AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Trying not to let myself fall down a rabbit hole of concern for my friend, I gesture to the food on the counter instead. “Help yourself.”
“Damn. This looks amazing.” Travis grabs a clean plate, eyeing all the food. “Who put this spread together?”
I wince, already knowing the answer will bother him. “Nolan.”
Sure enough, he stops short. “Oh…”
“We made it extremely clear he didn’t need to do it,” I assure. “But I think he needed to. He looked like he might start crawling the walls.”
Ace sighs. “They all look like that.”
“What about Casey and Carter?” Travis asks. Was that 90 seconds? I feel too guilty now to enjoy it even if it was.
“Casey is in the pool. I had to bring him a smoothie and water because he wouldn’t come eat. That boy is going to wrinkle up like a goddamn raisin if he doesn’t get out soon.”
“And Carter?” Travis presses as he piles food on his plate and avoids eye contact with us.
Ace and I exchange another look. Ace clears his throat and gestures to me, so I field the question. “He’s quiet this morning. Made sure to check in with Casey and stole a few minutes in his shower and some clothes. He’s been outside since breakfast.”
“He ate, though?”
“Pretty sure.”
Travis turns around, frowning at me. “Pretty sure.”
“I didn’t sit across from him and watch.”
He turns his focus to Ace. “Did you see?”
Ace gives him a look like he’s grown a second head. “No?”
“He needs to eat,” Travis growls, setting an impressive glare on his own plate like it’s the food’s fault that Carter is possibly hungry right now. Emotions flash through his expression, rapid fire and accompanied with a steady thrum of panic.
God, how is he going to adjust to this life? How is he going to learn to step back and let Carter be his own person?
How the fuck am I going to do the same with Casey?
This operation might be over, but fucking hell, we've got a lot of work to do…
“What in the fuck is he doing?” Ace asks me.
I laugh, but there's no humor to it. “That’s his worried about Carter and freaking out expression.”
“It looks like he’s malfunctioning.”
“Yeah, that’s a thing he does when it comes to Carter.” I snap my fingers in front of Travis's face, wanting to pull him out of his panic spiral.
Travis’s frown deepens as his eyes focus on me. “I can hear you, you know.”
“Does that make what we’re saying any less true?”
“He’s been through a lot,” Travis mumbles, still talking about Carter. “I’m allowed to worry about him.”
This time, Ace speaks up. “No one is saying you can’t worry about him. Just - worry about yourself too, yeah? Head operatives like you in our line of work don’t have the best track record for success post-operation. We’ve lost a few over the years.”
“And I’d really like for you to not be one of them,” I add.
Ace nods. “Really like.”
