Page 56 of Xavier

Having a guy like that wandering a public space that usually had a lot of kids running around was dangerous.

“So... what happened?” Greyson asked just as the microwave went off.

“It’s not really my business to say.”

He shut the door after pulling the container out, the entire thing ghosting the air with water vapors. “You guys didn’t get into a fight or anything, right?”

I shook my head. “Nothing like that. Something... uh, happened to Dexter.”

Greyson looked concerned at that. “He okay?”

How was I supposed to answer that?

No, not exactly?

Or, yes, hopefully, he would be eventually?

Ugh, this is why I wished Xavier was at least staying up for a little while with me. My brothers could be such damn nosey twits, which made it hard for me to keep things to myself.

I wasn’t about to go around spilling all of the details that Xavier had told me about Dexter’s situation—he’d told all of that to me in confidence, and regardless of what tactics my brother used to try and weasel the info out of me, I wasn’t cracking.

However, straight up lying to my brother when I knew the truth about Dexter’s condition felt wrong. I wasn’t one to hide things from them, even if it was the brutal honest truth. The world was never going to sugar coat things for you as soon as you stepped into it as a fresh adult.

So why should I?

That would simply be setting my brothers up for failure in a system that was already wildly unbalanced.

“He’s... okay, I think. He had something happen to him at the botanical garden. So, his dad is taking him home tomorrow to be with his family.”

“That doesn’t sound good.” Greyson fished a fork out of the drawer next to him to stir his goulash around. “What time are they leaving? I can get Asher up so we can say goodbye.”

I smiled a little. “That’s really sweet but I think they’re trying to get out of here as fast as possible. I can send them a text from all of us once they’re back home.”

He continued to stir his food around in the container, both of his brows pulled together. “I’m not really liking the sound of all of this. Are they both really okay?”

“Some guy tried to hurt Dexter today.” That was as much info as I was giving him. EventhatI wasn’t sure if it was too much.

“Hurt, as in...” Greyson fished.

I shook my head at him, turning back to the dishes in the sink. He sighed at me but didn’t push it further, thankfully. Out of the two of them, Greyson was always good at knowing when to quit.

“Where’s your brother?” I asked.

“Out with someone.”

“A date?” I glanced over at him.

“Who knows. He says ‘friend’, so that could mean anyone.”

Too true.

If there was one thing Asher had going for him, it was his gaggle of ‘friends’ that were actually people throwing themselves at him. He was a good-looking kid, so I could understand the multiple crushes he had accumulated over the years. Couple that with the whole military thing and… well, no wonder he was out on his third day home.

“None for you?” I asked.

He grunted at me, stabbing down into the pieces of noodle and ground beef like he was trying to thatch a bundle of hay.

“Come on, you can’t tell me you haven’t had anyone hitting you up after finding out you’re home.” I chuckled.

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