“Is that why you didn’t tell us what’s really been going on?”
“What can I say? I’m pretty good at bad decisions.” On seeing Nic’s blank stare, I roll my eyes and let out a sigh, more than ready to start defending myself. “Don’t act like I haven’t told you anything. I’ve told you the important bits.”
Sebastian grunts. “But not all of it.”
“No,” I sigh. “Not all of it. This place isn’t good for you. Don’t act like I haven’t noticed the staff watching you out of the corner of their eyes, assuming you’re stealing all their shit. If one thing goes down while you’re here, everyone is going to point their fingers at you because you’re an easy out and they have the power to make it stick, no matter what evidence you have.”
“We’re big boys,” Nic tells me. “We can take care of ourselves. It’s you who needs to be looked out for.” He waits until I nod and then continues. “Good, now, let’s get you and your mom moved in so we can go and introduce ourselves to this Carrington kid.”
I roll my eyes, grinning up at him. “I’m not introducing you,” I laugh, glancing across at Milo with a knowing sparkle lighting my eyes. “Besides, I think he’s a little caught up at the doctor’s office, waiting for some results.”
Sebastian narrows his eyes, flicking his gaze between me and Milo. “What did you do?”
Milo grins. “We may have sent an anonymous tip that he needed to get checked for an STD. He’ll be shitting himself. An STD is a non-event for most people, but for people like Colton Carrington, an STD scandal is enough to have his face splashed across every news outlet in the world for months. It’d destroy his shiny reputation, not to mention what his father would do.”
Well, shit. I didn’t realize it was that bad.
Nic grins, pulling me in hard against his chest. “Okay,” he laughs, indicating to Milo with a subtle lift of his chin. “You can keep him.”
I beam up at him and he quickly spanks my ass, leaving it stinging for more. “Excellent,” I laugh before glancing around the pool house and taking in the way the boys have been packing up the old house keeper’s things. “Let’s get this done, but first thing’s first. I’m not a control freak, but you guys are doing it wrong.”
Chapter 11
“Come on,” Elijah says, his eyes filled with excitement as he speaks through a mouthful of nachos. “Let’s go out. I bet they have the best nightclubs around here. You’ve still got that fake ID, right?”
I scrunch up my face as the other guys groan at the idea of staying out late and partying Eli style. I can’t help but think of Milo. He went home a few hours ago but I’m sure if he were still here, he would have been on his feet and dragging Eli out the door, rattling off all the best clubs within a 50-mile radius.
“Sorry, I’ve got my Netflix pants on. I’m in for the night.” He rolls his eyes as though he thinks I’m a bore, but we all know he loves me more than life itself. I glance across at Nic as he lounges on the couch with his third serving of nachos resting on his toned stomach. “Didn’t you say you had things to do tonight anyway?”
He shakes his head. “Did. I fucked them off so we could hang out a bit longer. Dad can get some other poor loser to do his dirty work tonight.”
“Are you sure?”
His eyes fill with emotion as he watches me, and a small smile lifts the corners of his lips. “Shut up and eat your dinner.”
I grin down into my bowl and just as I go to respond, the door of the pool house flies open and mom steps through looking all kinds of exhausted. “Oh,” she says, wide-eyed. “You boys are still here. How are you all? I feel like I haven’t seen you in months when it’s only been a few days.”
“I know,” Nic says, sitting up on the couch to make space, knowing her routine just as well as she does. “We’re feeling it too.”
Mom gives him a warm smile and despite all the shit she told me about spacing myself from the boys and trying to make other friends, she can’t help but love them too. Sometimes families aren’t the people who share our blood. Sometimes it’s so much more than that.
No friends, only family.
Mom walks across the room while glancing around the pool house, stopping when she sees the framed photograph of us with my dad on the edge of the counter. Not being one to show her broken heart, she quickly covers the emotion and beams at the boys. “You boys did all of this just this afternoon? There must have been twenty of you to get it all set up so quickly,” she says, dropping down onto the space beside Nic and kicking off her shoes.