The MC’s Little Brother (Bikers and Babies #3)

Chapter 38

38

Wraith

T here wasn’t a ton of time between when I got back and when Mel had to leave. Salinger dragged it out a bit. We didn’t get a lot of face-to-face meetings, and whenever I did show up, he wouldn’t shut up. I was anxious to get back home. I got a text from Mel saying Xander was fine, and he finished the last few hours of school without issue, but I was still worried about him. When I finally got home, I found him on the couch with Thor, watching TV. Mel was in the kitchen and I did a double take when I saw her in there.

“She ordered pizza,” Xander supplied helpfully. “She’s making a salad to go with.” He made a face about the last part, but I would’ve suggested the same thing. He needed vitamins and healthy food.

Some of the tension that had settled in my shoulders since Mel called me that morning finally slipped away. I shrugged out of my jacket, hanging it by the door as I asked, “How was the rest of school? Did the afternoon go okay?”

When I turned around, he shrugged, frowning at the floor. “I’m behind on a lot of stuff. They might end up holding me back if I can’t catch up.”

I could tell that thought bothered him. Coming to the couch, I sat beside him, pushing Thor away when he tried to lick my face. “Knock it off. Attention whore.”

Xander snorted, peeking up at me. Since I had his attention, I took the opportunity to reassure him. “If you need another year, then you need another year. No one is going to hold that against you.”

“Don’t count yourself short yet!” Mel called from the kitchen. “You’ve never actually studied before!”

“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered under his breath, but it lacked any venom. If I had to guess, she said that to him earlier, but because he was bringing it up to me, she felt the need to remind him.

“She’s right. Learn how to study first and see how it goes.”

His face screwed up in confusion. “Learn how to study? What does that mean?”

I shrugged. “Everyone learns differently. I have to take a problem apart and learn why before I can copy it. It makes me good at coding. I have to define each step to get the machine to do what I want.”

“Whereas I do better with the “see one, do one, teach one” method,” Mel said as she came to join us. “Pizza’s on the table, by the way.”

We all headed for the table while Xander asked Mel to explain her method of learning. I remembered her doing that. She ended up teaching me and Wyatt a lot because it helped her memorize shit if she explained it to someone else.

“So… it’s not just taking notes and stuff?” he asked with a frown.

“Nope,” Mel replied. “Everyone learns in their own way. We’ll figure out what works best for you and I bet school will get a lot easier once we do. Did they give you any homework tonight?”

He lifted a shoulder uneasily. “They gave me some practice sheets. They said if I didn’t understand, I didn't have to do it, though.”

That seemed like a solid approach to me. Less pressure on the kid. “We can go over it together if you want.”

He shrugged again, but I didn’t expect much enthusiasm from a preteen faced with homework. We ate dinner with Mel doing the heavy lifting in the conversation department. That was her, though. She was an outgoing person and liked to talk. I liked to listen to her. It worked for us.

“Am I allowed to ask what you went to pick up?” She tipped her head, her expression open. She didn’t look like she’d be upset either way, but I didn’t see the harm in answering her. It wasn’t anything special.

“I was picking up new devices for my coworkers. They needed upgrades, but they have to go through me first. I make sure they can’t be traced back to who they belong to and put in some features so we can shut it down or wipe it from a distance. There are a few programs I created that need to go on with it too. I’ll add those later. I don’t trust the mail with things like this. I don’t want them stolen. It’s easier to make the drive.”

“Was it hard? Getting into the FBI?” Xander asked curiously.

“Yes. I had to train and study a lot. But all the good jobs make you do that and it's worth it. Melissa had to do nursing school. She used to practice taking vitals from me and Wyatt.”

“And my dad,” she said with a nod. “That’s how I found out he has high blood pressure. I marched him straight to his primary and found out he hadn’t been there in over a decade. He now goes to regular checkups or faces my wrath.”

Xander stayed curious, asking us both questions about our work. I suggested he ask the guys, too. There was a big variety of jobs in our crew and Xander had been getting to know them little by little. Our last outing, we went out with Nova and Deek, who both work with Butch. Xander was a little devil at air hockey. He was undefeated when we went to the arcade. Once he got comfortable enough, he could ask them questions about their work, too.

Pushing out of her chair, Mel sighed heavily. “Well, off to work I go. If there’s an interesting case, I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.” She bumped fists with Xander and I walked her to the door, helping her into her jacket as she got ready to leave.

“Do you want a ride?”

“As fun as that sounds, I think I’ll spare you from the early morning wake-up to come get me. I’ll be home around 7:30.” She blinked a few times. “Not home. Back. I’ll be back. Sorry, I–”

Swooping in, I silenced her rambling with a kiss. She let me, leaning into me, and when she pulled away, she smirked.

