Easton and I stood there in a corner of the crowded restaurant, too close to not be together, but not close enough that people would label us as a couple offhand like they would with Jude and Nesto. Those two could be on opposite sides of the room and you could see they were a unit. It was like they had an invisible thread that tied them together.

I thought about how it would be to get there with Easton. It’s not as if I didn’t feel that drawn to him. The issue was letting it show. To let the whole world know he was mine. I wasn’t exactly surprised to notice that between reluctance and yearning to have that, the latter feeling won out.

“You’re certainly deep in thought.” Easton’s voice was curious and when I glanced at him I found him looking at me as if he knew what I’d been thinking.

“Nah, just taking everything in.” He didn’t look very convinced about my answer.

I was about to deviate the subject to Cindy’s comment about him running for DA when I saw Easton’s eyes widen and then heard him groan as an older couple headed in our direction. The woman had platinum-blond hair coiffed to perfection. She was dressed expensively, almost but not quite too formal for the occasion, and was very petite. I’d recognize those green eyes anywhere though. Easton took after his father, because the man walking toward us could’ve been my lover in thirty years.

Easton’s entire demeanor changed by the time they reached us. His mother spoke first, as she leaned in to air kiss him hello. “We weren’t sure you’d make it, darling.”

“We thought you’d have to stay late at that place with everything you seem to have going on this week.” That was his dad, voice heavy with disapproval. I assumed he was talking about the trial Easton had been killing himself over for months now, but from his tone you’d think he was running heroin up and down the Eastern corridor. He just bent down and kissed his mother’s cheek, then responded in a jovial tone.

“I was able to slip away,” he informed his father, who’d been giving me a long look. “Father.”