after all," I suggested.

  Lucien tossed a crumpled ball into the trash can behind me. "I suppose so. I'm getting tired of repeatedly telling Conner that, as if I were his father." With a groan, Lucien stood from the chair, stretching just as I had.

  "In a way, both of them are in the wrong," I said.

  Lucien's dark eyebrow rose curiously. "What do you mean."