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Brick scowled, not caring about the realtor’s presence in the least. “Why the hell not?”
“Brick,” I muttered, losing my patience. “Can we talk about this later?” Say, when strangers weren’t around. I was never comfortable talking about personal things in front of people I didn’t know, which suddenly reminded me how okay I’d been in the flower shop with Gabby, Camille, Shaw, and Isobel when we’d discussed my relationship with Ezra so openly.
Huh, curious, that.
Anyway, back to the situation at hand…
Brick had never suffered from any such affliction. Totally unconcerned by Mr. King shifting uneasily between us, he lifted his own hands and frowned back. “Why can’t we talk about it now? Rob’s here. He’s ready to show you around. What’s the problem?”
“I don’t have a problem.” Oh, gosh. I probably sounded like one of those contrary, always-disagree-with-everything people now, because clearly, I had a problem. I just didn’t want to talk about it here and now.
“Jesus, Kait. Just tell me what’s going on.”
Jesus, Brick, I wanted to grumble back. Leave it the hell alone already. But he only kept staring at me, clueless.
“Fine,” I muttered, casting one last glance toward Mr. King before glaring at my stepbrother. “The last place I lived was the only home I’d ever known until your mother kicked me out on the street the day after my dad died. I know my little apartment isn’t the Ritz, but I’ve made a home out of it, and by God, it’ll be a cold day in hell before anyone forces me to leave my home again. Got it?”
Brick’s mouth dropped open.
“I, uh.” Mr. King backpedaled toward the door. “I think I’ll check back with you later, Carmichael.” In the next instant, he disappeared from the room.
“Holy shit,” Brick finally murmured, staring at me as if I’d just appeared out of thin air. “I never knew she kicked you out. I thought, fuck… I thought you decided to move out because you wanted to get away from her… Like months later. Definitely not the next day.”
Hugging myself and feeling more insecure than I wanted to appear, I glanced away and said, “Yeah, well… You’re wrong.”
“What…” Setting his mug down, he stepped toward me. “So, what did you do? Where did you go? Christ, kid, why didn’t you come to me, tell me about any of this?”
I shrugged. “I thought you already knew.”
“Fuck no, I didn’t know.” Grasping my chin, he gently coaxed me into meeting his gaze. His eyes were full of apology. “I’m sorry,” he said, shocking the crap out of me, because I was pretty sure I’d never heard him say that in my entire life. “I should’ve been there for you, and I wasn’t.”
Shaking my head, I gripped his arm. “No, don’t. You didn’t know. It’s not that big of a deal.”
“Not that big of a deal?” he cried. “How long were you homeless?”
When I only bit my lip, his eyes grew wide with alarm. “Holy shit, days?”
I winced.
“Weeks?” he guessed, running his fingers through his hair. “God, if you say years I’m going to—”
I waved my hands. “It wasn’t even three months,” I assured him with a big smile.
He blinked. “You’re fucking serious, aren’t you?”
“I crashed on some couches, had some school friends let me use their showers. It was like a fun adventure.”
“Right,” he said slowly. “And all the while, I was trying to decide if I wanted to a get a new Audi or a Corvette with my inheritance money from your father?”
I winced. “Oh, you definitely should’ve gone with the Corvette. That Audi was butt-ugly. I swear, you pick the worst colors for cars.”
He frowned. “The Audi wasn’t ugly.”
I rolled my eyes, letting him know it so was.
He sniffed, grumbled a second under his breath, and finally said, “The fact of the matter remains, from here on out, I’m going to be there for you, okay, kid? No more going homeless and broke without me knowing about it, and… Hell, I’ll even let you pick out the color of my next car.”
A grin broke across my face. “Deal.” I lifted my hand for him to give me a high five so we could seal the agreement. “It’ll be blue, by the way. Like a light blue.”