“I feel like I should be complaining about you shutting me up like that, but I just can’t find it in me.”

I ignored her tease, leaning my forehead against hers. “If I thought you were ready, I would’ve already asked you to move in. But I’m not going to push. So when you’re ready, just tell me.”

She looked stunned, but it was the truth. I wanted her for decades. I told her my intentions when we started this. Whether she moved in tomorrow or six months down the line, it didn’t matter to me. I had no problem waiting for her to catch up to me.

After Mel left and Xander ate most of an entire pizza on his own, we sat down with the worksheets the teachers sent him home with. He looked reluctant, but I wasn’t going to harp on him or anything. I just wanted to see if I could help.

“What are we working on?”

“Linear equations,” he mumbled, pushing the paper toward me. “I don’t remember learning about that.”

I nodded slowly. “Okay. Neither do I.”

He snorted and some of the dread washed off his face.

“Wait here.” I ducked into my office, grabbing my laptop. There wasn’t a single thing I couldn’t find on the internet. Somewhere out there was information to explain it to us. When I came back, Xander was playing with his phone, and when I sat next to him, I noticed him scrolling through the app store.

“Find any games to play?”

He shrugged, his nose wrinkled. “I dunno. It all seems boring.”

“Work on this worksheet for thirty minutes and I’ll show you the stuff I like on mine. Deal?”

He grinned and nodded, and together we looked up some videos online. Some were ridiculously boring, but some of them were stupid enough to make Xander laugh and keep his focus. I took a few notes on my phone, and when we tried it out on the worksheet, we got through at least a couple before he started to struggle.

“Relax. No one is asking you to get them all right on your first try. If you don’t know it, move on and come back to it. ”

“Math is stupid,” he griped. “When am I ever going to use this?”

That was a fair question, and my answer shocked him. “Unless you’re a math major or an engineer or something, never. That’s true with a lot of the shit you learn in school. But if you decide down the road that you want to become a scientist or something that needs it, you’ll wish you paid attention.”

“Are you supposed to tell me that?” he grinned.

I shrugged. “I’ll always tell you the truth, Xander. Unless it has anything to do with the details of my work. You want to know about that, learn to code, and join the bureau. Then I’ll tell you all about it.”

“Is coding hard?”

There was a knock at the door before I could answer. I frowned, looking at the clock on the stove. It wasn’t overly late, barely past seven, but I didn’t get visitors randomly. Except for maybe…

I tried not to sigh when I opened the door and the CPS worker stood on the front steps. Her last visit didn’t go well. I almost wished I could tell her to come back when Mel was around to play mediator.

“Good evening, Mr. Ruiz,” she said primly.

“Miss Packman,” I replied, taking a step back. If I wanted full guardianship of Xander, I needed to play ball with the woman. Didn't mean I had to be happy about it.

“Am I interrupting dinner?” she asked as she came inside, eyeing Thor warily as he came up to say hello. I sent him back to the kitchen, since she was obviously uncomfortable. When I turned back, the woman was looking around with that narrow-eyed expression that she had the first time she showed up. Like she was expecting drugs out on the tables or weapons lying around. Why the hell did wearing a vest automatically make me a bad person?

“No. We’re doing homework,” I grumbled, heading back towards the kitchen.

“Oh?” She sounded surprised, and it took work not to roll my eyes. Xander had no such control and rolled his, but he was facing away from her, doodling on the corner of his notebook.

“Xander started school today.”

She joined us in the kitchen, pointing to the chair on Xander’s other side. “Can I sit? ”

Xander shrugged and nudged Thor out of the way, keeping him within arm’s reach for support. He refused to look at her. I patted his shoulder and jerked my chin at the woman when he looked up at me. With a sigh, he turned and gave her his attention. She smiled at him.

“Hello, Xander.”

“Hi,” he grumbled.

“How was school today?”

Another shrug. Sometimes it was really easy to tell we were related. If we weren’t comfortable with people, neither of us was really chatty.

The CPS woman was probably used to this response because she didn’t push for more. She asked him about how he was sleeping and if he was eating enough. She made a comment about how he looked healthier and asked if he felt better. His responses were short and a little terse, but who could blame him when he was being interrogated by the woman?

“So. Last time I was here, you mentioned going to family therapy. Has that been helping?”

I glanced at Xander, but he wasn’t giving up shit, so I answered for us both. “I think so. I promised I’d explain myself better, and he promised to be more forthcoming. We’re working on it.”

It was subtle, but I saw him wince when I said that. The woman didn't seem to notice, but it made me frown. I had hoped we’d gotten to the point that we could be open with each other, but maybe he wasn’t there yet. I wouldn’t push him, but it did make me wonder: What wasn’t he telling me?