So fucking cute.
He noticed Ollie and CJ were watching them, so he nodded, letting them know it was okay to approach, and held up a folder. “I’m going to run this in to Tomas, but I’ll be right back, okay?”
Emmett nodded. “Okay! I’ll help get things set up.”
Rooster watched him for another moment as Emmett bent and picked up his box—round ass sticking up in the air like he had no idea how damn enticing he was—and then explained to Ollie and CJ what he’d brought with him before Rooster finally made himself walk away. He found Viper in Tomas’s office with him. She was standing next to him, leaning one palm on the desk and pointing at something on the large computer screen.
“It’s right there! Seriously, you need to get your eyes checked, Prez,” Viper said with a laugh and then moved around the desk and plopped into one of the chairs on the other side. She lifted her chin to Rooster in greeting. “Hey, Rooster.”
“Hey.” He tossed the folder onto Tomas’s desk and then propped a hip on the edge and faced her. “I can’t believe Emmett Moore is your roommate. I’ve known that boy since he was a kid.”
She looked really confused for a second and then chuckled. “Shit, I forget you grew up in Knotting Pine and not Ridgewood. That’s funny—did he freak out when he saw you? He was really nervous about meeting any club members, but I can’t decide if a familiar face would have made it better or worse for him.”
Rooster shrugged. “I think worse for a second, but we talked for a minute, and he seemed fine when I came in here, showing off the goodies he brought with him.”
“Awesome,” she said, leaning back in her chair once more. “Those two will be good for him.”
“Ollie will have him into trouble by noon,” Tomas muttered, typing something and then squinting at his screen and grunting in annoyance.
Rooster frowned, not liking the sound of that. He knew Ollie was sassy and kind of rambunctious, but he wouldn’t really get Emmett into some kind of trouble, would he? He looked at Viper, but she was just chuckling, unconcerned. But even though he tried to concentrate on what the two of them were saying, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he should be out with the others, keeping Emmett safe.
Even if it was just from a bad influence.
There had been something… innocent in Emmett’s eyes when he’d stared up at Rooster, asking if he’d frost cookies with them. Like something as simple as Rooster saying yes would make him incandescently happy.
“You with us, Rooster?” Viper asked, reaching over with one of her booted feet and nudging at his leg.
He refocused as he pushed up from the desk. “No, sorry. I’ll catch up with you two later, okay? I promised Emmett I’d go back and help.”
Tomas looked at him in surprise, but it was Viper’s snort that drew his eyes. “Why?” she asked, sounding confused but alsolike she wasn’t sure if she should tease him or not. “When was the last time you even saw him? Why would you…”
She pushed to her feet and was in front of him in a second, green eyes flashing.
“You should leave him alone, Gray,” she said, voice deadly serious. “He ain’t like us and never will be. What he needs from a man… You should just stay away from him so he doesn’t get hurt. ’Cause then you and I are going to have a problem.”
Narrowing his eyes, he squared his shoulders and met her head-on, both of them ignoring Tomas as he sighed loudly at them. “I respect you too much to lie to you and say I’m not attracted to him, but you’re not his keeper, and you have no idea if I can give him what he needs. So you need to stand down, V.”
She stared at him, studying his face for a long, tense moment. “If you hurt him…”
“For fuck’s sake, I told you I was frosting cookies with him, not asking you for his hand.” Rooster rolled his eyes and stepped back. As much as he didn’t appreciate her trying to boss him around, he couldn’t really be upset that she was so protective of Emmett. From what he remembered of the kid, he’d been a bit of a loner. Quiet but very sweet. Having a friend like her in his corner… Yeah, he couldn’t hate on that even if she was being a pain.
“Yeah, well,” she said, dropping back into her chair, “if that time comes, you ask for my blessing, not his shitty family’s.”
That stopped him before he could make his escape. He turned and raised a brow at her. “Did you forget that I said I knew his family?”
Her face said she was unimpressed. “So you know how bad they treat him?”
“Well… I was friends with his oldest brother, but we haven’t been close in years,” he hedged, wondering if he’d somehow missed the fact that the Moores were abusive or something to their youngest child.
She tipped her chair back onto two legs but rolled her eyes and let it drop back to the ground when Tomas cleared his throat without looking away from his computer monitor. “I tried to get him to either let me come with him for his family Thanksgiving or to skip it and just come here for the club’s. But he wouldn’t hear of it and kept saying how it would be fine. When he got home Thursday night, he was really quiet.” Viper’s jaw tensed as she shook her head. “So I got him some ice cream and put on his favorite cartoon and finally got him to admit that his fucking family barely spoke to him the whole day and then somehowforgotto set a seat for him at the table. He said no one even noticed he wasn’t there until he finished washing his hands and walked in. They were literally already passing the food around.”
Jesus.
“So I’m not trying to give you a hard time,” she said, running a hand through her green hair and sighing. “Well, I kind of am. I love that kid something fierce, but more importantly, he… needs certain things, and I don’t want him getting his hopes up because you flash your charming smile at him and are nice and do your whole caretaking schtick.”
He looked at Tomas. “I have a schtick?”
Tomas shrugged. “You’re a bit of a mother hen.”
