“You should take a shower to warm up,” Trevor reiterated. “And change into some fresh clothes. Are you hungry? I can warm up dinner for you.”
“I’ll sort myself out,” Connor replied. He left Trevor downstairs and went straight to the bathroom to strip and shower. Against his cold skin, the water burned, and by the end, he was red-skinned and warm. In his room, Connor crawled into bed. He flinched as his mattress squished under his hip.
A hot water bottle warmed the centre of the bed. Connor stretched out, placing it on his stomach with a sigh. Dealing with Trevor was an experience as bizarre as the merman.
Despite his intimidating build, Trevor was soft. Soft like Laurence and Sam was.
It was so at odds with Connor and how he’d been raised that discomfort swarmed his body as the hot water bottle bathed his skin in heat. It made him anxious. He was not a person who could safely navigate soft people; his interactions with Sam proved that. His edges were too sharp to be blunted, and Connor didn’t even want them to be anything else. He wasn’t in a position where softness would serve him. Not with his mom’s glares, the world’s hate, and all his friends turning their backs on him.
Connor understood now why his mom had called him a devil child when he was younger. She wanted soft. She wanted a Trevor or a Laurence.
Instead, she’d gotten him.
Chapter Eleven
“Your father called,” Edith said.
Connor had a forkful of scrambled eggs halfway to his mouth. Laurence dug in, and Nick picked at his food while he looked at his phone. Trevor sat down with his plate of bacon and eggs.
Connor acknowledged the sharp edge in his mom’s eyes. He’d been made.
“Oh, yeah?” Connor asked. “You two striking up the old flame again?”
Dark anger filled her eyes. Trevor raised an eyebrow at Connor but didn’t seem perturbed. He’d proved himself to be annoyingly immune to Connor’s jabs, but Edith had no such armour. She held every word from his mouth close to her heart, perhaps as a reminder of how he was a child of abhorrent evil. He sometimes wondered did she think him a literal devil.
“He wanted to know where his Jeep disappeared to?”
“It’s outside,” Connor said.
“And when I asked, ‘is it not at the house with the two of you?’ since you said you were spending the night at his, he had no idea what I was talking about.” Her grey eyes were storming.
Connor took a bite of his eggs as the rest of them looked up in trepidation. Laurence’s eyes were wide, his face a wash of discomfort. Nick flicked his gaze between them like he’d expected nothing less than a bloodbath for breakfast. Trevor’s expression lost its ease, but rather than Connor, his discomfort was directed toward Edith. Connor saw Trevor’s body slowly tense as he studied her.
“I said I was spending the night at Dad’s, not that he’d be there with me,” Connor said casually. He knew this game. He knew that keeping calm and answering in a normal voice was eons better than a sharp, defensive reply. She would declare him guilty by his tone alone. Although, did it really matter, given that she would declare him guilty either way?
“Where were you last night?” she demanded, voice curt. “Drinking? Out and—”
“Was I drunk when I got back?” Connor asked Trevor, interrupting her outrage right in the middle.
Trevor’s features tensed. He spared a glance toward Connor before placing his hand over Ediths’. “He wasn’t drunk,” Trevor told her calmly.
“Your boys don’t lie to you, Trevor.” Edith snapped. Connor flinched in surprise. She must be furious that Trevor sided with Connor, because her mask slipped off. A face he had always thought was for him alone pointed towardTrevor. “But Connor’s not one of your boys.”
“Not part of the family, am I?” Connor cut in quickly. His grin was sharp. Bladed. But he couldn’t help himself. He hurt because she was right. Hehadlied to Trevor. She’d hurt him. And she hadn’t managed that in almost two years. But more than that, a thousand times fiercer than that sting, he hated that she was directing that look at Trevor. Trevor didn’t deserve it.
Connor wished he’d just been honest. He hadn’t done anything too bad, after all, just gone out on the water for the evening. With three notorious drunks and troublemakers… no, actually. The lie was the right thing to do. They wouldn’t understand that he’d just wanted to be out on the ocean again after so long. That he was desperate, and he had no other options. That he wanted to be somewhere safe for just a little while.
“If you would just behave for once in your life—”
“Edith,” Trevor interrupted, the upset in his voice unmistakable. The anger in her gaze as she whirled on Trevor was just as clear. Trevor met that anger head-on. “There was an issue of communication. Connor’s phone isn’t usable at the moment, and that’s not his fault. And—”
“That is far from what the issue is.”
Connor’s heart raced. As much as he liked not being on the receiving end of his mom’s ire, somehow this wasworse. And catching a glimpse of Laurence’s white face, he saw he wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
“Dad called looking for the equipment in the Jeep, did he?” Connor stood up from the table. “I’ll drive it over to him.”
Connor was halfway to the car when the stones behind him crunched. He glanced over his shoulder to see Trevor approaching him with a wrinkled brow and downturned lips. He stopped and braced, ready for whatever lecture would come his way.
