AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Without even pulling his shirt on, Aldric ran out of the apartment.
* * *
Clary opened the door, beaming brightly as she pushed the sleeves of Seth’s sweater over her hands. “How long do—”
“Wow. Look how fast the smile faded,” Aldric said.
Today, his eyes were blue. He appeared to be wearing the same type of black sweatpants Seth was wearing, but that was it. He wasn’t wearing a shirt.
“Did you lose something on the way here?” Clary asked while peering over his shoulder. Seth said he wasn’t upset that she’d gone off on Aldric, but she’d rather not do it again.
“Do you want me to chase him out?” Andrea asked as she emerged at the top of the stairs. “He ran by so fast I wondered if I was imagining things.”
“I only have a few minutes, so” —he glanced over at Andrea and waved her off— “just listen.”
Clary nodded at Andrea. “Where’s Seth?”
“He went over to Elton’s place, to make sure none of us died from drinking too much or tripping and knocking our head against a table or something.” Aldric rolled his eyes. “He warned me to stay away from you.”
“So what are you doing here?” Clary asked. She would like Aldric to stay as far away from her as possible.
A corner of Aldric’s lips hooked back into to smirk. “I really made you mad.” He held his hands up in peace. “I didn’t come to harass you.”
“Okay, so what—”
“I didn’t mean anything I said last night,” his words came out in a rush.
“You were drunk. I hear people are more honest when they’re drunk.”
“I wasn’t drunk.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“I drink twice that amount when I go out.”
She folded her arms. “Is that why you’re rarely home? Because you’re passed out wherever you party.”
“Oh.” Aldric mirrored her action. “The places I’ve passed out in would taint your innocent little soul at the mere mention of the names.”
Her brows twitched.
Aldric gave her a head-to-toe scan. “Churchgoing girl?” He scoffed. “Who else would care so much about having a stupid Christmas tree?”
“Didn’t you have fun last night?”
Aldric shrugged a shoulder and peered down the hallway. “Anyway, I came to tell you that you should consider yourself the luckiest woman on the planet that my brother even decided you’re worth his time.”
She arched a brow. That was a hundred and eighty degree change from last night.
“He could’ve gone to college. He graduated high school early. He had a full scholarship ready, but he gave it all up to work on that first device he sold. Then he spent the next three years—three years!” Aldric held up that number of fingers as if she couldn’t comprehend the number three. “Three years building this place for us. Zane was at police academy. The rest of us were still studying …”
“I didn’t know that.”
“And he’s the most generous person ever. He poured everything he made from selling the device into us. He didn’t just pay for this place. He paid for our college tuition. He made sure we never went hungry.”
Clary’s brows twitched.
“I know. He never said anything, but I guess we’ll never know how many times he went hungry so we didn’t have to.”
