He nods, pleased that Trevor cares about them. “Hal’s staying with family in Vegas. And Mike’s coming with us.”
“Oh.”
“He’s not staying in the apartment,” he clarifies. “I’ve got a place for him.”
“Okay.”
Skyler follows Trevor as he walks through the house. Looking around, he realizes he’s never been in this house since Trevor’s lived here. But he visited quite a few times when Trevor’s mom did. Trevor kept a lot of her furniture.
When Stacey died, he and Trevor were living together. Trevor refused to sell the house, but he didn’t do anything with it either. Just let it sit unoccupied. Skyler’s glad the pain at least eased enough to allow Trevor to come back here. He’s glad the house is a home again.
And he really, really hopes Trevor doesn’t lose it now. He’s already lost too much.
Skyler realizes if the fire manages to get down this far, then in all likelihood, that’d mean his own house would be gone too, but that’s not his biggest concern.
“Are there things you want to take with you to keep safe?” he asks as he follows Trevor into his bedroom. “Keepsakes or whatever? Take anything you need to.”
Trevor stops and turns, raising his eyebrows at him. “Pretty sure you can’t fit the whole house in that car out front. But yeah, I already pulled out all that stuff to be ready in case I had to leave.” He points to a clear plastic storage bin on the floor that’s peeking out from the other side of the bed.
Skyler walks over to check it out. He sees photo albums inside, framed pictures carefully bubble wrapped, and other miscellaneous stuff. He bends down and picks it up. “Damn, this is heavy.”
“Put it down, I’ll get it,” Trevor says.
“No, it’s fine. You’re not the only one with muscles now, you know.”
He started working out with Trevor a long time ago, when the pressure to be not only a singer but a heartthrob really kicked in. And now he has a personal trainer. It was different when there were five of them to keep the audience entertained at their shows. Now that it’s only him, he needs to occupy the entire stage. Needs to be in good shape to run around all over the place every night for months at a time on tour. He’ll always have a smaller frame than Trevor, but he’s not scrawny anymore.
Trevor smiles at him. “Oh, I know. You’re probably stronger than I am now, but I can still get it myself.”
“I doubt I’m stronger than you.”
“Do I look like I bother working out anymore?”
“You look fine,” he says automatically. He’s tempted to say something more. Like,You’re still hot as fuck, but he can’t.
Maybe Trevor can read it on his face though, because he’s looking at him curiously.
He shifts the weight of the box in his arms, and itisfreaking heavy, so he’s not even running away when he says, “I better take this out to the car before I drop it.” Not entirely running, anyway.
When he goes back inside, Mike accompanies him, though he waits by the front door for Trevor and Skyler to hand him things. Trevor packs his clothes while Skyler gathers up some of Stella’s stuff for him, and soon they’re ready to leave.
With the SUV loaded up, he and Trevor get in the backseat. He hates riding in back—hates treating Mike like his driver. But he wants to sit with Trevor because Trevor must be feeling a lot right now as they drive away from his house. Mike is perfectly happy having Stella up front with him anyway.
Once they hit the highway, he can breathe easier. Hopefully, getting Trevor to evacuate turns out to be unnecessary. Hopefullyhimevacuating turns out to be unnecessary. But better safe than sorry, and honestly, he could stand to get away from L.A. for a while.
He’s happy he’ll get to see his sister, though probably not as much as he’d like to, since her job keeps her super busy.
“I mentioned my sister’s in New York, right?” he says to Trevor. “She lives in the same building as me.
“I’m surprised she can afford that.”
“I bought the apartment for her.”
“Wow, that’s generous.”
“Anyway,” he goes on quickly, because he doesn’t need to be praised for taking care of his family. Anyone else would do the same. “I’ll want to spend time with her, but I don’t know if that would be weird for you, so you don’t have to see her if you don’t want to.”
Trevor shakes his head. “It’s not weird. I’d love to see your sister.”
