“That’s the busiest day we’ve had since the summer,” Trevor said. He glanced in the mirror, trying to see them. “How did you two get on out the front? Run off your feet?”
Connor stared out the window and kept his mouth shut.
“It was non-stop,” Nick said. “Another person would have been helpful. I couldn’t leave the coffee machine for even a minute.”
“Good thing we had Connor today. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have managed,” Laurence piped up.
“Good thing,” Trevor agreed warmly.
They returned to the house, and Connor went straight upstairs. An hour later, when he was digging intoOrlando, there was a knock at his door.
“Dinner’s ready,” Trevor called in.
Connor debated just shouting his reply. He pushed off the desk and opened up the door. “I’m not hungry,” he said.
“Oh. Do you want to come down and—”
“No, I do not want to come down.” Connor should have read something else. Something he liked, that would have calmed his nerves after a day of Nick, instead of a text that frustrated him. But he didn’t want to be calmed. Connor didn’t doforgiveness.He didn’t let things go. He held grudges and hit back and fought.
Trevor looked taken aback for a moment. “Are you feeling alright?”
“Fine.”
Trevor took a moment before speaking. “You didn’t enjoy today?”
Connor almost laughed. “Was I supposed to?”
“A good day of work can feel fulfilling.”
“Not when you’re stuck working with the likes of Nick.”
Trevor’s good humour vanished.
Too far, Connor knew. Trevor loved his kids.
“I’m not eating with you lot,” Connor muttered. He didn’t give Trevor a chance to scold him. He shut the door and waited. Waited for Trevor to demand he open it, to demand an apology that Connor would go to jail before spitting out. The floorboards creaked outside the door as if Trevor was shifting his weight around, and then footsteps tracked away from Connor’s room and down the stairs.
Somehow that made Connor angrier. Made him feel like a petulant child. He stalked back to his book and tore through several chapters without taking anything in. Footsteps approached once more. The knock was heavy.
Connor closed the book. Despite himself, his stomach tightened. Was this going to be it? The day Trevor kicked him out?
“Connor?” Trevor called.
Connor got up. They lived together; there was no point in delaying this. Not that Connor ever delayed confrontation anyway. He opened the door to Trevor running his fingers through his hair. Trevor cast a small smile but didn’t get one in return. Connor hardened his features so that he could hide his reaction to whatever spewed from Trevor’s mouth.
“I talked to Nick.”
“Good for you.”
Trevor gave him a long look, but there was nothing sharp in his eye. It was more of a “really?” Connor quelled the urge to shift his weight. Quelled the stupid anxiety in his stomach.
“If the day went so badly that you won’t even eat with us, then clearly something went very wrong. I hoped by working together, you two might get along better…but I was wrong to just put you two into a shared space and expect you to behave the way I wanted.” Trevor sighed. “I’m sorry about today.”
Trevor wasn’t the one who made the day horrible. The apology seemed pointless. Maybe this was to apologise for forcing him to work for him in the first place? But that didn’t make much sense either. They made him work with them because they didn’t trust what he might get up to alone. A lecture was what would have made sense; a “word” about Connor’s attitude.
When Connor kept quiet, Trevor continued, “Nick is going to behave himself from now on. And I hope you can eat with us at dinner tomorrow? Laurence spent the whole evening fretting at your absence.”
Fretting. Like an old maid. He could picture it clearly. Laurence playing with his food, glancing at the door as if Connor might step in any moment. He was too sensitive; Connor could see how Nick had become so protective of him. It would be hard to see that sensitivity meeting the hard edges of the world.
