He blinked.
“I’m kidding,” I whispered, feeling insecure and shy and nervous. “We’re friends, right? Friends aren’t scared of each other.”
That got me one big grunt.
I guess that was as good as I was going to get. “Do you know who might be coming? With the car or whatever?”
“I have an idea.”
So helpful and informative.
I bit my lip, noting how he wasn’t really easing my worry over anything. Honestly, it kind of helped. We weren’t sure how we were going to make this work, how I was going to get my life back, but… I knew he would help me any way he could. At least I was pretty sure. It was what he’d promised. He might be a rude, big turd, but… there was a good heart in there. Or at least a reasonable one. A prideful one.
You didn’t do what he did for money. You didn’t think about being a firefighter for recognition.
I started shaking my leg. “Do you have any siblings?” I asked him in a rush.
He blew out a breath that made his lips make a raspberry sound. “Is talking going to make you quit shaking and being nervous?” he grumbled.
I nodded seriously.
His gaze slid up toward the ceiling. “Yes.”
Yes? “I can’t see you having siblings.” I still couldn’t picture him taking a poop. Had he snuck one in? He had to have gone at some point, but when? I had finally caught him peeing. “A brother or a sister?”
“Both.”
Oh, he’d let me asktwoquestions. So much information. I wanted to ask where they were, what their names were, if they were close, but maybe I shouldn’t push too much. I should keep it vague and maybe later on ask him more personal stuff before he shut down. Quantity over quality.
I scratched my nose.
“What happened the last time you saw your parents?”
I wasn’t the only one with questions, I guess. He kept catching me off guard with what he paid attention to, too. Which seemed to be everything. “I don’t remember, but from the way my grandparents reacted afterward, I think they got a vibe from my parents that they might have been interested in taking me with them, wherever they were living. The first time we moved was right after that,” I answered. All that had been blurry. I didn’t know for sure that had been the case, but that was right around the time when they’d stopped talking to me about them unless I brought them up. I flexed my hand, then closed it again. “Do you have kids?”
His nose literally scrunched up before he answered with a definite “No.”
Touchy much?
“Why haven’t you had a boyfriend?” he shot back without missing a beat.
I hadn’t seen that shit coming, but okay. “It’s too hard to lie to people you barely care about, much less people you do care about.” Now I sounded like a pathological liar, but that was me. “Do you really not have a girlfriend?”
His eyes narrowed. “No.”
“Huh,” I said, surprised and not surprised at the same time.
That got me a face.
I didn’t mean to smile, but I did.
“What?”
“You’re a very handsome man. I’m sure you know that.”
A muscle in one of his cheeks flexed.
“It’s just—” I sniffled and got myself together. “—when you open your mouth, people realize beauty is only skin deep.” I smiled sweetly at him. “You didn’t get to choose your face. You just got lucky to have your… what did you call them? Superior genes.” I shrugged. “You have no idea how lucky you are to be so special.”
