I bristle at that. “His boyfriend.” The word pops out before I can stop it. Technically, Riley and I haven’t actually talked about that yet. But I can’t deal with that just now.
“Whatever, he can be your problem then. But he can’t stay here.”
I’m running on like three hours of sleep and Nancy’s slice of pie (which I split with Riley for breakfast), and I have no fucks left to give for this asshole. “You can’t just kick him out with no notice like this; that has to be against the lease agreement. Right, Riley?”
Riley’s face has gone pale. “I…I didn’t sign a lease. I just found the listing looking for a roommate online, and I…” He trails off, looking back at me helplessly.
“What are they being evicted for?” I demand.
“Non-payment,” Ellsworth snips. He sounds far too pleased about this whole situation, and I didn’t wake up thinking I would knock out an elderly guy today, but I swear to God I’m about to.
“That’s impossible!” Riley protests. “I’ve paid on time every single month!”
“Well, none of those payments have made it to me. And I’m tired of paying the mortgage on a house I can rent to tenants who will pay it for me.” He opens the door a little wider. “The locks have been changed. Get whatever you need, because once you leave, you won’t be allowed back in.”
Riley is trembling as he pushes his way inside, and I’m right on his heels. Hurrying to his bedroom, he slams the door behind us and sinks against it, tears starting to form in his eyes. “What am I going to do? I don’t have anywhere else to go…”
I immediately wrap him up in my arms, holding his shaking body against me and running a soothing hand up and down his back. “Shh, baby, it’s going to be okay,” I murmur. “We’re going to pack up your stuff and put it in my Jeep, and you’re going to come home with me. We’ll figure everything out after that. You can stay with me as long as you need. Breathe for me. Okay?”
He nods and takes a few deep breaths. “I don’t have much, it shouldn’t take very long. I had to fit everything in my car on the way out here, so it should all fit in both our cars.”
It takes several trips, and I have to fight the urge not to punch Chad Ellsworth in his smug face, but we get everything loaded within an hour. Riley’s roommate is nowhere to be found. Maybe his dad killed him. And if he didn’t, I’m tempted to. Either way, not my fucking problem. Making sure Riley is safe and happy is my only priority right now. We’ll go home and sneak in a nap before the daycare brings Aggie home, and then we’ll talk this all out.
Riley follows me back to my condo and we go through the whole process of unloading everything. Neither of us can be bothered to put anything away, dumping clothes and laundry baskets and a couple of plastic storage bins in my entryway. I’m dead on my feet, and while I was debating on the drive homewhether I wanted sleep or food first, it’s clear now that I’m going to be useless until I get a couple of hours of rest.
Riley’s features are riddled with anxiety, and my gut twists with that familiar desire to fix everything for him. “Don’t worry about it right now,” I soothe. “Let’s go upstairs and get some sleep, then we’ll order some food and sort all this out, alright?”
He bites his lip and looks like he wants to protest at first, but finally nods. “Do you have a guest bedroom or something? I don’t want to take up your space; I can stay on the couch until I find a place…”
“Absolutely fucking not,” I interject. “We’ve shared a bed just fine the last three nights, we’ll be fine for now.” Taking his hand, I lead him up to my bedroom and shut the door behind us, stripping my jeans off. Riley seemed to like the right side of the bed the last couple of nights, so I pull back the duvet and climb in on the left side.
Riley is asleep almost as soon as his head hits my chest, tension and stress instantly melting out of his body. I carefully wrap my arms around him, and his lashes flutter slightly but he doesn’t wake. Resting my cheek on his head, I inhale and nuzzle my face into his soft, wavy hair. He smells like a summer day, familiar and comforting, and it isn’t long before I join him in slumber.
I wake to the sound of Riley’s soft snores right into my ear. Blinking a few times to shake off the hold sleep has on me, I realize the room is dark. Glancing at my bedside clockconfirms we’ve been asleep for hours longer than I intended. The notification light on my phone is blinking, and I gently shift Riley away so I can free my arm and check what I’ve missed.
There are three missed calls from Aggie’s daycare and half a dozen text messages from Jess. Fuck.
Slowly disentangling myself from Riley, I pull on a pair of sweatpants and carefully open the door and make my way downstairs. Riley sleeps like the dead through it all, just like he told me the other day. Smiling a little to myself, I hit the callback button.
Jess answers on the first ring. “Luke? Jesus fucking Mary and fucking Joseph, where have you been? I thought you died! I was checking news reports for plane crashes. I was ten seconds away from calling every hospital between here and Oklahoma. Where are you? Are you okay? Is Riley okay?”
I wait patiently for her to finish and finally say, “I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to scare anyone. It’s been a fucking day, and we got back to my condo and both just crashed. It was supposed to just be a quick nap, but obviously that didn’t go as planned.”
“Riley’s there, too? You didn’t take him home after the airport?”
“Oh, I did,” I mutter bitterly, dropping down into the leather chair in the corner of my living room. “Turns out his shitty roommate is even shittier than he thought. The landlord was the guy’s dad, and even though Riley has been paying rent, this asshole hasn’t been handing it over to his dad, so they both got evicted.”
“What the fuck!” Jess screeches. “They can’t do that! I know a real estate attorney, I’ll get him on the phone so fast?—”
“Slow down, boss,” I interrupt. “It turns out maybe they can do that. Riley didn’t sign a lease. It was just a handshake kinda deal.”
“Oh. Well, fuck.” The wind goes out of her sails at that. “He’s at your place for now, then?”
“Yeah, I told him he could stay as long as he needs. We haven’t really talked about it yet. He’s asleep upstairs.”
“Good,” Jess agrees. “Well, let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. The daycare called me when you didn’t answer, by the way; I told them to go ahead and keep Aggie one more night, so call them first thing in the morning and they’ll bring her home.”
“Thanks, Jess,” I sigh. She really needs a raise after this. “I owe you one.”
