My dignity was fighting for its life, but I continued to trail that cute ass like it mattered more. Because it did. Obviously.
You walked into this life for Kieran. I’m walking into it for you.
Somebody better put that on my gravestone ‘cause I damn near swooned to death.
“Hiro,” he called, and my heart skipped like I was a schoolgirl jumping rope at recess.I fucking love it when he says my name.
“What?” I hollered, stepping into the large, open main room.
“Oh, never mind,” he said, waving my cell phone around like a freeloading goblin. “I found it.”
“Sure, help yourself,” I quipped. “Feel free to rearrange the furniture while you’re at it.”
Pulling the phone to his side, he turned, long, thin legs sticking out from the hem of my worn old hoodie, the red stripes on the tall socks drawing my attention to his bare thighs.
“I can’t use your phone?”
The tone of his voice had my eyes snapping to his face, which was doe-eyed and hurt.
Fuck my life.
“I wanted to tell Haz I’m here with you. I don’t want him to worry,” he said, setting my phone on the dining room table I hadn’t even used once. “Do you have a landline? I can use that.”
“Sorry, I left my landline in 1997.”
“Oh,” he said, disappointed.
Made me feel kinda bad, even if landlines only belonged in hostage negotiators’ offices.
Sighing, I grabbed my phone off the table and held it out. “Here, take it. Keep it until I can get you one of your own.”
His lips parted in surprise. “You can’t get me a phone.”
“Just for saying that, I’m going to get you two.”
He gasped. “You can’t!”
I’d get him a smart watch to go with it. Make sure it had a tracker in it. I had to keep tabs on this little Pip.
“Cell phones are too expensive. And you have to pay for them more than once.”
“Is that why you don’t have one?”
He nodded emphatically. “I thought about getting one of the ones like Haz has… well, until Kieran said he’d get him one with the internet.” He rambled on. “But you have to pay for them as you go too. Seems like a scam to have to keep paying for something you already bought.”
Well, wasn’t this just amusing as all get out? I needed snacks for this show.
I kinda wanted to pick him up and carry him into the kitchen with me, but that would be weird, wouldn’t it?
I picked him up and started for the kitchen. He must not have thought it was weird because his legs locked around my waist.
“You aren’t paying for the phone again, just the plan that makes it work,” I explained.
“It’s just like having a TV and then paying for cable. And all those apps. The people who call me complain about that all the time. Saying how much money it costs because everything is on a different platform.”
I sat him on the white marble island. “Who’s calling you?”
“I work at the cable company. I’m a customer service rep,” he said like I should know.
