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He wondered if the sloth had a name. No doubt it did.
After unlocking the door to her apartment, he held that door open too.
Fuck. This place was smaller than he’d thought.
“See if Brooks is home,” Steele ordered, carrying Effie inside.
But he didn’t need to go looking for him as one of the internal doors opened and Brooks stood there, staring at them both, wide-eyed. “What’s going on? Mr. Steele? What are you both doing here? Shit. Effie! What happened to Aunt Effie?”
“Shh, man,” Steele told him in a gruff voice. “Everything is fine. Your aunt is fine. And call me Steele. None of that mister shit. This is Grady, Effie’s other boss.”
Brooks nodded to him. “Right. Aunt Effie texted earlier and said she had to work late. That’s not good for her, having to work long hours. The doctors said . . . ”
“What did the doctors say?” Grady asked as he trailed off.
“It . . . it doesn’t matter. That’s Aunt Effie’s business. I wasn’t supposed to overhear them. But I don’t like her working late.” He glared at them both. “Why did you make her stay?”
“Brooks, calm down,” Steele said firmly, standing there with her in his arms like she didn’t weigh a thing. “We didn’t know she’d decided to work to cover a server’s shift. Or we would have brought her home ourselves earlier.”
Brooks visibly relaxed. “Oh. Sorry. I just . . .”
“You’re protective of her,” Grady said. “You shouldn’t have to apologize for that.”
“Uh, yeah. She’s all I’ve got. She’s always taken care of me. And she needs the same in return.” Brooks frowned. “She passed out after taking her painkillers? The prescription ones in the bottle?”
“Yeah. Does that happen often?” Steele asked.
Brooks shook his head. “No, but she doesn’t take them often. And usually, she waits until she’s home and safe to take them. She must have been really hurting.”
“Or she took them hoping she could keep working for a bit longer,” Steele said.
“She needs to go to bed,” Grady said firmly. “Where is her bedroom?”
To his surprise, Brooks went red.
“It’s all right,” Grady told him. “Steele will just carry her in and put her to bed. That’s all.”
“Um, no, that’s not it,” Brooks said. “Put her in my bed.”
Grady stared at him, not understanding. “She sleeps in your bed?”
“No! Jeez. That’s her bed.” He pointed at the couch.
Steele looked at the couch, then at Brooks. “She sleeps on the couch?”
Grady knew that tone of voice. He was only keeping it together because he held something precious in his arms.
“Yeah . . . I keep telling her to take the bedroom. But she always says that teenage boys need their privacy and that she’s shorter so it’s better for her to take the couch.”
Now he understood the red on Brooks’ cheeks. He wasn’t worried that they intended to do something to his aunt. He was embarrassed because he was sleeping in a bed while she slept on a sofa bed in the fucking living room.
And he understood why Steele was close to the edge.
Because it wasn’t good enough.
Effie was right. Brooks needed his own space. He needed good sleep. But she wasn’t right in thinking that she needed to sleep on the couch.
What about her back?
