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Chapter One
“You know damn well I have my grandparents to take care of,” Elijah said as he stood on his porch, refusing to let Kyle in. “Stop bringing this bullshit to my doorstep.”
Kyle leaned an arm against the handrail and smiled up at Elijah. Okay, so the guy had an amazing smile, but that wasn’t going to change Elijah’s mind. He and Kyle had been on-again, off-again for the past six months, and Kyle had committed a deal-breaker by acting as if Elijah’s grandparents were a burden to their relationship.
No one came between Elijah and his grandma and granddad.
“I told you”—Kyle kept his voice as smooth as butter—“to put them in a retirement home. They’ll get great care there.”
This wasn’t the first time Kyle had suggested it, and it wasn’t as if Elijah hadn’t thought about that himself. There was just one thing. “And who’s going to pay for it?”
There was no way in hell that Elijah was putting them in some second-rate nursing home that he’d heard horror stories about. His granddad was suffering from a touch of dementia, and his grandma swore Elijah was her daughter, Kit. She kept telling him to settle down and find a man, although his mom had been married to his father for thirty years now.
But Elijah would bear that burden if it came down to it.
And so far, it had come down to it. Working as a server at a diner didn’t exactly make you rich. But his grandparents deserved the best. His granddad had served in the military, had gotten out, and worked in construction until his retirement. His grandma had been a receptionist at a vet clinic until she retired. They both had eked out a life, had raised their daughter to be a good person, and Elijah would be damned if he gave them anything but the best.
He just felt, at times, that he wasn’t enough for his grandparents. Vincent and Claire Montgomery could be subject to abuse in one of those homes. Elijah just wished he knew how to better take care of them.
“That’s your problem, Kyle,” Elijah said. “It’s always about things that are convenient for you.”
“Don’t be like that,” Kyle said, losing some of his smooth tone. “Let’s be on-again and I’ll show you a good time this weekend.”
“Sorry, some of us have to work for a living.” Elijah spun and grabbed the screen door, but Kyle gripped his upper arm.
“Stop being a little bitch, Elijah.”
“Stop being an asshole, Kyle.” Elijah jerked his arm free and went inside, slamming the door behind him, then winced. His grandparents were already asleep. He didn’t want to wake them.
As Elijah plopped onto the couch, he heard Kyle speed off in his Charger. It must be nice to come from rich parents. Then again, Elijah wouldn’t change his childhood for anything in the world. His mom and dad had worked hard to provide for him, had sacrificed a lot for him, and Elijah wouldn’t tarnish that by wishing he’d grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth.
He hoped Kyle choked on his.
Elijah jumped out of his skin when his phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and saw it was Tido calling him. “Who dis be?”
“Hanging out tonight,” Tido said. “Want to join us?”
Us, being Tido, Drake, and Gage. The four amigos. He’d known three of them since kindergarten. Gage had come along later, like two years ago, but all four of them were his best buds. “Just had a visit from Kyle.”
“What did that rat bastard want?” Tido asked.
“Same old story.” He told Tido about Kyle’s visit, along with how Kyle had grabbed his arm.
“Did you kick him in the nuts?” Tido asked. “Do you want us to hunt him down and key his car?”
Elijah smiled. Kyle worshipped his car, even more than he’d been into Elijah. “That would serve him right, but no.” Elijah sighed. “I can’t come out. One, my grandparents are asleep.”
“It’s seven in the evening,” Tido said.
“Two, I have to work in the morning.” Elijah’s life would be so much easier without having to look after his grandparents, but he immediately felt guilty for that thought. They’d been in his life from the moment he’d been born, had helped to give him such a wonderful childhood, and he wouldn’t regret his decision to move in with them.
Though he always told people it was the other way around. That they’d moved in with him. The lie helped lessen the blow to his ego.
“I gotcha,” Tido said. “We’ll talk later.”
Elijah hung up, holding his phone in both hands as he looked around. In truth, it wasn’t so bad. The house was paid for, and the only expenses were utilities, his cell phone bill, groceries, and household items, like toilet paper and cleaning supplies.
Unfortunately, his grandparents lived off of social security, and that didn’t pay much. Elijah’s parents sent money from Florida to help, but taking care of elderly grandparents wasn’t as cheap as one might think.
