Chapter 29
29
Xander
“ S o, how long have you been here?”
She probably knew the answer to that if she looked at my medical stuff. I bit back a comment. She could take me away from Mattias, and I didn’t want that. I felt okay here. He actually seemed to care, and the more time I spent with him, the more I wanted to stay.
“A few days,” I mumbled, stopping outside my room. I gestured half heartedly towards it but didn’t invite her in. It bugged me. It was my space and Mattias was always careful to knock first and didn’t come in without permission. I didn’t want her in my safe space.
Surprisingly, she didn’t push past me to get inside. She peeked in, nodding her head, but stayed in the hallway.
“So, you have your own room?”
I nodded. She raised her eyebrow like she was prompting me for more, but I didn’t know what she wanted me to say. I was good here. She didn’t need to come.
“What about privacy? Do you feel like you’ve got plenty of that? Do you feel uncomfortable or unsafe in any way sleeping here?”
I made a face at her. “Why would I? ”
She pressed her lips together tightly. “It’s a question I have to ask, especially now that we are alone. If you’re afraid of making your guardian angry?—”
“I’m not afraid of Mattias.”
And I wasn’t. He was a good person. A little closed off, but he actually gave a shit and did what he could to make me comfortable. Even last night when he was obviously distracted with Mel, he came to tell me where they’d both be, so I’d be comfortable. I felt okay with Thor around, but it was a nice gesture.
I might ask for some noise-canceling headphones, though. I played youtube videos on my phone to drown them out, and they weren’t purposely loud, but I caught a few things I just didn’t need to hear.
“And what about your brother's friends? Have you met them yet?”
My attention snapped back to her, and I frowned. “Why?”
There was nothing wrong with Mattias’s friends. They were good people. At least the ones I’d met so far were. Rooster was funny. And super nice to the little kids. Even when the baby got rough and pulled his hair, he was gentle in redirecting her and he didn’t yell or get mad. Just nicely told her no. He made me feel a lot better about being around the crew. If they were all as nice as him, then I had nothing to worry about.
Maybe. He only really knew part of the story. I wasn’t willing to share the rest.
The lady didn’t seem to want to answer my question. She just moved on, asking about my health and what Mattias was doing to make sure I was getting better. It felt weird that she was asking me all of that. Why wouldn’t she talk to him? He was the one who was putting in the effort to get me better.
“Who’s room is that?” She pointed to the room next to mine.
“Guest room,” I shrugged. “Mel is staying in there while I get used to things.”
Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “They’re sleeping in different rooms?”
I made a face. I didn't know anything about what they’d do from now on. I didn’t know they were dating before last night. It didn’t feel like my business. I liked Mel and if they were sleeping in the same bed, it wouldn’t really matter to me, but I didn’t like this woman or the way she seemed to hate on Mattias. She seemed salty the minute she walked through the door.
She seemed to realize the conversation was getting off track because she cleared her throat, pointing to the boxes on the landing. “What are those?”
I shrugged. “No clue. They aren’t mine.”
She hummed, and I saw her step closer to one, but they were all sealed shut. She’d have to rip it open to look inside. She made a note in her little notebook and kept moving, heading for the bathroom next. Why she cared what the bathroom looked like, I had no clue.
We went downstairs and the social worker pointed at the couch, smiling at me. “Why don’t we have a seat?”
“He needs to eat,” Mattias said gruffly from the kitchen. “He’s still recovering.”
I stood awkwardly by the stairs, unsure where to go next. It was Mel who came to my rescue, coming to join us and waving me toward the kitchen.
“Go ahead. He’s right, you need to eat. We can pause, or Ms. Packman can join you in the kitchen.”
My eyes flicked to the social worker, who looked puzzled, but when she noticed me watching her, she masked the look and smiled at me. “Of course. Your health comes first. I’ll join you in the kitchen.”
We sat at the table, me and Mattias on one side and Mel and the social worker on the other. Mel was nice enough to offer the woman something to eat or drink, but she said no and started asking Mel about my health. It was whatever. I didn’t listen to most of what the doctor said that first day, either. I knew I was skinny. If I didn’t steal cash from Jorge’s wallet, we wouldn’t eat. He was too drunk to notice most of the time, especially because I kept some of his favorites around. As long as he had alcohol, he didn’t give a shit.
“So, Xander. Are you comfortable here with your brother? Is there anything you feel like you can’t talk to him about?”
I whipped my head up, startled. What the hell did she know?
Melissa
I did my best to reassure Mattias, but when the social worker came downstairs, I watched her a little more closely. He wouldn’t be making accusations like that if he hadn’t noticed something. And she did look more suspicious than considerate. Social workers got a bad rap because they removed kids from parents, but I knew she was only here to help. I tried to keep an open mind, reassuring Xander with a smile when he looked at me with a deep frown.
