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He’d been so angry.
“Not yet, but I’m going to try to talk to him today if he’s at school,” I said. As far as my brother was concerned, Dorian was simply busy with his family and hadn’t been returning my calls and texts.
Bru pulled his bedding up, and I snuggled him in. I hadn’t done that for him since we were kids. My brother was this big tough football player now. He rested his arms on the bed. “Well, when you see him, tell him I feel for him. The other guys too if you see them. I still haven’t heard back from them, but I’m not surprised.”
I wasn’t either. They were all hella close, family.
I guess my brother knew that too.
I patted his hand. “Sleep and don’t play too many video games, please.”
I got nothing but a chuckle from that, his eyes closed. “I make no promises. And hey, can you talk to Coach for me? I’m obviously not going to be at practice today.”
After promising him I’d do that, I got up. Before I headed downstairs, I told him I’d get him stuff out of the first aid kit for his fever, Tylenol. I headed downstairs to do that and jumped when I came across Callum. The older man had been making coffee, a cup in his hand. He wore a suit, and seeing me, he raised a hand.
“Sorry. Did I scare you?” His head tilted. “I hope you don’t mind, but I let myself in. I have a man coming through the house today to check the filters and make sure everything with the house is running smoothly.”
He had mentioned he was going to be doing that, and of course, I hadn’t minded. He owned the house. “No, you’re fine. I’m just jumpy.”
A lot had fucking happened in the last few hours, another added layer with my brother being sick.
I came into the room and noticed Callum had two coffee cups going. He gestured to one for me, and I appreciated that. Did I mention I had a fairy godfather? I mean, this man left no stone unturned. I noticed he had a laptop up on the kitchen island like he’d been working, and he sat in front it while I got my breakfast together. I chose cereal.
“How was your evening, Sloane?” he asked me from behind it. I turned, and his frown greeted me when I swiveled in his direction. “Did you ever hear back from your friend?”
Yeah, I’d texted Dorian. Yeah, I’d called Dorian. I shook my head, and Callum’s frown deepened.
“I can imagine all this is hard on the family,” he said, sighing. “I brushed up on the controversy. A terrible sequence of events.”
He’d put that lightly. What Dorian and his family… his friends and his family, were going through was something out of a nightmare.
“I’m going to try to see him today at school,” I said, my and my brother’s guardian also unaware about Dorian’s heated issue with me. Again, that was personal. I appreciated Callum and everything he did, but he was still a stranger. “And I never really got to thank you for making those calls on his behalf.”
The man had stepped in like a knight, no questions asked, and that meant so much to me.
He raised a hand, his smile lifting. “It wasn’t a problem. In any sense, it sounds as if things were going to work themselves out anyway.” I eyed him, and he nodded. “The actual murderer coming forward? It seems your friend really does have some luck on his side.”
He did, and thank God for that.
“You met the boy at school, then?” he asked casually. “I don’t believe you ever said.”
“Yeah, school.” And it was crazy how far we were away from that initial place we’d met. There’d been so much tension there and misunderstandings even back then. Dorian had never been easy.
“He’s just a friend, then?” he asked, bringing me out of my thoughts. His smile was small. “Sorry. I don’t mean to be intrusive. I suppose I was just curious after seeing you both together yesterday. You seem close.”
I wondered if that had been obvious, us looking like we were together.
I mean, the way he’d hugged me…
If was as if I’d given him life when he saw me at the police station, but that had changed so quickly. I didn’t know why, and we needed to talk.
“He’s just a friend,” I said, and I didn’t find the question invasion. I mean, the man had been willing to open his pocketbook for Dorian. That warranted the question, and I was being honest with him. I didn’t know what Dorian and I were. We’d been enemies, heated ones, and somewhere along the way that had changed into something else. That something else was just as heated, passionate, and where we were at now I didn’t now. I hoped friends at least.
I couldn’t reach my thoughts higher at the moment, never good at emotional things. Because I wasn’t, I forced a smile, putting on that strength I didn’t feel I always had. It’d always been needed, though, for my brother and me. We were survivors.
I noticed Callum’s attention while in my thoughts, and I was grateful he didn’t push the issue. I couldn’t talk about it anymore anyway.
“I’m glad you’ve been able to find friendship in your short time here,” he said, his eyes warm. “And I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to work here for a few hours this morning. I plan to step out when maintenance gets here, but I want to at least wait for the doctor.”
