7. Cas
7
Cas
O nce my parents left, I transferred to the sofa and stretched out with a groan. My muscles were tender from the fall, the night in a hospital bed, and the stress of my parents’ surprise visit.
“Do you want a pain pill?” Rishi asked quietly.
I shook my head. “Not the leg that hurts. Maybe Tylenol.”
Rishi nodded and got the pills and a Pepsi from the fridge for me, then dropped down into one of the stuffed chairs. “That went pretty well,” he offered.
I nodded, pressing the cool can of soda to my cheek. “It did. I dunno what we’ll do when you go back to Colorado, but for now, they’re off my back.”
“I thought of that, but I decided that was a worry for the future. Some people are engaged for years.”
I opened my eyes and grinned at him. “You wanna be engaged to me for years?”
Rishi’s eyes were roaming over me in a way that he hadn’t done before. “I would not object,” he said slowly.
I laughed suddenly. “I guess it’s a good thing you’re bi and single,” I said, with a questioning inflection on the “bi.”
Rishi nodded. “I am,” he said simply, and something in his tone made me look more closely. The teasingly appraising expression was gone, replaced by a tightness.
I was debating whether I should ask about the look when Rishi’s phone rang. “Marcus,” he said by way of answering.
He listened for a few moments, his face going through a series of micro-expressions, then he nodded. “Thank you,” he said. “Mr. Hallie intends to forward all of this to his Captain, so if you would be willing—” he cut off with a quick laugh. “Of course you have. I’ll download and forward it to him then. Thank you. Good night.”
“Your colleague?” I asked.
“Yes. The info gatherer. He’s identified one of the men who broke into your apartment and has compiled everything he has found to forward to your captain. Did the captain reply to your earlier message?”
“He acknowledged that he got it and assured me that it would be under investigation. He considers the immediate case with the Fernandez gang to be over, and it is as far as Saint is concerned. They have the men who left the spider, the snake, tampered with his car, and were going to shoot him. There wasn’t clear evidence that Fernandez was responsible for those things, and Greene is dead, so we have no way of proving that they were conspiring.” The stories that Rio and Saint had told me of their time on the run were like something from a zany action movie.
Rishi hummed. “Well, it might be opening up again. One of the men has been identified as a member of Fernandez’s Riverside branch. Why he had people from Riverside come all the way up here to scoop you up, I do not know. Perhaps he wanted them to take you out there? Removing you from the city would make it markedly harder to find you.”
“If I get taken by Fernandez, he’s going to want to handle my interrogation himself,” I said. I told him about Antonio’s message. I assumed that Saint had informed him when he was assigned to me, but I thought a reminder wouldn’t go amiss.
“That won’t happen,” Rishi said with finality.
I huffed. “Believe me, I would prefer it didn’t.”
My parents called me at eight thirty the next morning. “You simply must have brunch with us,” Mom gushed as soon as I picked up. I booked us in at Mimosa Magic. I’ve wanted to try them since they opened, and now we’re here with nowhere else to be!”
I kept the groan inside, sighing quietly instead. “Sure, Mom, what time and where is it?” I was still in bed.
“The reservation is at ten. I’ll send you the address. Wear something nice.” She made a kissy sound into the phone and hung up.
“Fuck,” I muttered, sitting up. I transferred to my chair, which I could now do with ease, and wheeled out to use the bathroom. “Rishi,” I called as I went through. “We’ve been summoned.”
Silence, then, “Excuse me?” He appeared and stood outside the bathroom door, which I left open a crack according to the system we had worked out. Privacy, but we could still talk and Rishi could get in if something happened.
“Mom called. We’ve been summoned to brunch at ‘ Mimosa Magic ’—” the eye-roll was clear in my voice. “I’m supposed to ‘wear something nice.’”
Rishi hummed outside the bathroom door. “Do you need help with anything?”
I sighed. “I should shower, and I guess I’m going to be a good boy and make sure you’re in here when I do that from now on.”
Rishi chuckled lightly. “If you fell again, you wouldn’t have to go to brunch,” he pointed out, and I froze for a second, then burst out laughing.
“You’re right,” I said, still laughing. “But it hurt.”
“I know… Can I come in? When did you want to shower?”
“Have you been in here this morning? If you have, I can just do it now.” I opened the door and rolled back enough for Rishi to come into the room, too.
“I was,” Rishi said. “I was on the couch texting my sister while she was on her lunch.”
“Are you finished? I haven’t heard you talk about her much. I don’t want to interrupt.”
“We were finishing up,” Rishi said. “Let’s get ready for brunch.”
The closeness and implied intimacy of the shower situation was amplified, at least in my head, by the fact that we were going to meet my parents as a couple. Everything went smoothly, so Rishi never touched me, but just having him in the room while I was naked had me mostly hard for the entirety of the shower. I only had to think about where we were going to get the situation back under control, though.
***
I hadn’t been out socially since I was discharged from in-patient PT. I was dressed in nice jeans with one leg folded up neatly, a pale blue button-down with tiny flamingos all over it, and my good brown wingtip shoe. I had been wearing slide sandals or sneakers since I was able to be up, so the dress shoe felt a bit odd, but I checked myself in the full-length mirror on the back of the bedroom door and nodded to myself. “Not bad, Hallie, not bad at all.” Even with the wheelchair.