He was pretty quiet while we ate, his focus on his food. I was okay with that since getting him as much nutritional food as possible was what was important now. It was too early to see any difference in his weight, but he looked less pale and sick after a few days of regular meals and good sleep.
From what I could tell, both brothers were uncomfortable, but resigned and answered Rachel’s questions without much complaint. It was Xander’s reaction to Rachel’s last question that made me frown.
“So, Xander. Are you comfortable here with your brother? Is there anything you feel like you can’t talk to him about?”
He jerked his head up and looked a little like a deer in the headlights. His eyes darted around and he barely seemed to notice his mouth was full of food. Why did he look panicked right now?
“I’m fine,” he forced out around the mouthful. Then he shoved another bite in his mouth, like he was trying to prevent anyone from asking him anything more.
Since she obviously struck a nerve, I saw Rachel make note of the reaction. I didn’t think Xander was uncomfortable around Mattias anymore, but maybe he wasn’t at the stage where he felt like he could share secrets yet.
“I’ve made a few phone calls and got them both into family therapy to handle this new situation,” I added. I wanted to help a little, but that only seemed to freak Xander out more. I was quick to reassure him. “It’s just to get more comfortable around each other. Like laser tag, but with more chatting.”
He didn’t look any more enthusiastic about it, so I shot Mattias a look to get him to chime in. He looked disgruntled, but he put his own food down, turning to look at his brother.
“I didn’t know you existed until a few days ago. Mel suggested talking to someone so I can do right by you. We’ve got little kids at the clubhouse, but you’re the oldest, and I don’t know shit about teenagers. If I want to do better than our asshole old man, we need to communicate better.”
Okay, we could’ve done without the overabundance of profanity, but it had the desired effect. Xander settled a little and nodded. I was glad I thought to call and make an appointment with Addison right after scheduling the laser tag thing. She had a cancellation in her schedule that she offered to me. It would get them both in tomorrow to talk to someone. I think the laser tag helped a lot, and I had more ideas for fun things to do to slowly introduce the crew too, but making sure Xander felt comfortable talking to Mattias about important things was definitely a priority. It’d take longer than a few days, though, and I didn’t understand why Rachel was asking about it so soon.
“Well, if you feel like you can’t talk to him–” Rachel started.
“I said I’m fine,” Xander snapped. He shoved away from the table, abandoning his food. “May I be excused?”
Rachel spluttered out a protest, but Mattias didn’t even hesitate. “Go ahead.”
“Mr. Ruiz, we haven’t finished yet,” Rachel argued.
Mattias glared at her. “I don’t care. He’s at his limit. He’s allowed to have space. Go, Xander. If you don’t want to stay here, then Thor’s leash is by the door. You can take him for a walk around the block.”
Xander didn’t hesitate, grabbing the leash and disappearing out the back door. If I didn’t know how well behaved Thor was, I would’ve protested against such a little kid handling that gigantic dog, but Thor was an angel and incredibly protective of kids. He wouldn’t leave Xander’s side for a second.
Once Xander left, Mattias got up, turning his attention to dishes. He was avoiding looking at Rachel, which to me showed a great deal of self control. He was obviously not happy with her, his shoulders lined with tension, but he didn’t yell or demand she leave. He took a few seconds to breathe and clear his head. It was one of the many things I admired about him.
Rachel didn’t seem happy about it, and she wrote a few notes in her notebook. Sitting that close to her, it was hard not to peek over her shoulder to see what she was writing, but I didn't want to cause issues with the CPS case by pissing her off. I forced myself to smile when she turned to look at me.
“Xander said you sleep upstairs. Is that for his benefit?”
I tipped my head back and forth. “Yes, and no. He has nightmares, so sticking close by helps, I think. He slept with Thor last night, and that seemed to help a lot, too. I won’t be here forever, though. Mattias and I are still new, and it’s nowhere near time to think about that. But we’ve been friends for a long time and he recognized he needed help to make sure Xander felt comfortable here, so I came to stay for a little while.”
“Thor?”
“The dog,” I quickly amended. “He’s the sweetest thing you’ll ever meet. He loves kids. Regularly plays with kids with ages ranging from one and a half to eight.”
She nodded slowly. “Does the dog have any history of biting or displaying threatening behavior?”
“No,” Mattias said gruffly. “He was treated poorly by his owner and I took him in and retrained him. He’s never even growled at the kids, and Zoey likes to put him into a chokehold.”
I bit my lip to hide my smile. That was so true. Thor and Mattias had a lot of similarities. They both looked intimidating as hell, but if you got to know them, you’d see just how gentle they both really were.