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Fleet rolled his eyes, and was amazed it didn’t hurt too much, so he did it again.
Talia snorted at his reaction. “And as for your abduction, I didn’t call until after we had you back at the hospital safely, so any worries they might have had around you going missing were no longer viable.”
“And…did they tell you anything…interesting?”
“You mean about why you left Huntsville?” she asked slyly, narrowing her eyes.
“No. About my teething and toilet-training habits as a toddler,” he countered with a huff before continuing. “Of course I mean about my extremely precipitous leave-taking of my childhood home.”
“Well…” Talia looked as if she were the proverbial cat about to lick cream. “They were reluctant at first, with me having introduced myself as an officer with the OTPD and a member of the SWAT team that rescued you. It seems you aren’t the only one cautious around cops. But I sweetened them up by saying we’re dating.”
Fleet groaned. “Shit. Am I to ascertain from your grin that they jumped all over that?”
“They did. It seems like their only son has been remiss making it to the ripe old age of thirty-four and not providing them with any grandchildren.”
Now Fleet tipped his head back on his pillow and gave a huge sigh. “This is going to sound fucked, but…do they know you’re white?”
Talia’s smile quickly morphed into a scowl. “What does that matter?” she asked. “Of course I didn’t mention it. How stupid would that have sounded?” She threw her voice into a high-pitched parody. “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Eggers? Let me introduce myself. I’m a member of the OTPD and the Downeast SWAT team here in Maine. You don’t know me, but we just rescued yourbrain-surgeryrecovering son from a kidnapper, and oh, by the way, I’m dating Fleet and I’m white.”
Sarcasm dripped from every word, and…she had a point. It would have been a little odd to interject that fact into the conversation.
“Okay. Fine. But we’re going to have to tell them soon.” That is, if he allowed his relationship with Talia to move forward, which at this point he was extremely reluctant to do.
“Why?” She asked inquisitively. “Are they prejudice?”
“No. No. Not at all. My high-school sweetheart…” he practically choked on words that hadn’t left his mouth in a decade and a half, “…was white.” Why was he sure that she was now in possession of that fact?
“Well then, we don’t have a problem,” Talia stated succinctly. “Which is a good thing, because they’ll be rolling in soon.” She looked at her watch and missed the look of panic that Fleet knew crossed his face. “They’re flying as we speak, and they’ll be staying for a week, unless you decide you want them for longer.”
Fleet swallowed down his initial trepidation. Overall, it would be good to see his folks. It was the conversations they’d have about Talia that would prove uncomfortable.
“Their flight was six and a half hours,” Talia continued as if everything were hunky-dory. “Which means they’ll be arriving at the airport in twenty minutes. Mason sent his brother Kyle to pick them up.”
Fleet let out a long moan. “Great. Kyle.” Mason’s slightly older brother was the jokester in the Sothard family, and no topic, regardless of sensitivity, was off limits for to him if he thought it would get a laugh. Fleet hoped his parents took the man with a grain of salt. Not that they were lacking in humor. His dad was actually pretty funny. It was just that all the subject matter that might get tossed around could become pretty…volatile.
“Remind me to thank Mason,” Fleet responded, tongue in cheek. At least one good thing might come of that cluster-fuck. His parents might get all the details they needed from Kyle, and Fleet wouldn’t have to bother fudging around with facts.
Argh.See? He was already reverting to his childhood self. Fudging instead of fucking? It was going to be a long week.
He drew in a breath and regrouped.
“You still haven’t told me what kind of things my parents told you about my past,” he reminded her, but after all the bombshells that had been dropped since he’d awakened, Fleet realized he was currently beyond exhausted. He yawned widely.
“But obviously now’s not the time to rehash it,” Talia derided. “I can see you’re about two seconds from la-la land.” She got up from her chair, bent over, and…tucked him in? Fleet all of a sudden felt pretty warm and fuzzy inside. When was the last time anyone had done that for him?
“I’m…” He yawned again. “You’re right,” he mumbled, closing his eyes. “We’ll talk more when I wake up.”
“Sure we will,” he heard Talia say before the world around him disappeared.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Talia wasn’t blind. She’d seen all the emotions running across Fleet’s face, and it pained her that he was so conflicted, but…Suck it up, buddy. If they were going to be an item—which Talia was determined they would be despite Fleet’s obvious fucked-up-ed-ness over what his parents had revealed to her—he’d have to do better about trusting her.
She wasn’t afraid of becoming a target. She’d been taking care of herself and others for a long time. Just let someone try to derail her life and that of the man she was quickly coming to adore. If she had to, Talia would be more than happy to put her boot firmly up some prejudiced asshole’s butt. That’s if their head wasn’t already clogging up the works.
Talia went back to the phone conversation she’d had with Fleet’s parents, Lodine and Jim Eggers. The one where she’d requested details of his past to see if it had any bearing on his current jeopardy. She was now quite sure that whatever was happening in Maine had no connection to Fleet’s juvenile troubles, but still…
What a mind-fuck.
