“Do you know where Caleb is?”
I didn’t know what to say. Would it matter if I told him the truth? I doubted he’d remember it in the morning.
“Where’s Aileen? Is she at the boys’ school?”
I turned my head toward his voice. “Yeah. She’ll be back later.”
“Mm. Wake me up when Caleb gets here.”
Less than a minute later, he was snoring again. It was probably the Xanax, but I knew I couldn’t go on like this. I couldn’t leave him. I couldn’t bring him to my place. But staying here felt like slowly choking myself to death on old, rotted memories I’d been trying to forget.
The door opened a few minutes later, and there were two sets of footsteps.
“Hey, Jonah. It’s me, Nikos.” I smiled. I liked that he announced himself, though he and Alexio were the only people I knew with their accent, and he sounded nothing like his brother. “I hope it’s okay I brought some food. I ran into your friend in the hallway.”
“He seems like less of a dick than Alexio,” Killian said.
Nikos burst into laughter as I tried to hide my grin. “I’m definitely less of a dick than my brother, but he doesn’t always mean to be. On the ice, yes. But he’s…complicated.”
Fucking tell me about it. I wasn’t going to explain to them how complicated I knew he could be though.
“I’m going to get us plates,” Killian said. “Nikos, you did all the cooking. You sit. Do you, ah…do you think your dad’s going to want to eat?”
“I don’t think he’s waking up anytime soon. He said he was going to nap until Caleb gets here,” I answered.
Killian sucked in a breath. “Is your brother?—”
“No.”
Beside me, Nikos sat and cleared his throat. “Can we talk?”
I felt my back tense, and I rolled my shoulders to try and unclench. “Are you going to rip me a new asshole like Alexio did about elder abuse?”
“Fuck. Did he say that?”
“Yes.” Okay, no. Not exactly. But what he had said hit me right in the tender parts full of my guilt.
“He’s such an ass. He’s…we don’t actually think that, you know. I mean, I did worry and wonder, but after I met you, I knew there was more to the story.”
At least one of them was on my side. “I really didn’t know what my mom was doing. I didn’t know my dad was sick. We…we didn’t talk for a few years. Well, she called to complain and ask for money, but my brothers and I quit visiting them.”
“I get it. I never met her, but I did see her a few times, and she seemed…not the most pleasant person.”
He had no idea, but I wasn’t going to childhood trauma dump on this guy.
“Alexio also told me you have a lot going on, which I understand. I know your schedule is as grueling as his. He said you were having trouble finding a caregiver.”
I rubbed at my face. “Mm. Apparently, it’s not like the movies where you can throw money at some concierge of some swanky retirement home and they’ll hire a hot nurse with great abs to take care of him.”
Nikos laughed. “Shame.”
“Tell me about it,” I said. I made a stroking motion in front of me. “Finger candy.”
“Finger—oh. I get it.”
I grinned. I liked when I made jokes and people didn’t get weird. I also kind of understood now why people didn’t ever think I was straight. And I did wonder how the fuck I thought I was.
“I had a…proposal,” Nikos said, then stopped. “No, wrong word. Offer?”
