“Is that why you’ve been riding me so hard about family lately?” I demanded.
He laughed low. “Yeah. I could feel you pulling back. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“Why didn’t you just say something?”
“Because you can’t tell someone they’re in love with someone else. They have to figure it out on their own. Besides, I figured if I came right out and said it, one of you would run scared.”
“Like I am now.” My voice was grim.
“You aren’t running. You’re proceeding with caution.” I opened my mouth to object, but he held up a hand. “Take a couple days. Let some of this sink in. You might feel different when half your face isn’t swollen.”
There was some noise out in the hall, and then Braeden walked in. “Mom’s here.” He stopped in his tracks and looked at us on the bed. “Get your own man, Trent. Rome’s mine.”
Romeo cackled, and I rolled my eyes.
“Don’t be an idiot,” Rimmel announced, appearing from behind B and smacking him in the middle. He rubbed at the area and scowled as she kept moving.
Romeo stood as she climbed onto the bed and wrapped an arm around my neck, gingerly pressing close. Her dark hair was up in some wild bun with strands sticking out and tickling my face. I wrapped one arm around her to return the hug.
“I love you,” she whispered in my ear. “Those guys better pray they never meet me in a dark alley.”
I chuckled as she pulled back so our eyes could meet (well, her eyes met my one good one).
“Seriously.” She nodded sagely. “I’m a real badass.”
I adjusted the black-framed glasses perched on her nose and smiled. “Toughest one in the house.”
Her eyes suddenly filled, and it was like another kick in my gut. I couldn’t take many more kicks tonight. “What’s up?”
“Promise me something.”
I leaned my head back against the headboard. “Okay,”
“Promise you won’t just leave. You’re my family. I don’t like to lose my family.”
Well, damn. The guilt trip was strong with this one. What made it worse was she had truth to back it up. Rimmel had lost a lot in her life already, and I truly believed the tears threatening were because she was worried she might lose more.
It hit me right in the feels.
I honestly didn’t know everyone in this house cared about me as much as I did them.
Too bad it took so much to make me see.
“You and me are always gonna be family.” I held up my pinky.
She laughed.
“C’mon, man!” B exclaimed. “It’s one thing to be gay, but pinky swearing is for chicks!”
“You do it, too,” Ivy said, stepping through the doorway. “So don’t be acting like you don’t.”
“Burned,” Rome sang.
“Aww, baby, why you gotta do me like that?”
I laughed and hooked my pinky around Rimmel’s.
“C’mon, Smalls.” Romeo wrapped one arm around her middle and lifted her off the bed. “Trent needs to get looked at.”
“See you in the morning.” She gave me a little wave.
I frowned. I wasn’t going to be here in the morning.
Romeo seemed to read my thoughts, because he stopped and turned, moving like his wife weighed nothing at all. “Family meeting first thing.”
God. What the hell was it with him and family meetings?
I think we pretty much just said it all.
“Just ‘cause I’m gay doesn’t mean I want to keep talking about my feelings,” I said.
Out in the hall, I heard a very familiar laugh. I closed my eyes because the sound pierced my soul.
He was so close.
Yet so far away.
Romeo and Rimmel left the room, and B followed. Ivy pointed her finger at me, stern. “No more yelling and no more holes in the wall. I just got Nova back to sleep.”
I swore beneath my breath. “I’m sorry, Ives. I didn’t mean to wake the baby.”
“You can pay me back by letting Braeden’s mom look at you.”
I groaned.
“And hey?” Ivy said from the doorway. “The next time you want to get in a fight, maybe just don’t.”
I smiled. It reminded me of the time last spring break when a bottle cap sliced her foot open and I’d said something similar.
Caroline Walker, B’s mom and a professional nurse, passed Ivy on her way in. The thought of all her poking and prodding was enough to make me shrink against the pillows and pull the blankets up a little higher.
Well, that and the fact I was in my damn boxers.
“I told them not to call you.”
She glanced at me and frowned. “Well, from the looks of you, it’s good they did.”
A small kit in her hand hit the table beside the bed, and she clicked on the overhead light to go with the lamps already on in the room.
“I’m really not—” I started, but the words died on my tongue. All my attention went to the doorway where Drew hovered.
He acted like he wanted to come in, but at the same time, he didn’t. I knew the feeling.
I sat up a little so I could glance around to see his bandaged hand. I was glad it was taken care of. His eyes swept my face like they were hungry for a glimpse of me. A stark note of worry floated in the blue of his gaze.