Lock You Down (Rivers Brothers 2)

I had a feeling that was the hardest sentence so far for her to utter. "Luis is filling them in..."

"But they are going to need to hear from you," I finished for her. "It will be good, I think, for you all to be able to talk, to get it on the table. To start healing. I think you've all started that process individually, but haven't tried as a family yet."

"I want a couple days," she admitted, voice small.

"I will make sure you get it. Even if I have to explain it to them myself."

"I'm glad you're finally here," she told me, squeezing me tighter.

"Me too."

"I'm so tired," she admitted, taking a deep breath.

"Then let's get you in bed."

That was exactly what I did.

I got her in bed. I held her as she drifted off. While she slept, I checked in with Lo. Kingston came to the apartment to drop off the official paperwork that was meant to hire us. Which would give my presence an explanation I really didn't think was necessary. But Lo was the sort to prepare for every possible angle.

"Is she alright?" Kingston asked, hesitating at the door.

"She will be," I assured him, nodding.

I would make sure of that.

And over the next week, it was my sole purpose in life. Well, that and being Mal's personal massage-giver.

Reagan didn't do much. She slept a lot. She answered emails from the office, which Krissy tried to send very sparingly. She had video calls with her therapist. She stared off into space.

It was on the sixth day that I did anything other than support her.

It was the day I pushed her.

I dropped her phone down on the table in front of her. The phone that had rung three times a day without fail while she refused to pick it up.

"You need to call your parents."

She stared at the phone for a long time, head shaking a bit as she admitted, "I don't know what to say to them."

"They just want to hear that you're okay."

"Luis told--"

"It's not the same," I cut her off, giving her a little tough love because I knew she needed it, knew she could take it. "Call your parents, babe."

"They're going to want to fly out here."

"You're going to need to see them again. They're family. Maybe you can fly out there. We," I clarified. "We can fly out there."

"You'd go meet my parents with me?" she asked.

I felt like there was an added "so soon" at the end of that question.

Objectively, that was fair. It had only been a few weeks. But the fact of the matter was, we hadn't wasted weeks dipping our toes in. We jumped right in. We got fully immersed in it. We'd pretty much been living together since we finally sealed the deal. I dropped into her office for lunch. I knew where more of her cooking utensils were than she did. I fixed the leak in the bathroom sink. She gave me a drawer. She did not, however, make room in her closet. This was likely because there was no room to be made. I'd never seen someone with so many clothes. As a compromise, she sat and helped me Kondo-fy my drawer, rolling everything to make more room.

She came with me to spend time with my family.

It was time to spend time with hers.

"Yeah. I get to see your ridiculous childhood home with my own two eyes. If you want," I added, feeling a somewhat uncharacteristic surge of uncertainty flood my system. "I understand if you want to go see them on your own."

"No," she said, shaking her head. "No. I want you to come. I think that is the only way I could get through it, honestly."

"Good. Then call them. Set it up."

"What about your work schedule? I can't go until after I get back to the office. Krissy and Harvey are butting heads from the sound of things. And I need to go over the marketing campaign with the team in California so everyone is on the same page. And then I can go. A week should work."

"I can do a week."

"You didn't even talk to King."

"I don't need to talk to King. It's fine."

"Atlas is back in town, isn't he?"

"He spent a week in bed with someone in the royal family. You know... until they found out."

"It's funny that we both have brothers who can't stay in one place for any length of time. They've probably even crossed paths before without realizing it."

"Do you think Luis will show up if you are going to visit your parents?"

"Depends on if he has work or not. But probably. I haven't seen him in a while. He usually gets a bit of familial guilt, drops in for a day, then jets off again. He will see this as an opportunity to hit two birds with one stone. He will also lighten the mood a bit."