“Are you employed by Robin? How does this all work?”
Mandy’s mouth twists at the corner, in a part grimace, part smile. “It’s all a little complicated. Yeah, I was recruited, so was Eric. But we’re basically just on-call secret keepers for them. They have a lawyer too, in case of emergencies, but we never see her. Thankfully.”
“I hope I never meet her.”
Mandy snorts. “That’s the spirit. You’re getting it. Want to prank him or be nice?”
“Nice,” I murmur, feeling soft and gooey inside for Parker.
“Cute. That’s your man, huh?”
I can feel my face flush to the roots of my hair. “I think so, yeah.”
“Double cute.”
Mandy walks around the wall to stand in front of an irritated and tired-looking Parker. “You’re lucky as hell, kid.”
“Told you,” Parker replies with a huff.
“Better safe than sorry. You want a cinnamon roll to go?”
Parker looks a little mollified at the offer. “Yes, please.”
I hand Parker his glasses and he slides them on with a grateful smile. We follow Mandy out to the kitchen, then accept two to-go containers and a cup of coffee for Parker. When we load into the car, Parker’s phone vibrates, and he tugs it out of his pocket with a wary sigh.
“Care instructions, five days of rest at a minimum. Great. Hayden will be thrilled. I won’t take anything stronger than some Aleve, so do you have that? And maybe ice packs?”
“I’ve got all of that. Let’s just get you home.”
“I’m not tired.”
“You are abadpatient, for your information.”
Parker grimaces and turns to look out the window. I take a few steadying breaths to calm my fraying nerves, my worry about Parker—about everything—eating away at me. By the time we pull up to the house, I’ve worked myself into an anxious mess. I was doingsowell.
“Mason?” Parker calls, voice soft and worried.
“I just need a second.” I tighten my hands on the wheel, squeezing my eyes shut tight to tune everything out. “It’s just a lot.”
“The injury? I can go stay with the guys until I’m better.”
“No, not the injury.”
I glance over at Parker to find his eyebrows furrowed, asmall, handsome-as-hell frown on his face. Why does he look hotter when frowning?
“I just… I killed my uncle, and then you moved in with me and you’realwaysso fucking hot, like, literally the hottest man in existence I think, and you kissed me, we kissed, and it felt good, it felt great, but also now I’m a double killer and I really actually kind of liked it, and I liked how you looked at me after I killed that guy but I also really like taking care of you and making sure you don’t do anything stupid but… We kissed.”
Parker looks at me so calmly, with absolutely no irritation at all about the weird, rambling tirade I just fumbled my way through. He always looks at me with that same fond expression.
“Yes, we kissed,” Parker agrees, a small smile on his plush lips. “And we’re boyfriends.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure?”
Parker’s frown returns. “What do you mean, am I sure?”
