Chapter 9 #3
I plug the directions to the diner into the car and navigate us onto the street.
The sky is bright blue and the sun is high up in the sky, probably a perfect day to be outside.
I try not to glance over at Parker as I drive, but it’s hard because my body is so attuned to his presence now.
By the time we pull up to the diner, my hands are wrapped so tightly around the steering wheel that I’m afraid I’ve permanently lost some circulation.
“Hey,” Parker says.
I tip my head to look at him. “Yeah?”
“Mandy doesn’t have real patients. It’ll just be me, you, and her in the clean room at the back of the diner.”
“I’m not anxious.”
Parker purses his lips as if he doesn’t believe me but stays quiet.
After hopping out of the car, I jog over to his side to open his door, offering help if he needs it.
But I’m learning Parker is strong and resilient, but also stubborn as a mule.
He keeps a hand tucked against his side to support himself as he hobbles into the almost empty diner despite it being prime brunch time.
It smells like pancake syrup and slightly burnt coffee, which kind of works together in an odd way.
A few old guys sit in the corner chatting over what looks like their third cup of coffee, and the sound of cooking echoes from the kitchen.
Mandy swears at the counter and moves toward us, tossing a dishrag over her shoulder.
“You look like you’re in pain,” Mandy notes with a glance up and down Parker.
“’Cause I am,” Parker deadpans.
Mandy tuts and nods toward the back. “Come on, kiddo. I’ll set you right.”
I follow along behind them with my hands tucked under my armpits to avoid touching anything or anyone.
Parker pauses after Mandy enters a sterile-looking medical room and leans against the door so I can walk through without touching a thing.
I mouth thank you toward him, and he mouths you’re welcome back, and it feels like this little moment I want to fold up and keep in my pocket forever.
Mandy pats the angled exam chair in the middle of the room. “Hop on.”
Parker grimaces but does what she says. “Left ribs.”
“And how did that happen?” Mandy asks curiously, one eyebrow raised.
“No comment,” Parker says evasively.
“Hmm.” Mandy lifts his sweater carefully, helping to slip his arm out of the sleeve so his sweater is tucked around his neck to give her room to investigate. “I kind of want to do an X-ray, Parker. This looks like you could have a broken rib or two.”
Parker stares her down. “Mandy, be serious.”
“Parker, broken ribs can give you a punctured lung.”
“What will I get when they’re just bruised?”
“Less bed rest,” Mandy quips.
Parker gasps and narrows his eyes. “You don’t have the authority—”
“Fuck you, I do.” Mandy narrows her eyes in return. “You think if I called Hayden right now and told him—”
“Excuse me,” I say, interrupting them both. Mandy swings her head toward me as if she forgot I exist. I clear my throat and give her a nod in permission. “He’ll do the X-ray.”
Parker’s jaw clenches but he doesn’t argue.
Mandy’s smile is wide and knowing when she looks between us, but thankfully she keeps her mouth shut.
The next ten minutes are full of helping to arrange Parker around in a back room that contains an X-ray machine and what looks like surgical equipment.
He hands me his glasses and I hold them carefully to avoid getting smudges on the lenses.
“This is just for instances like this. When it’s really bad, like it was for Reid and Dante, we meet Eric at his hotel downtown,” Mandy explains to me from behind the protective wall.
I can see Parker standing against the other wall with an irritated scowl, but he can’t see us.
The X-ray appears and Mandy leans forward with a relieved sigh.
“Well, fuck me. It’s not a break. Probably just a handful of painful contusions causing the bruising and swelling.
He still needs to rest for at least a few days. Can you make him do that?”
I swallow hard. “Yeah.”
“I’ll tell Hayden and he can hate me for it.”
“Are you employed by Robin? How does this all work?”
Mandy’s mouth twists at the corner, in a part grimace, part smile. “It’s all a little complicated. Yeah, I was recruited, so was Eric. But we’re basically just on-call secret keepers for them. They have a lawyer too, in case of emergencies, but we never see her. Thankfully.”
“I hope I never meet her.”
Mandy snorts. “That’s the spirit. You’re getting it. Want to prank him or be nice?”
“Nice,” I murmur, feeling soft and gooey inside for Parker.
“Cute. That’s your man, huh?”
I can feel my face flush to the roots of my hair. “I think so, yeah.”
“Double cute.”
Mandy walks around the wall to stand in front of an irritated and tired-looking Parker. “You’re lucky as hell, kid.”
“Told you,” Parker replies with a huff.