My hair was longer than I usually kept it and starting to curl. I combed it to the side, away from my face, and chuckled. I knew Saint jokingly referred to me as “Joe Nichols in an LAPD uniform,” and I could see that. A strong jaw, milk chocolate eyes, and a nose that even I knew I was blessed with meant that I had never had trouble finding company.
Once I had finished putting myself together, I rolled out of my bedroom and met Rishi coming out of the bathroom. He was freshly showered, his wavy black hair combed neatly back from his face. His beard was cropped close to his jaw as always, and he was dressed in a black dress shirt tucked into black jeans and shining black combat-style boots. He looked professional and rugged, yet sharp, and I felt a surge of lust that left me breathless.
When I finally caught my breath, I realized that Rishi was staring at me. “What’s wrong?” I asked, looking down at myself.
Rishi shook his head. “Nothing, nothing, um.” He cleared his throat. “You look very nice,” he said, his voice strangely neutral, and I realized that I may have just had the same effect on him. I tilted my head and sent him a flirty smile, a bit like the one Joey from Friends used that had often gotten me results when I went out. He blinked, swallowed, and I chuckled softly. “Touché,” I said quietly, and the way he looked at me in return told me that we might be having a talk when we got back to the apartment.
Mimosa Magic looked the way it sounded, which is to say citrus-colored, overly fruity, and somewhat pretentious.
I sighed when I saw it and was grateful for the lack of parking in front. Rishi offered to let me out at the door, but I shook my head. “No, just find a spot. I’m not keen to show them all how I get in and out yet.”
Rishi nodded, and we found a place two blocks away. I had the footrest on my chair for the outing, and I allowed Rishi to push me simply because it was faster and easier for both of us until we were within sight of the restaurant. I glanced up at him then, and he smiled while stepping to my side and laying a hand on my shoulder. It struck me then that Rishi often anticipated what would make me most comfortable and accommodated me to the best of his ability. I looked away quickly, the realization making him suddenly all the more sexy.
“There you two are, don’t you both look handsome!” Mom gushed, attaching herself to me to kiss both of my cheeks, then doing the same to Rishi. He accepted it with grace, then shook my dad’s hand when he offered it.
“Mr. and Mrs. Hallie,” Rishi greeted them politely.
Dad waved his hand. “Enough of that, my boy, please call me Rich.”
“And call me Daphne,” Mom chimed in. “Come, let’s go get seated so we can be comfortable while we talk.”
The restaurant turned out to have a very nice, handicap-accessible patio, and soon we were all around a table with drinks in our hands.
“Well, I called your aunts right away,” Mom said. “They all wanted to know when the wedding was, but of course, you’ve only just gotten engaged, so how can you know?” She batted her lashes at me and took a sip of her mimosa.
I mirrored her, taking a quick sip and shaking my head ruefully. Now that I had time to consider it, I liked this cover, at least for the time being. It was a bit like a book that I was writing, and I had been doing that since I was nine. “You’re right, Mom. We really haven’t talked about it. I would want to have my permanent prosthetic, which isn’t going to be for a while yet. When we tie the knot, I want to do it standing face to face.” I smiled over at Rishi, who ducked his head with a slight smile on his lips. I wasn’t even sure at this point how much of this was cover story and how much was the growing attraction between us. I guessed we would find out.
“I like it,” Dad said. “My boys are proud; you’ve always liked to stand on your own two feet.”
I felt a surge of warmth go through me. I had always stood on my own two feet, and my father’s acknowledgement of that was nice.
“Do you have any ideas for what you would like?” Mom asked hopefully, leaning forward, and I suddenly realized where she was going with this.
“No, Mom, not really…” I said. “Rishi and I just haven’t really talked about it yet, you know? We’ll probably just have a civil ceremony.”
I swear my mother’s soul left her body for a moment, and Dad stuffed a crudité into his mouth to stifle his laugh. “A civil ceremony?” Mom whisper-shrieked. “Why would you want a civil ceremony when you could have anything you could want??”
Rishi looked somewhat alarmed at how upset my mother was when she stopped talking and he patted the air in front of him. “Mrs. Hallie — Daphne — please do not get upset. It will be a lovely wedding, but we have only just become engaged. I am not religious, and I would prefer a civil servant to conduct the ceremony, which I am sure Cas agrees with?”
I nodded emphatically. I am an atheist. My parents went to church on the big two holidays each year, and if they attempted to insist on a religious service, I would fight them.
“Will your parents have any opinions on the wedding?” Dad asked, and Rishi shrugged.
“I do not know. We are not a religious family, but they respect tradition. I have not told them yet either.” I noticed that when Rishi felt put on the spot, he became much more precise in his language, dropping contractions of words and colloquial phrases. I was briefly distracted by that, which could have been my mind attempting to get away from this wedding talk until Rishi took my hand. “I do believe they will love Cas, however. He is a wonderful man, and I am lucky.”
“Oooo….” My mother cooed. “Richie, look at them. I never thought Casimir would find such a sweet man…”
That was news to me, but since it was a compliment to Rishi, I didn’t debate it. To be fair, I wasn’t sure that I’d ever find a man who was as kind and patient as Rishi, but I sternly reminded myself that Rishi wasn’t actually mine; this was just a ruse for the time being.
When I looked into Rishi’s eyes, though, I wished it wasn’t.