Reid smiled. “He’s a good friend.”
“He is.” I cupped Reid’s face. “And he’d be a good friend to you too, if you let him.”
His shoulders pulled in. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just…”
This time, I didn’t silence him with my lips, just waited until his words trailed off before pulling him in for a tight hug. “I know, Reid. You don’t have to explain yourself to me or anyone else. Definitely not Logan. He just wants you to be happy. We all do.”
Especially me.
When the bath was run, I turned my back while Reidundressed. He snorted when he spotted me. “You do realise you’ve seen me naked before, right?”
I stared at a small spider in the corner of the ceiling. I was going to have to get Ma to move it later. “Aye.”
“And you’re aware that you’re naked right now too?”
Knowing Reid was nude was making me more aware by the second. “Aye, but Ma raised a gentleman.”
“Okay.” Water sloshed gently as Reid stepped into the bath and sat down. “Well, your gentlemanly manners are protected. I’m decent.”
My gaze raked hungrily over the few inches of skin that were on display, drawing a laugh from Reid.
“A gentleman, hey?”
I huffed. “I’m a gentleman, but I’m not dead.”
Moving to the head of the bath, I picked up the jug Ma used to use on me as a kid. Like most of the stuff from my childhood, it was still hanging around. Part of me wondered if my parents had hoped for another kid. It was rare for shifters to have siblings, but not unheard of. Just look at Calan and Finlay.
I stared down at the jug with a lump in my throat. Fuck, I hoped this was one of the times where I was overthinking things. That they hadn’t longed for another child that’d never arrived.
“Ev? Are you okay?”
I turned to see Reid’s concerned eyes staring up at me. “Aye. Was just wondering if you’d like me to wash your hair?”
He blinked at me in confusion. “I…I don’t know.”
“That’s fine. If you’re not comfortable with it then we don’t have to.”
“No, that’s not what I mean.” He rubbed at his hair infrustration. “I’ve never had my hair washed by someone else before, so I don’t know if I’d like it.”
The plastic cracked under my grip. “What about your mother?”
Reid shrugged, tracing his fingers through the bubbles. “I think she was more disappointed in me than Clyde was. Handed me into his care the day I was born and barely bothered with me. I think she said maybe three sentences to me my whole childhood.”
“Didn’t she live with you?”
“No. She had her own place right on the edge of the lands. Sometimes I think she wanted to escape as much as I did.”
Feeling like that didn’t excuse the neglect she’d shown Reid. The abuse she’d allowed him to suffer under Clyde’s hands.
I didn’t need to ask Reid where he’d lived. I knew. Right in the clan house. The hub. Where he should’ve been safest. Most cared for.
Instead, it had been his prison.
Not liking how his shoulders were drawn in, I moved the conversation on. “Well, let’s find out if you like it. And while we do, how about I tell you about the time Logan pranked Finn into believing we had a ghost?”
A spark fired in his eyes. It wasn’t much, barely an ember of life, but I was going to nurture it until it became a blaze. Until Reid could let it burn on his own.
We were both drowning in the darkness. Maybe we could find our way back to the light together.
