“That’s our friend Rey. He’s agoraphobic and this has been hard for him,” River said evenly, but with an edge that challenged me not to say anything negative about their friend.
The door to the office opened and Sierra peered out, a friendly smile on her face. She stepped outside, straightening the tunic she wore with her leggings, both accentuating her generous curves.
“Hello, everyone!” She held out a hand to Lake and River. “I’m Sierra Jenkins, I’m the current office manager slash staff herder, I guess.”
The boys—I needed to stop thinking of them as that, they were clearly men in their mid-twenties or so—greeted her politely and exchanged a few words.
“What would make it easier for Rey?” Hudson asked.
“It’s all the open space, mostly.” Lake sighed, then glanced around. “Would it be okay to drive the car right to the front of the house?”
The path wasn’t wide enough all the way and some of the lawn would be trampled, but I knew Ruth wouldn’t mind. She’d always had a bleeding heart and would’ve done anything to help a kid like this Rey.
“Absolutely,” I said before Hudson or Sierra had time to reply. “Just get it right to the door. It’s unlocked, Cook came by last night to prepare some meals for you and he stayed overnight.”
“Isn’t he leaving for the yacht job soon?” Hudson asked as he moved back to the SUV.
“Tomorrow, yeah, so he left early this morning.”
The phone in the office rang, and Sierra sighed. “Well, that’s my cue. If you need me, I’ll be in here.” She retreated inside with a jaunty wave.
“She seems perky,” River commented when he and I followed the SUV to the house.
Lake had gone back to the car, probably to keep their friend calm.
“She’s efficient for sure,” I agreed. “So, your friend? Anything specific that helps or…?”
River sighed. “I mean, he’s only a kid. He’s a teenager with some serious trauma he hasn’t talked to us about. Just…treat him like one of your horses?” Then he winced. “You know what I mean.”
“Careful and calm.” I nodded. “Got it.”
There was probably a lot more to the story than that, but we were at the front door, and I went to open it. Then I backed away to the front of the SUV, so that the kid wouldn’t be spooked by me. I knew I could appear scary to some people. Ruth had often called metall, dark, and intimidating, and then playfully she’d suggested that I should smile more.
The teen who slid out of the car was maybe five foot seven, if that. He was skinny and nervous looking, gaze flicking everywhere but the wide-open space on the other side of the SUV.
“Just go inside,” Hudson said gently. “It’s okay. I’ll move the car and come back.”
Rey nodded, then took River’s hand, and let himself be pulled to the safety of the old house.
Lake gestured at the back of the vehicle. “Can you help me with these?”
When I frowned, my brain blipping at what he meant, Lake took it the wrong way.
“I know you’re the foreman here, but I didn’t think asking you to lift some luggage would be that beneath you.” Lake snorted and opened the back door, then lifted down a couple of heavy-looking suitcases and an assortment of other bags, while I tried to catch up mentally.
“Yeah, Theo. Why don’t you help your boss out?” Hudson taunted, smirking.
I shot him a finger. “Fuck off. Move this monstrosity before someone thinks it’s fine to park here.” Nobody would and we both knew that, but I got to snark at my friend.
Lake glanced at us, then shook his head and murmured something that sounded a lot like “straight men.”
Right, Lake and River both were quite clearly, if not gay, at least openly queer. It was hard to say anything about Rey, but then he was a kid so what did it matter. Not that anyone’s sexuality mattered to me anyways. I’d never gotten the hookup culture and while I’d tried to get it at Ruth’s insistence that I should, I hadn’t found anyone who would really make it all worthwhile, regardless of their equipment or self-expression.
Hudson, meanwhile, was straight. At least that’s what Ruth and I had always thought. He’d been married until about a year ago and hadn’t started dating yet as far as I could tell.
Sierra had had a crush on Hudson for years, but she never took it too seriously. Besides, she leaned more towards women and said that Hudson’s Daddy energy wasn’t for her, whatever that meant.
I grabbed the two closest pieces of luggage and stomped my feet on the door mat to get some of the dirt and dust off. Then I stepped inside, hoping that everything would go okay.
