Chapter 4
Riley held the casserole carefully as she made her way down the hall toward Porter’s apartment.
He’d said she didn’t need to bring anything, but it felt weird to show up with nothing.
So she’d made a green bean casserole. It was a risk, Porter’s nephew might hate vegetables—hell, Porter might hate them—but this dish was one of her favorites.
She’d put crispy onions on the top and used extra cheese as well, to try to entice the guys to eat it.
She knocked on the door and stood in the hallway feeling slightly awkward and seriously nervous. Was this a good idea? Probably not. Riley was way too interested in her gorgeous neighbor. Hadn’t she just decided she was done with men for a while? And now here she was.
Just as she’d decided it might be best to go back to her apartment and hide, the door opened and Porter was standing in front of her.
Thoughts of retreat flew from her brain as she got a good look at her neighbor. He looked stressed. There were lines around his mouth and the smile he gave her was strained.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hi,” Riley returned. Then she lowered her voice. “Are you okay? Is Logan all right?”
“We’re good. It’s just been a stressful afternoon,” Porter told her. Then louder, he said, “Come on in. You’re right on time. Dinner’s almost ready.”
Riley let Porter take the dish out of her hands and she entered the apartment.
The setup was the same as hers, but reversed.
Her kitchen was on the right after entering the main room, Porter’s was on the left.
The hallway in her place went to the left, his went to the right.
She was somewhat surprised to find Porter’s place was immaculate.
She supposed she’d stereotyped him and figured it would be a mess, simply because he was a guy, but after thinking about it, she should’ve suspected it would be neat since he was in the Army.
Logan was sitting in the living room watching TV.
“Logan, this is Riley Rogers. She’s our neighbor.”
The boy didn’t even look up.
“Logan,” Porter repeated. “It’s rude to ignore someone when they’re introduced to you.”
His nephew reluctantly looked away from his show over to where she was standing. “Hey.”
“Hi. It’s nice to meet you,” Riley told him.
Logan merely shrugged and turned his attention back to the show.
Porter whispered, “Sorry,” as he headed for the kitchen.
“It’s fine,” Riley said in a low tone. “I take it things are a little rough right now?”
To her surprise, Porter put the casserole dish down and rested his hands on the countertop. He lowered his head and sighed.
Her heart went out to him. She hadn’t known this man for very long, but it was obvious he was struggling.
“I think he hates me,” Porter said. “He’s barely said more than a dozen words to me since we left post this afternoon. He communicates via grunts and shrugs. I saw him smile only once today, and that was at a random soldier on base who was showing him around, and not at me.
“We went to the store and I bought a shit-ton of stuff, but I have no idea if he likes any of it because all he did was sulk as he followed me around the store. I bought furniture, and again, he could hate it for all I know, because not one iota of emotion crossed his face the entire time.” Porter looked up at Riley, and she saw the frustration and sadness in his eyes. “I don’t know what to do.”
Riley wasn’t exactly an expert on kids, but she did know some of what Logan was probably thinking. She’d been in his shoes. Pawned off on strangers while her parents tried to get their lives back together. She put a hand on his arm. “You just need to be patient.”
“I know,” Porter said, keeping his gaze locked on hers. “But I care about this kid so much already, and it’s only been a day! I want him to know how sorry I am that I didn’t know about him before, and that he’s safe with me.”
“Have you told him that?” Riley asked.
Porter blinked. Then shook his head. “Not quite. He overheard me talking with my team today about how they’d take care of him if anything happened to me. I made sure he knew that my friends were like my family, and they were now his family.”
Riley struggled to find the right words.
She wasn’t sure she was qualified to help this man and his nephew, but she wanted to try.
“When I was taken away from my parents the first time, I was terrified. I didn’t know where I was going to live, what I was going to eat, where I was going to sleep.
I was placed with a very nice family, who were great to me, but it wasn’t what I was used to.
It wasn’t my home. I didn’t know them. Then, just when I was getting comfortable again, I was picked up and brought back home to my parents.
I was happy, but also felt extremely guilty because I’d begun to like it at that other house.
