“Good idea.” Branson hated the idea of Caden’s fuck-up ruining Dad’s tour. Their family couldn’t manage two damned weeks without drama? “I’ll call them. Does Em know?”
“No, I want more details before I upset him.”
“Okay. Shit.”
“I know. I’ll update you later, okay?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
Branson ended the call then debated which of his parents to drop this on first. They were in Delphia Province this weekend, doing signings in four different locations. This morning’s should be long over, and the next wasn’t for a few hours. He called Papa’s mobile, because Papa was good at breaking bad news to Dad in a way that kept him from panicking.
“Hey, I didn’t expect to hear from you today,” Papa said. “Everything okay at home?”
“No, and that’s why I’m calling. No one’s hurt, and Eriq is handling it.”
“What happened?”
“Caden got high and punched a bouncer.”
A beat of silence followed, and then Papa said. “I think I need to sit down for this.”
Branson was on pins and needles waiting for Eriq to call back with an update. He couldn’t sit, couldn’t concentrate on the movie anymore. More than once, he nearly called Tarius just to hear a friendly voice, to be reassured everything would be okay. But this wasn’t gossip, it was a serious family matter—at least, until it hit the evening news.
When Eriq finally called and said Caden had been released without charges, Branson wanted to burst into relieved tears. When Eriq told him they suspected Caden had smoked Flax laced with something stronger, those relieved tears turned into furious ones.
Fury at Caden for smoking Flax in the first place, but even more fury at whoever had laced an already dangerous substance with something even more dangerous. Mixing illegal drugs got people killed.
He thanked Eriq for the update, then called Papa back so he knew what was going on. He could hear Dad cussing in the background when Branson mentioned the laced Flax.
“If Caden starts feeling unusually sick, he needs to go straight to Emergency,” Papa said. “Damn it, I wish we weren’t so far away.”
“I know, but we’re all here for Caden, I promise. Eriq is taking him home, and I bet he’ll be watching him like a hawk.”
“Or like a constable.” Papa grunted. “Thank you for calling. I don’t want Caden to feel smothered or ganged up on by me calling him directly.”
“Yet,” Dad yelled out in the background.
“Hopefully, he’ll call us all himself,” Branson said. “Try to enjoy the signing tonight.”
“We’ll do our best,” Papa replied. “Talk to you soon.”
“Bye.”
Branson’s finger hovered over Caden’s contact, but Papa was right. They couldn’t smother him. Caden hated that. He still wanted to call Tarius, just to have a good friend tell him everything would be okay, but Branson didn’t want to start the gossip chain. Not this time. Not when Caden was clearly going through something. Branson had been a horrible gossip as a teenager, but he was slowly growing out of it. Growing up and understanding that sometimes it was okay to have secrets.
Time inched by, and when his mobile finally rang with Caden’s number, Branson felt a huge weight lift from his chest. “Hey, dude, are you okay? Eriq texted that you’d been released.”
“I’m home and I’m okay.” Caden didn’t sound okay; he sounded hoarse. “So far so good.”
“What the fuck were you thinking?”
“Do you have at least thirty minutes? I’ll tell you all about it.”
That eased some of Branson’s temper over the whole situation. Caden wanted to talk to him. Finally. “Yeah, okay.” He perched on the edge of his sofa. “Start talking.”
“First of all, I love you, and I am so fucking sorry for everything. All of it. And I promise I will never smoke Flax again.”
Branson blinked hard against a rush of gratitude that made him want to cry. He couldn’t remember the last time Caden had said “I love you” to him and sounded like he truly meant it. Once he found his voice, he said, “Good start. What else?”
