Page 77 of Xavier

“Uh huh,” Dexter drawled. “All right, I’ll pack a bag and have it by the door. You and dad got all your stuff ready now?”

“For the most part. Your dad ran off a few hours ago to do god knows what. He’s barely answered my texts all day, aside from telling me he was heading downtown somewhere.”

Tossing my phone back onto the bed, I looped the handle of my bag over my shoulder to carefully set it down by the door. With my luck, any kind of jostling would pop that damn zipper right back open and then I’d be starting all over again.

“Downtown?” There was a pause. And then, “Oh.”

My gaze traveled back to my phone to squint at it.

What didthattone mean?

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said quickly, flagging my suspicions even further.

Honestly, did I want to know?

No doubt it’d have something to do with the twins and planning some elaborate prank that was either going to embarrass me or piss me off. Such is the way with little brothers and their funny ways with showing that they were going to miss their elder sibling.

Ugh, whatever.

“I’ll let your dad know you said yes to coming.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Text me when you’re on your way.”

CHAPTER 31

Gage

The flightfrom California to Baton Rouge, while long, hadn’t been terrible.

Xavier and I had opted for the ‘comfort’ seats toward the front of the aircraft instead of suffering with the rest of economy being crammed in the back with little to no leg room and some kid kicking at the back of our seats for the entire damn flight.

Dexter had lucked out and had gotten to have his row, which had been right across from ours, all to himself and used it to his full advantage.

Luckily, I’d gotten a few hours of shuteye while we’d been in the air, only having been shaken awake when the meal service rolled through and Xavier encouraging me to eat something before we landed.

Since getting back from his little impromptu shopping trip, he’d been acting... off. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but therewas something there that I was picking up on that was definitely fishy.

It was bothering the fuck out of me, but anytime I pointed it out, he’d waved me off and distracted me with some kind of kiss or brush of his hand over my body that had those weird feelings melting away instantly.

I supposed it made more sense for him to be acting this way with the looming issue of him meeting my coworkers in less than a few hours.

No matter how many stories I told about them or tried to prepare him for the absolutely ridiculousness that he was about to be walking into, the full picture wouldn’t reveal itself untilafterhe got there and saw for himself exactly what I had to deal with day in and day out.

Look, I could only do so much.

At least we had a few hours to ourselves to chill at my place before that.

De-boarding and heading back through security was a breeze. I’d called my brothers ahead of time to meet us at the terminal since I’d left my car with them and likefuckI was going to pay for a rideshare that would charge me an arm, a leg, and my left kidney just to be picked up from the airport.

Cramming us all into my little sedan wasn’t going to be fun, but it beat paying an entire goddamn paycheck to get home.

“You sleep okay?” Xavier ran a hand through the back of my hair as we stepped onto the escalator heading down to the front lobby.

“Yeah. Wasn’t too bad. Did you sleep at all?”

“Wasn’t tired.”

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