If only there hadn’t been decorative iron scrollwork across the windows too.
I slid into the bed behind Carter and grabbed him up in a spoon position.
“Feels good,” he murmured, relaxing against me.
“Mm-hm. Glad you’re safe.”
“Me too. I was… I was trying to see if I could get some intel, but… I couldn’t really find anything useful.”
I appreciated his effort to try and be helpful, but I also didn’t want him getting himself into trouble in case someone noticed him looking too closely near Gustavo. “We’ll figure something out.”
“Riggs?” he asked after a few more minutes.
“Yeah?” I pressed a kiss behind his ear. He smelled clean and sleepy. I wanted to kiss him all over just to smell and taste more of him.
“I can’t get my brain to slow down.”
“Think about something else. Something good.”
“I tried that,” he said. “It didn’t work. I need you to distract me. Tell me a story.”
I thought about what I could possibly tell him that would help him relax. Most of my stories were scary and dangerous.
“Where are you from?” he asked. “Do you have a family? What are they like?”
I chuckled and shifted him a little closer, moving my legs between his until they pretzeled together. “You won’t believe this, but I’m from Yee Hah, Oregon.”
“You’re right. I don’t believe you.”
“Says the man who lives in Licking Thicket,” I teased.
“I work in Great Nuthatch,” he corrected with a sniff.
“I stand corrected. Anyway, it’s a tiny town most famous for our high school mascot, the Fighting Dragons. And before you make fun of them, you need to know that my brother Will once led the Yee Hah Dragons to the state semifinals in wrestling.”
The sound of Carter’s laughter in the quiet bedroom made my muscles ease. “You’re a good storyteller.”
“I’m not making this up, I swear.” And, honestly, I was surprised by that. I hadn’t thought of my job or of Champ’s disapproval even once since the moment Carter had walked through the door. I couldn’t believe I was sharing shit about my family and my past with a client this way. Yes, I was known for being a big talker, but not usually about stuff that was important to me. Besides, I was having a hard time continuing to think of Carter Rogers as a client.
“Fine. Continue your dragon story.”
I kissed his shoulder and thought of what other stories I had from home like it was the most natural thing in the world. “Well, I’m from a long line of Marines. My great-grandfather fought in Iwo Jima in World War II. My grandfather was in the amphibious force in Vietnam. And my dad is still active duty as a recruiter.”
“You’re kidding?”
“No. And I have three brothers and a sister. Two of my brothers are still active duty Marines, and my sister is an army nurse.”
“That snake in the grass,” Carter hissed dramatically. He’d heard me gripe about branch competition enough times to know the betrayal my sister had put us through when she’d chosen the army.
I couldn’t hold back the laugh. “Exactly. But she said it was her peaceful protest against the Marines’ sexism. I can’t blame her.”
“She sounds tough.”
“She is. She can kick any one of our asses and she’s only five feet two and like a hundred ten pounds dripping wet.”
“Poor thing growing up with four tough guys.”
I leaned back on my pillow and pictured Lizzy as a little girl. “Nah. She loved bossing us around and then using us as muscle with her high school boyfriends. She used to threaten to send her goon squad after them if they didn’t treat her right.”
Carter turned over and propped his head on his hand. “And did she ever follow through?”
I grinned at him. “No, but we took initiative a few times without her knowledge.”
Carter laughed and fell back on the bed, covering his face with his hands. “I can’t imagine four Marine-types showing up to scare me away from their sister. I would have pissed myself.”
“That’s about what they did. One guy was absolutely not good enough for her. We convinced him to hit the road. The other two just needed a gentle reminder of how to treat a lady.”
Carter turned back to me and put his hand on my chest. “How did they handle you coming out? I can’t imagine that would have been easy in a family with such a… traditional history.”
I covered his hand in mine. “It probably wouldn’t have been, except my grandfather’s best friend in Vietnam was gay. Grandpa didn’t find out until later, after they were back stateside and got jobs at the same metal machining factory outside of Portland. It was actually my grandma who figured it out and told Grandpa. Grandpa was pissed. Apparently he lit into Dwight, like really tore a strip off the guy.”