Shep sighed. “Tell me that’s not your mother.”
“Worse,” Elijah said, hopping from the counter to tug his pants back in place just in time for Charlie’s voice to echo from the foyer.
“Hello, guys and gays.”
When Charlie entered the kitchen, Shep’s first instinct was to put Elijah behind him. Shep swore he heard him snicker. The girl plopped her huge white bag on the counter closest to her but then stopped short, wrinkling her nose. “Why does it stink like sex in here?”
Elijah’s forehead dipped to Shep’s shoulder. “Oh, my God. Why are you like this?”
“Like what? Observant? It smells like Motley Crue’s tour bus.”
“Who’s Motley Crue?” Elijah asked.
“Some old 80s hairband. Wyatt and I watched a docudrama about them. Real party goblins.”
Elijah clung to Shep’s waist, his face buried against his neck. He’d clearly been expecting Charlie if she had the door code. Shep had changed it just the night before. The girl wore one of those floral one-piece rompers with her shoulders peeking outside flouncy sleeves. She’d pulled her hair up and away from her face, dressed as if Elijah was only a stop on her journey, not her final destination. Shep hoped that meant she wasn’t planning to stay.
Charlie crossed her arms over her chest as she studied Shep. “I thought you were the straight brother.”
Did Elijah know about Mac? Shep tilted his head. “Who told you that?”
Charlie’s gaze shifted away from Shep, clearly not expecting the question. “Wyatt,” she said.
Interesting. “You and Wyatt talk about who I might want to have sex with?”
Charlie snorted. “Okay, when you say it like that, it sounds weird. We just wanted somebody to have sex with Elijah.”
“Hey!” Elijah yelped.
Shep ignored him. He appreciated Charlie’s directness if nothing else. “You could have just asked me.”
“Nowthatwould have been weird,” she murmured.
“Okay, that’s it. We’re going to my room,” Elijah said, ducking out from behind Shep to grip Charlie’s arm and drag her towards his bedroom.
Shep pulled up Elijah’s feed on his phone propping it up so he could monitor the boy and continue with his errands. Filming in Georgia started in less than five days and Shep was coordinating security routes with the rest of Elijah’s team members, including Lucifer, who, as always, was making things far more difficult than necessary. He was in the middle of typing out a text when his phone vibrated in his hand and an overseas number popped up on his screen.
He swiped to answer. “Hello.”
A series of hisses and pops greeted him, his brother’s voice sounding like they were conducting the call with two tin cans and a piece of string. “Hey, bro,” Mac said. “Got your message. I called as soon as I could. Sorry about the shit connection. Satellite phone.”
Shep was used to dealing with shitty phone connections. “Still in Nepal?”
“Nah, man. I’m in Thailand photographing the wildlife of Khao Mokoju forNat Geo. No sherpas… or yaks. I have an adorable guide named Anurak, but he’s married to an equally adorable woman named May, so I’m on my own.”
Like Shep, Mac was content to spend time on his own. He spent days trekking through rainforests, swamps, frozen wastelands. He’d even spent a few days in Chernobyl. The only constant in his brother’s life was his camera.
When Shep didn’t respond, his brother said, “What’s up? I don’t think you’ve ever called me for advice… ever.”
It was true. “Well, I’ve never had a problem I felt you were qualified to help me with.”
“Ouch,” Mac said, then laughed. “I’m intrigued though. There’s only one reason you’d call me instead of mom. You want something and she’d say it’s a bad idea. I’m assuming this ‘something stupid’ you referred to in your text has a name?”
Shep’s gaze shifted to the hallway before he wandered to the back terrace. “Yeah… Elijah.”
White noise filled his ear before his brother’s tinny voice said, “Eliza? Like Doolittle?”
He waited for the connection to clear. “No. Elijah.” There was a moment of silence where Shep thought the connection dropped and thenhis brother laughed himself sick for a solid minute, leaving Shep no choice but to sit and listen. “Areyou done?” he grunted.