My parents tried hard, but they fought a lot.
It was uncomfortable in my house. I constantly had to be on my best behavior so I didn’t set either one of them off.
“The second time I was taken away, it was a little easier, but still scary. That family wasn’t as nice as the first one, but I didn’t have to worry about being smacked around or not having enough to eat, like I did at home.
The feelings of guilt were still there. Every time I got shuffled around, those feelings came back.
I was confused, and it was always scary having to move in with strangers, even if they were nice.
“Cut Logan some slack, Porter. You two aren’t automatically going to be best buds simply because you’re related by blood.
And I know you’re a guy, but you’re going to have to tell him how you feel.
A lot. He probably won’t reciprocate. But get over it.
Talk to him about how you felt about your sister.
Tell him that you care about him. That you’re glad he’s here even though it means a lot of changes in your life.
If you open up to him, I think he’ll eventually return the favor. But trust takes a while.”
Porter shifted, and before she knew what he was doing, she was in his embrace.
She was a foot shorter than he was, but somehow they still managed to fit together.
Her cheek rested on his chest, and when his arms went around her, she felt absolutely surrounded by him.
She could tell Porter had probably taken a shower before she’d come over.
He smelled fresh and clean. Even his T-shirt smelled as if it’d just been laundered.
Riley had never been a touchy-feely person, mostly because her parents didn’t hug her a lot, and she’d learned to keep people at arm’s length. But instead of feeling uncomfortable…she felt as if she’d come home.
Just as she moved her hands to return his hug, Porter stepped back. His cheeks were rosy, as if he was embarrassed.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?” Riley asked in confusion.
“For touching you without asking first.”
Movement out of the corner of her eye caught Riley’s attention. She turned her head to see Logan standing just outside the kitchen.
“It’s okay,” she told Porter.
“It’s not,” he said with a shake of his head.
“It’s never okay to touch a woman without making sure she’s okay with it.
I just…I’m glad you’re here. I’m sorry all that stuff happened to you, but it makes me admire you more than I already did.
And you’re right, I’m just being impatient.
I need to curb that and just go with the flow. What did you bring us?”
For a second, Riley was thrown by his quick change of topic, but then she realized that he’d seen Logan watching them too.
“Green bean casserole. And before either of you wrinkle your noses and say you don’t like it, trust me, you’ll like mine.” She turned and looked at Logan. “You want to know what’s in it?”
Logan shrugged.
Riley took that as a yes. “Of course it’s got green beans, but you’ll hardly be able to taste them because I doubled the amount of cheese in there.
And it’s got cream soup, and sour cream, and I even put extra onion crunchies on top.
You ever had those, Logan?” she asked. She hadn’t mentioned it actually contained cream of mushroom soup, because that tended to freak people out if they didn’t like mushrooms. She hated the things, and she freaking loved cream of mushroom soup.
It tasted nothing like the fungus she refused to think about eating.
Logan said “no” in a small voice.
Riley decided it was a good thing that he’d even spoken to her. She smiled. “You’ll love ’em. They’re like potato chips, but crunchier. And they make your breath super stinky. It’s awesome.”
That won her a little smile from the boy. Riley glanced at Porter—and froze when she saw how he was looking at her. He also had a small grin on his face, and for a second she thought he was going to hug her again. But then he turned to his nephew.
“We’ll have to make sure we brush our teeth right after dinner so we aren’t knocking each other over with our breath. Although…it might be fun to see who has the worse breath. We could always breathe on each other and see who falls over first.”
Porter’s teasing was extremely cute, and Riley was thrilled to see another smile form on Logan’s face.
“Thanks for bringing something,” Porter said. “You didn’t have to. I actually made a salad to go with our burgers. I wanted to make sure Logan had some greens to go along with his protein.”
And just like that, Riley’s heart swelled in her chest again. Porter might not think he was doing a good job with his nephew, but from where she was standing, he was doing everything right.
“Awesome,” she said.
“Dinner will be ready in about five minutes, if that’s okay.”
After Riley nodded, Porter turned to Logan again. “Go wash your hands. Then please come back and help us set the table.”