Rye needed to take care of Nolan.
Chapter
Eight
Nolan tried not to pace, but it was hard.
Ryder had gone to check with his brother Warrick about the security of the house and the land because he said he wanted to spend a bunch of time with Nolan up in their room. It was awful; he felt like everything that had happened was on him.
He wasn’t going to run. Ryder was worth staying and fighting for, and Race was here too, still asleep from the effects of the dart. But at the same time Nolan kind of felt like he was losing it a bit.
So he just did what he needed to do.
He paced up the stairs, down the stairs, around the room. He watched a little TV. He made cookies because he was hungry. He looked at the drone pieces, and then he started putting them back together.
This was at least something he knew how to do.
Putting things together was a big skill for him, and so he slowly began to rebuild the drone, frowning over the mauled mess of plastic and metal.
“What are you doing, man?” Con had been hanging out at the house, and at the house, and still at the house. It was fascinating.
“I’m putting this back together”
Con tilted his head. “Why?”
He shrugged. “I guess because I can. Because I don’t know what else to do. It’s not like I can make the house any cleaner. I’ve already made cookies. I need to do something. I’m not used to doing nothing all the time.”
“Dude, I get that. You can put it back together?”
“Well, I don’t know that I’ll ever make it work again, but I can totally at least get it together to where we can see what it looked like and maybe learn something about it.”
He could tell Connal was in.
“Interesting. What other things can you make?”
He shrugged. “I’m a mechanic. I can put all sorts of things together—cars, bikes. I have worked on planes and computers, vacuum cleaners. I like to take things apart and put them back together to make them work.”
“Oh, we’re gonna have the most fun! How do you feel about LEGO?”
He grinned at Connal because he really liked his spirit and his attitude. “I love LEGO. I really do. I like the great big projects, you know, the ones that take hours and hours to put together.”
“Oh my god, me too. Although sometimes I don’t have the patience to finish them all by myself, and I have to get War to help me. But I would totally do LEGO with you.” Con bounced a little, which was adorable. He had a feeling Con didn’t have a whole lot of friends.
Maybe he was wrong, but he would bet Con was a lot for most people.
“Let me know whenever you’re ready. Right now, I’ll work on this. Can you hand me that piece there that’s shaped sort of like a cookie with a bite out of it?”
“Dude, you’re totally feeling the cookies right now, huh?” Con handed over the piece exactly, and that was great. It boded well for LEGO later on.
“I am. Do you want to go get some from the kitchen for us? I didn’t really have but one to make sure they tasted good.” He stuck his tongue out to make sure that he could get the piece that he was trying to fit into place. It was like a mandatory helpful thing.
“Sure. I’ll be right back. Do you want some milk?”
Nolan glanced up. “I would love a cup of tea actually. Can you?”
“Got it. Milk or lemon?”
“Lemon and honey.”
