“No,” I say quickly, not wanting him to tell Warrick that I’ve been taking advantage of the food he left for me.
“Why not?” he snarls. “Lunch is at thirteen hundred hours; it’s almost fifteen hundred hours. You should have had lunch by now.”
“I…I…” I stutter, not sure what to say.
“Knight likes a schedule,” Octy says. “He’s pretty rigid about meal times.”
“Does Warrick know that you haven’t eaten lunch?” he asks, tapping at his cell before he brings it to his ear.
Unsure what is happening, I look to Octy for answers, but she just shrugs.
“Did you know your woman isn’t eating?” Knight growls into the phone without any preamble or greeting. There’s a pause when it looks like he’s listening to the person on the end of thephone then he says. “She hasn’t had lunch.” He nods, then holds the cell out to me. “He wants to talk to you,” he says.
“Me?” I croak.
Marching out from behind the counter, he pushes the cell into my hands.
Lifting it to my ear, I glance warily at the others before I say, “Hello.”
“Amore mio, you haven’t had lunch yet?” Warrick says, his concerned voice a balm to my anxious nerves.
“I had all those pancakes,” I whisper.
“That was hours ago. Go make yourself a sandwich or something. You need to be eating regularly,” he urges, his tone soft but with a hint of concern.
“I’ll have something later,” I say quietly.
“Give the phone back to Knight, please,” he says with a sigh.
Pulling it away from my head, I offer it to Knight, who lifts it to his ear. I can’t hear what Warrick says, but Knight nods and says, “On it.” Then he hands it back to me before marching purposefully back into the kitchen.
“Hello,” I say again.
“Knight is going to make you a sandwich.”
“I can make myself a sandwich,” I whisper, conscious that two complete strangers are witnessing this entire conversation and Warrick is treating me like I’m not capable of taking care of myself.
“I should have called and checked on you.”
“You’re at work, I don’t need you to check on me. I didn’t realize you’d told people about me.”
“Of course I told my brothers about you. I wanted to make sure you had people you could call on while I’m not there,” he says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world that he’d send two people to his house to check on me.
That’s when it dawns on me. They’re not here to meet me, they’re here to check up on me. Of course he’d want to make sure that I haven’t emptied his house and disappeared. I’m basically a homeless bum. Why would he trust me in his home when he knows practically nothing about me?
“Okay, I get it,” I say sadly. “I should go and see if Knight needs any help.”
“He won’t.”
“Then I should offer to clean up. I’ll talk to you later, and don’t worry. Everything is fine here, just the way you left it.”
“Amore mio,” he says.
“Bye, Warrick,” I say, ending the call before he has a chance to say anything else.
“Are you okay?” Octy asks. I don’t know what she sees on my face, but I try to blank my expression. I don’t need them telling Warrick that I’ve been a pouty baby about him making sure I haven’t trashed his home.
“I’m fine,” I say overly brightly.
