It was my turn to stare at him. “What?"
Mason didn't falter under the attention like I did. “What? It's true. Give you a manly compliment and you're all about it, but God forbid anyone thinks you actually have a caring bone in your body. Then suddenly you're all grumpy and pissy because... Actually, I don't know why."
"Because he's thickheaded," Kayden offered, because he knew there were too many witnesses around, saving him from being murdered. Well, that and if he died, too many people would start sniffing around my doorstep, so there was no way I was going to get away with it. Still, one of these days, I might consider it worth it.
"I would have gone with a stubborn ass, but I guess I can play nice today," Mason said with a smirk.
"Isanyoneplanning on helping me?" Milo cried out from the ground, having rolled himself over to glare up at the three of us.
Mason glanced down at him in mild surprise, as if having forgotten he was there. "You're able to move on your own. Plus, Mom is right, if you're not going to learn and be smart, then you might as well be tough. Just think of this as toughening you upsince you aren't going to learn that Eli is always going to get the better of you."
"It's a bad day when Mason starts talking sense," I said, looking down at Milo, who was now looking at me hopefully. "Fuck no."
Milo turned his eyes to Kayden, blinking. "You're as nice as you are cute, right?"
"Seriously?" I sighed. "Why are you bait for every gay man?"
"Bi," Mason corrected.
"I'm gay," Milo answered helpfully, clearly forgetting he was supposed to be injured and in need of help. "And I have good taste."
"You do," Kayden said with a grin. "And I appreciate that. But I'll have to pass. I'm still holding out hope that one day, you might learn."
"That's stupid," Mason said with a weary sigh. "A hopeless case."
"What can I say? I'm an idealist," Kayden said with a shrug.
I glanced over as Moira's clicking heels foretold her arrival. "Oh, you two are here. I wasn't expecting you to…why is Milo on the ground?"
"Because he's Milo," Mason said with a shrug.
Moira's brow furrowed before her eyes rolled to the ceiling and snapped back to us. “Anyway, if I'd known you were coming today, I would have told you not to bother."
"Why?" I wondered.
"Because Micah isn't going to be back until later tonight. Him and Mom went upstate to join Marcus for a bit of shopping and some...festival."
"It's about sea otters," Mason explained at my confused expression.
"Oh...that makes sense," I said in understanding. Micah never settled on one interest from what I’d heard, but whenhe did find one, he apparently latched onto it with surprising tenacity. Over the past month, he’d become obsessed with marine animals, and it made complete sense to me that if there was somewhere with the enthusiasm for sea otters to have a festival about them, then Micah was going to want to be front and center.
"You know, I've been around enough to wonder why I’ve never seen your stepdad," Kayden wondered, glancing between the siblings. It helped to think of them as simply that, because thinking of them as twins meant I had to acknowledge their similarities. It also meant I had to acknowledge that I had been with Moira and now I was...doing things with Mason. That was a mental load I really didn't want to take on now or, hopefully, ever.
"Literally just bad timing," Mason said with a snort. "He was here a couple of days ago while you two were off working your double or whatever it was. He travels a lot."
"Doing what?"
"Interim medical...administration? Something like that. Really, it's just a fancy title that amounts to his being a substitute co-administrator for hospitals up and down the coast. He works in six-month intervals and travels a lot. Six months on, two or three months off, six months on."
"Oh."
"Yeah, it's not exciting, but it pays the bills, and as a bonus, it means he can make sure Mom gets the best care. Which is totally going to keep her on this side of the grave," Mason said brightly. Moira shot him a look while Kayden looked unfazed. It made sense, since he had always dealt with people's oddities well, and had told me that when it came to death and dying, he was not going to judge someone for their reaction. I, however, could only look at him and wonder if the brightness in his voice seemed alittle...tinny, too forced to be believed even when it was coming off as flippant.
"They'll be back tonight, or tomorrow. Either way, Micah's going to be going straight to bed if he gets back tonight," Moira said, eyes lingering on her brother before turning to me. "So you can have the night to yourself."
"What? We're going to let him mope around his apartment all day?" Kayden scoffed.
"I don'tmope," I seethed. "You ass."
