“Thank you. I owe you. A lot of favors.” Especially considering what we were doing before we left the house. “Did they say anything about why they’d come without calling me?”
“If we’d called you first, son, you would have told us you were fine. Even if the world was on fire.”
I hear his voice and despite my panic, I smile. “Hey, Rick.”
No taller than Fiona and more round than he used to be, my foster father is wearing his favorite bowling shirt and that familiar weathered grin as he greets me. “This lovely lady tells me you’ve been staying with a strange man during your recovery.”
We don’t beat around the bush in my family.
“Friend,” Fiona interjects, a shocked laugh escaping her lips. “You know I only said friend.”
Royal towers over Rick, pats the man’s baldhead teasingly and throws me a wink. “I think strange man sounds more realistic. Or we could go with the landlord’s description. Angry, older man. Either way, we were surprised. We didn’t think you had any friends.”
“Never not funny,” I say faintly. I can’t believe they’re here.
He charges in and hugs me before I have a chance to defend myself. Trapping my arms and lifting me off my feet, I groan a little as he squeezes my ribs.
“Put him down.”
Carter.
Why me, Lord?
I let out a long-suffering sigh when Royal doesn’t budge. “Carter, this is Royal. He’s a brother. Royal this is Carter. He’s a friend.”
“Hello friend.”
“Hello brother,” Carter responds with a pleasant smile and dark, dangerous eyes. “You’ll want to go ahead and put him down now. He’s still recovering.”
“Shit,” Royal swears, setting me gently on my feet and straightening my shirt. “Sorry about that, JD. I just… I’m glad you’re okay.”
I cross my arms, sensing Carter closing in behind me. “Sure. I’m great. I’d be better if you hadn’t dragged Rick across the country for absolutely no reason. Do you remember our conversation the other night? The one where you swore you would keep what happened to yourself, because I’d never hear the end of it?”
Royal holds up a correcting hand. “I never said that. Check the transcripts. You asked me not to tell anyone and I avoided responding directly. All I remember definitely agreeing to was not to bring Dickie and Manwich along to crack any skulls.”
Rick chuckles. “You know Matilda hates it when you call them that.”
“I know,” Royal says, lifting his gaze to stare at Carter with brotherly intimidation. “So. You’re angry, old and strange.”
“Excuse me?”
Before I can explain or kick Royal in the shin, my foster father chimes in. “You’re the friend who stopped two men from attacking JD? The one Fiona and the landlord both swear is responsible for not letting him stay at his apartment by himself after it was broken into?”
Royal shoots a scowl in my direction. “FYI, I don’t remember getting that part of the story.”
“FYI, nobody says FYI anymore.” I’m tempted to stick out my tongue, but I’m an adult now. I don’t do things like that now. In public.
“I’m Carter Willis. And you must be Rick.” Carter sets his hands on my shoulders and I tense, too aware of everyone’s interest at the move. “To answer your question, yes, he’s been staying with me.”
“Just until I get my locks changed,” I blurt, worried Royal will say something about sugar daddies and I’ll end up being arrested for assault. “He’s a security guy so… And it’s huge. His house.”
Fiona sends me a look that says, “What the hell just came out of your mouth?”
I respond with, “You brought them here. And have you met me?”
Rick, who’s used to my filterless foot-in-mouth issues, ignores us both in favor of studying Carter. “Jimmy has never been good at accepting help. He always wanted to take care of things on his own and in his own way. It’s the reason we had to hide the bleach on laundry day and call his teachers on a regular basis to find out if we’d signed any permission slips we weren’t aware of. And he hated anyone knowing when he was hurt or sick. You wouldn’t believe the subterfuge Matilda and I were reduced to just to find out whether or not the stubborn boy had a fever.”
That’s what he’s leading with? Why is he telling Carter about my childhood quirks?
Royal chuckles. “Remember when we cleaned out the freezer and found all those thermometers stuck to the back?”
I glare and he crosses his arms in irritation. “They kept buying new ones. It was funny as hell.”
“He hasn’t changed all that much.” Carter’s hands squeeze my shoulders supportively, but I can hear his amusement. “I had to bribe him with homemade barbecue sauce to leave his apartment.”
Rick’s eyes widen, and then he’s laughing. So hard he has to lean against a shocked Royal when his mirth nearly bends him in half. “I…I had to use…books.”