Getting my brain and feet to work at the same time wasn’t as easy as it should’ve been. Knightly was more patient than I’d ever be, but eventually he started wandering around the kitchen.“Mail needs to go upstairs for the moment so no one gets curious.”
Picking up the small pile, he nodded toward my e-reader and a small pile of books I’d forgotten about. “Those will get noticed too.”
Oops.
Had he looked at those covers very closely?
Well, if he hadn’t before, he had once he picked them up.
Ugh.
How had I forgotten those?
Frowning, he looked like he was playing the role of the thoughtful professor. “There was something else I noticed… what was it?”
Something obvious evidently.
His thinking sounds were a bit over-the-top, but went with the vibe of his character. “It was something… oh…”
Face lighting up like he was proud of himself, he looked over to the cabinets. “The sippy cups and cute plates in your cabinet. Unless those are for the stepkids?”
Oh.
Shoot.
I really wasn’t meant to have company.
Chapter Three
Knightly
Thankfully, Rhodes was about as sneaky as a kid on Christmas morning, so figuring out his name, his interests in ageplay, and his interest in me hadn’t been as difficult as I’d imagined.
Getting him to bring it up had been another matter altogether, though.
He didn’t mind doing his best to brush up against me at every opportunity and watching my every move but talking about substantive things was another story altogether.
“Um, well, I don’t like having my family over, so I only did it once right after I moved in when just about everything was still in boxes.” He shrugged when I tried to keep a straight face. “That way they couldn’t see anything they weren’t supposed to.”
It’d actually been a reasonable plan, but it seemed his family hadn’t gotten the message. “But now you’ve been backed into a corner somehow and they’re descending on you?”
Rhodes pouted as he nodded. “They’re invading.”
From what I knew of Littles, he wasn’t exaggerating just for attention.
“Then we’ll fix it so they don’t see anything personal to you, and once they’re gone, we’ll put everything back in place.” He might’ve had things scattered all over the house, like the binkies in his junk drawer, but it wasn’t that much in general.
I’d only seen those looking for a screwdriver to tighten the legs on the patio chairs, but if I could find them that easily someone else could too.
“Your other option is to just ignore their comments and tell them to mind their own business.” I knew he couldn’t do that even before his face scrunched up. “Okay, Plan A then.”
As he nodded, he let out a shaky breath. “I don’t like talking to them about stuff. They’re…”
Not nice?
Admittedly, I didn’t have a lot of family outside my mother and sister, but his seemed insane and judgmental.
“Every family is different and it’s okay if you need space from yours to actually like them.” I’d seen that advice on a sitcom my sister made me sit through, so I was glad when it made Rhodes happy too. “You just might need help setting boundaries with them.”
