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Be the adult, Effie.
“I’m sorry if I embarrassed you.”
Brooks scowled. “How would you do that?”
“By passing out and getting carried into bed. And I’m sorry you had to sleep on the couch. I hope you weren’t scared.”
“Aunt Effie, I wish you’d sleep in the bed. I’ve told you that lots of times. It should be me sleeping out there. And not just because you have a bad back. But because I should be between you and the front door.”
“What?”
“Royal and Baron say that a man is no man if he doesn’t do his best to protect the women in his life.”
Yikes.
“But it’s my job to protect you.” She was the adult.
“I’m getting older, Aunt Effie,” he said gently. “I’m not a kid anymore.”
She sighed and nodded. “I know. Truth is, I’m not sure you were ever a kid. Well, except when I was changing your diapers.”
He groaned. “Let’s not go there.”
“Your dad used to hold his breath while he was doing it. I swear he nearly passed out several times.”
“Aunt Effie! Shut up!”
“Sorry.” She held back her grin. Sure, it was her job to embarrass him. But it was also her job to acknowledge that he wasn’t her little boy anymore. He was a young man. “Baron and Royal seem to have some, um, interesting opinions.”
“They’re good guys.”
“I’m sure they are.”
“They look after their stepmom. And they say her boyfriend is a good guy too. They told me he’s going to propose soon. He showed them the ring and asked their permission first.”
“Really? That’s so sweet.”
“You’re not going to cry, are you?” Brooks gave her a horrified look and she smiled at him. There was still some teenage boy in there.
“I’m good.”
“They also said that they know about Steele and Grady because Ink, their stepmom’s boyfriend, is good friends with Steele’s brother-in-law.”
His brother-in-law?
“So they’ve heard things and they said that we might hear things too. Some of them good, some of them not.”
“What?” she whispered.
“Do you know anything about what Steele does?”
Shit.
Yeah, she knew. Because she wasn’t an idiot. And because she’d been warned.
But she hadn’t intended to tell Brooks. Because she didn’t want him to know how desperate she’d become.
Desperate enough to work for a man who had a . . . reputation. The thing was, the thing that Chardonnay had made clear was that Steele was a good boss. And that nothing bad ever touched the people who worked for him.