“Better safe than sorry. You want a cinnamon roll to go?”
Parker looks a little mollified at the offer. “Yes, please.”
I hand Parker his glasses and he slides them on with a grateful smile. We follow Mandy out to the kitchen, then accept two to-go containers and a cup of coffee for Parker. When we load into the car, Parker’s phone vibrates, and he tugs it out of his pocket with a wary sigh.
“Care instructions, five days of rest at a minimum. Great. Hayden will be thrilled. I won’t take anything stronger than some Aleve, so do you have that? And maybe ice packs?”
“I’ve got all of that. Let’s just get you home.”
“I’m not tired.”
“You are a bad patient, for your information.”
Parker grimaces and turns to look out the window. I take a few steadying breaths to calm my fraying nerves, my worry about Parker—about everything—eating away at me. By the time we pull up to the house, I’ve worked myself into an anxious mess. I was doing so well.
“Mason?” Parker calls, voice soft and worried.
“I just need a second.” I tighten my hands on the wheel, squeezing my eyes shut tight to tune everything out. “It’s just a lot.”
“The injury? I can go stay with the guys until I’m better.”
“No, not the injury.”
I glance over at Parker to find his eyebrows furrowed, a small, handsome-as-hell frown on his face. Why does he look hotter when frowning?
“I just… I killed my uncle, and then you moved in with me and you’re always so fucking hot, like, literally the hottest man in existence I think, and you kissed me, we kissed, and it felt good, it felt great, but also now I’m a double killer and I really actually kind of liked it, and I liked how you looked at me after I killed that guy but I also really like taking care of you and making sure you don’t do anything stupid but… We kissed.”
Parker looks at me so calmly, with absolutely no irritation at all about the weird, rambling tirade I just fumbled my way through. He always looks at me with that same fond expression.
“Yes, we kissed,” Parker agrees, a small smile on his plush lips. “And we’re boyfriends.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure?”
Parker’s frown returns. “What do you mean, am I sure?”
“I just mean… Well… I’m a man but also I’m kind of a lot, not in the way that Reid is a lot but in the way that I am not sure I’ll ever be able to go to a crowded concert or get on an airplane or eat at a buffet…”
“I am not remotely interested in any of those things,” Parker says. “But what I am interested in is you.”
“Oh,” I say again like a total idiot.
Parker smirks. “Yeah.”
“Okay, well. I’ll just worry about the being-a-killer thing, I guess.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that either. I’m taking care of it.”
Parker hops out of the car, clutching his ribs, before I can even work up a reply. I hop out and chase after him, but I catch up easily because he’s still toeing off his shoes on the front mat when I walk in.
“What’s that mean?”
“Just that you’ve nothing to worry about.”
“About killing my uncle?”
Parker hums absently and heads toward the kitchen, where he starts the now familiar routine of making us tea.
The man moves around with all the ease of someone who’s always lived here, always belonged.
I’m struck with the knowledge that I’m not sure I’ll be able to let him go when the time comes.
What will I do when he moves back to the other house?
I’m used to him here now, and it’s been nice not being alone anymore.
Having Reid here had been difficult most of the time because of his antics and misbehaviors, but at the end of the day he’d been here.
I’d liked feeling like someone else was here.
“You’re not going to tell me anything, are you?”
Parker hums again. “Probably not.”
“But we’re boyfriends."
“Oh?” It’s Parker’s turn to be confused it seems. “Are we?”
I square my shoulders. “To me, yes. You kissed me.”
“You said that a few moments ago.”
“Kisses mean something.”
“Do they?”
I grit my teeth because suddenly he’s being infuriating. “To me they do!”
Parker sets the kettle on the oven with a level of calm that pisses me off.
I watch as he rummages around in the cabinet to find the ginger tea he’s been making for us lately.
It settles my nerves and my stomach, which is a nice two for one.
Once the kettle whistles, Parker pours the boiling water into two clean mugs pulled from the cabinet, then washes his hands twice before tearing open the tea to place the bags in the cups.
He then sits calmly down at the table, pushes the cup across to me, and waits for me to take a seat. Okay. What’s going on?
“Sit down,” Parker says, tone brooking no argument.
I sit down immediately, but with a slight huff to show my displeasure. Parker just grins.
“You need to decide now how much you want to know. Do you want to be all in and know all of our business, or have a level of plausible deniability that’ll keep you out of jail if everything goes south?”
“Oh.”
Parker smiles placidly. “Yeah, oh.”
“We kissed.”
“Yes.”
“I’m all in.”