He whirled, spotting his brother jogging across the street in his uniform.
Uh-oh, this was going to be hard.
“Hey, Carter,” Hudson greeted as his brother joined him on the sidewalk.
“What are you doing in town?” Carter asked. “I thought you were still hanging out with Bastian.”
Hudson had texted his brother not to expect him home again. He needed more time to work out what he was going to say when he revealed that Bas would be moving in with them.
“Bastian needed to stop by the office to pick something up,” Hudson explained.
“And he left you out here on the sidewalk?” Carter demanded.
“No!” Hudson answered and laughed. “He wouldn’t do that.”
“He better not.”
Hudson rolled his eyes at his brother’s overprotectiveness. “I offered to grab coffee and food from the bakery. I caught up with Easton for a minute but was headed there now.”
“So everything went okay last night?” Carter asked, rocking back on his heels.
He knew that his face was red and looked away quickly.
“I wasn’t talking about that, perv,” Carter joked as he shoved Hudson’s shoulder.
“Then what did you mean?” It was obvious from Hudson spending the night and all that day what they had been doing.
Carter huffed. “I just meant…I…”
“Weren’t asking about my night?” Hudson teased. It was his brother’s turn to blush and that was hilarious.
“I just wanted to make sure he was treating you well,” Carter said. “I’ve heard things about the guys out there. The county sheriff is not a fan.”
“You told me that the sheriff was a bigoted idiot that needed to retire,” Hudson reminded his brother.
“Doesn’t mean he can’t be right this time,” Carter argued.
“Bastian and his friends are wonderful. They’ve made me feel very welcome. I get fed the best food, I have plenty of people to talk to, and Bastian treats me like a prince.”
“Fine.” Carter rolled his shoulders. “If you say so.”
“I do say so,” Hudson insisted. “They moved here for the same reason we did. They were looking for a place to call home. I really want you to give them a chance.”
“It’s not like I’m going to have much of a choice when you decided to date one of them.”
Date. Mate. Same difference, right?
The door open and Bastian stuck his head out.
“Are you okay, baby?” Bastian asked as he scowled at Carter.
Not the way that Hudson wanted Bas and Carter to start off.
“Yes!” Hudson waved back. “Fine.”
Bastian pushed the door the rest of the way open before stalking down the stairs. “I thought you were going to the bakery? Aaron called from there asking if we wanted something. I told him that you were headed that way, but he hadn’t seen you. I got worried.”
Now he had two overprotective men glaring at him.
