“Well, I won’t say a word. Now come on, let’s see what you can bench.”
We spend the next hour in the weight room, and I almost forget about how hungry I am. Almost.
“Dude, your stomach sounds like it’s shouting,” Reed says, laughing as it growls for at least the fifth time.
“Yeah, I normally eat right after practice, so I’m pretty hungry. I was thinking about ordering something to be delivered, but it’s almost dinnertime.” I cock my head to the side, an idea coming to me. It makes my palms sweat a little because it would be so far outside my normal comfort zone, but I’ve enjoyed my time with the kid, and if I had a chance to talk to his sister, maybe I could feel her out before I propose what I’ve been considering for the last hour and a half.
I’d like to mentor Reed. From everything he’s said since the bombshell about his parents being gone, it’s clear he hasn’t really had any men in his life. And I’m not delusional enough to think I could ever fill the hole his dad’s death left in Reed’s life, but I could be like a big brother or an uncle? I wish I’d had someone like that in my life. My dad was… Well, he wasn’t exactly the warm and fuzzy father type.
“Do you think your sister would be up for me taking you two out for some dinner? Would that be weird?”
Now that I’ve said it, I worry it’s weird. Am I massively overstepping? I don’t know his sister. For all I know, she’s going to think I’m some kind of creep that’s trying to take advantage of her little brother.
Shit.
Reed shrugs. “Maybe? She probably won’t let you pay, though, so don’t be offended by that.”
“Oh no? Why not? If it’s my idea, I should pay.”
The kid chuckles as he wipes down the last machine he used. “I love my sister. She’s the best person I know, and she works her ass off for us, but she doesn’t know how to accept help. Like, at all.”
“There’s nothing wrong with needing help. Everyone does at some point or another,” I tell him.
“I know, but I think most of her friends kind of ditched her when she had to leave school and take care of me. So she’s used to people saying they’ll be there for her, but then they don’t follow through.” A frown crosses Reed’s face, and my respect for his sister grows.
I can’t imagine any of that was easy for her. Losing her parents and needing to leave college and her friends to take care of her little brother was probably hard enough. But then to have her friends drop off the face of the planet right when she must have needed them most? Shit.
Now I really want to do all I can to help these two.
“Think we could convince her between the two of us?” I ask as we leave the weight room.
“You can try.” Reed shrugs. “But you’ll probably need to just hand your card over before she gets a chance if you’re dead set on paying.”
“I can do that. What kind of food do you both like?”
“We’re not picky,” Reed replies. “We like trying new things, and you’ve lived here longer than us, so you probably know more places than we d?—”
“Reed?”
A feminine voice fills the hall. I can’t see his sister yet—she’s probably around the corner—but there’s something familiar about it that has my muscles tensing in anticipation.
“Shit. I told her I’d meet her at her office at four-thirty.” Reed pulls his phone out of his pocket and winces. “She’s probably been looking for me for the last fifteen minutes.”
“Reed!” the voice calls again, a little closer this time.
“Coming,” he shouts, jogging toward the main hallway.
I follow close behind but don’t jog with him. My whole body buzzes when he turns the corner and I hear him greet his sister.
“Sorry, Blair-Bear. I lost track of time.”
The world spins around me and the buzzing in my body becomes so intense that I canhearit.
Blair.
Reed’s sister is Blair.
Shit.
