Page 21 of Protecting the Nerd

I chuckled sheepishly. “Turns out, he was right. They had to get the FBI involved, and long story short, Quillon is my bodyguard. We’re staying in Forestville for now because it’s easier to control the environment in a small town than in Seattle. Except, no one can know the truth, so he’s pretending to be my boyfriend. Which is a bit of a stretch, I know, and people must wonder what a guy like him is doing with me, but we’re hoping to pull it off.”

“Jesus. Are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

Fir’s eyes softened. “Hey, it’s me. Let down your guard, honey.”

For some reason, I looked at Quillon, who was watching me with an expression I hadn’t seen on his face before, something that looked like…concern? Hell, on a good day, I sucked at reading people’s emotions, and after today, I was happy to form coherent sentences.

Quillon rose. “I need to make a phone call. Is there a room I could use?”

“My office upstairs. Second door on the right,” Fir said.

They exchanged a look I couldn’t decipher, and then it was just Fir and me.

“It can’t be easy for you being back here,” Fir said softly.

“I already got the worst part over with.”

He winced. “How bad was it?”

“Quillon is a former Marine and served with Essex for a little while. That made them happy because he could share some stories about him.”

“Oh, York…”

“It is what it is. They’ll never change.”

“Did Quillon say anything?”

I thought of the way he’d looked at me, how he had laced our fingers together. “No, but he saw. Hell, she even showed him his room.”

“Don’t they realize how creepy that is? It’s a fucking mausoleum.”

I would never get over the power of feeling heard and seen. No one else understood, and even Fir could only try to put himself in my shoes, but he always validated my feelings. “I don’t think they do. It’s become their normal.”

“They do know that if they sell The Lodge, they’ll have to leave that all behind, right?”

“Why do you think they’ve waited so long? They don’t want to leave, but they have to. My father can’t drive anymore because of how bad his Parkinson’s has gotten, and it’s only a matter of time before my mom won’t be able to either. They’ve asked me repeatedly to buy the property from them so they can leave that room as is and come to visit.”

“Buy?” Fir’s face tightened. “Isn’t it going to be yours anyway when they die?”

I shook my head. “I don’t want it. If they leave it to me, I’ll sell it before they’re cold in the ground. Hell if I will spend the rest of my life with my brother’s shadow looming over me.”

“Can’t blame you. Plus, it’s a great property in a perfect location. You should be able to make a pretty penny.”

“I don’t want the money. I don’t want anything from them. Why would I want from them in death what they couldn’t give me in life?”

Fir sighed. “Yeah.”

“Anyway, I introduced them to Quillon, and they didn’t react badly to me being gay, so there’s that.”

“He’s hot.”

“Who, Quillon?”

Fir rolled his eyes. “That is who we’re talking about, no? Yes, Quillon. I like his name too, by the way. Very unique.”

“Says the man named after a tree.”

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