Page 46 of The MC's Little Brother

My spine stiffened, and I stood frozen for a second. A part of me wanted to demand answers, but I couldn’t do that to Xander. It freaked him out when I got irritated. I had to stay calm.

“What guy?”

“The lawyer. The one who’s been helping us. He came barreling into the house and started shouting at her until she made him go outside.” He stared at his bowl, ashamed. “I shoulda gone out there. I felt bad, she’s only a girl, but–”

“Hey, no.” Squatting in front of him, I moved the bowl to the workbench and put both hands on his shoulders. “No. It’s not your job to get in the middle of any fighting adults. I’d be pretty pissed if you did. You did the right thing staying in the house.”

When he looked up at me, there were tears in his eyes. “But I’m supposed to be a man. I’m supposed to–” He choked on a sob, his shoulders shaking.

I recognized that way of thinking. That was Jorge’s bullshit. He wanted his sons to be manly and strong. He smacked me around plenty because he said a man should be able to take it, and if I cried, he’d only hurt me more. It killed me that he did the same thing to my little brother.

Comforting people wasn’t really my strong suit, but I couldn’t stand him crying over the bullshit that bastard told him. I gave him an awkward side hug, rubbing his arm as I glared at the wall.

“You need to throw out every stupid thing that Jorge said to you. You’renot a man. Not yet anyway. You’re a little kid and you are allowed to get scared when adults fight. You’re allowed to be upset about it. I’ll talk to Wyatt, make sure he keeps that shit away from you.”

“And Mel?” he asked, his voice all watery.

I nodded. “And Mel. He’ll stay away from you both until he can act like a man.” I squeezed his shoulders until he looked at me again. “If anyone wasn’t acting like a man tonight, it was the asshole who took his mood out on a woman and scared a bunch of kids. A real man would’ve kept his distance until he had his head on straight.”

Rubbing his nose roughly on the back of his hand, he nodded, leaning into me for a bit while he felt his feelings. There was nothing wrong with him being scared. He was just a kid. But Wyatt was going to hear it from me for scaring him. I didn’t give a shit what he had to say to me. He wasn’t getting away with scaring the hell out of my little brother.

“Come on. Finish your ice cream. You can help me replace the radiator on this old classic.”

“Really?” he hiccuped, scrubbing the tears off and looking around me at the bike I was working on. “You don’t mind?”

“No, I don’t mind. I work on these when I have free time or when I need to clear my head. You can help me with them.”

That seemed to improve his mood a little. He finished his bowl of ice cream and I gave the rest of mine to Thor. I’d regret it later when he was stinking up the whole house, but I wasn’t in the mood for it. It was only Xander being around that kept me from losing my shit.

We workedon the bike for a while, and even though we didn't talk about anything serious, it was the longest me and him talked. Mostly about bike parts and what they were for, that kind of thing, but it was kind of nice not to be working out there on my own.

“Hey, uh… Mattias?”

I locked the garage behind us, looking over my shoulder at him. “Hmm?”

He looked at his feet, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “Can Thor sleep with me tonight?”

A part of me wanted to refuse. I didn’t sleep well without Thor with me. But then I realized that was because of the same damn reason Xander didn’t sleep well. Even as an adult, I still had nightmares. Thor made me feel safe. It’d be fucking wrong to deny a kid that kind of comfort.

“Sure. But just so you know, we gave him ice cream, so he’s gonna be farting up a storm at some point.”

He laughed, rubbing Thor’s head as we headed inside. “Can I have a bottle of air freshener, too?”

I chuckled and led them both upstairs, offering Xander the bottle of deodorizer as a joke. He cackled, and he looked a lot better when he said goodnight. I was going to head downstairs and maybe check on work, but I noticed Mel’s door was cracked and her light was on. I knocked lightly, pushing it open. Mel was in bed, her own bowl of ice cream empty on the nightstand. She was laying flat on her bed, her phone held above her head as she scrolled through it.

“You’re gonna drop that on your face.”

She startled and very nearly did, scowling when she looked over at me. “Rude. What are you doing up here?”

I tipped my head toward Xander’s room, leaning my shoulder against the doorframe. “Xander wanted to sleep with Thor.”

She wrinkled her nose, a smile pulling at her lips. “Okay, that’s stinking cute. And because he’s my bestie, I’ll forgive him for stealing the opportunity I’ve been vying for for years.”

My brow furrowed a little. She had asked before to keep Thor overnight. I knew how much she loved dogs. I never told her the truth about why I didn’t like sleeping without him. Crossing my arms, I frowned.

“I still get nightmares. Not as often as when I was young, but I have a hard time sleeping if he’s not around. Not even Jorge would be dumb enough to come after me with Thor around.”

She sat up, pressing her lips together tightly. “Well, now I feel like an ass. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize. I won’t ask again.”

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