Page 66 of The MC's Little Brother

“No, no, nothing like that,” she reassured me. “He’s laying down in my office now and he seems to be alright. Just worn out and upset.”

“I’ll bet. Alright, I’m on my way. Can I talk to him?”

She handed off the phone while I pulled my hair into a half ponytail, tying it up in a hurry. I hadn’t gotten to styling it yet, and I looked a little messy. I didn’t really care about how I looked, though. I just wanted to get to Xander.

“Hello?” Xander’s voice was small and quiet, and I could hear the gravel, like he was choking back tears.

“Hey, you. I’m on my way right now. Are you okay?”

I could imagine him shrugging one shoulder, his voice a little watery. “I wanna go home. Is Mattias coming?”

I winced. Mattias was going to lose his shit when he realized the one time he had to leave, Xander needed him.

“No, sweetie. He had to go into the office to picksomething up. It’s just me. Is that okay? I can call him and tell him to turn around.” He’d do it in a heartbeat, I knew that. I was pretty sure he’d hand over his resignation before he’d let his work come between him and his brother.

“No… It’s okay…” he mumbled. “When will you get here?”

“I’m walking out right now. And I’ll bring Thor with me, okay?” Xander was attached to the sweet puppy, and I knew it’d help. I patted my leg, whistling for Thor to follow me outside as we headed for my car.

“Okay. Thanks, Mel.”

“Any time, sweetie. I’ll be right there.”

He hung up, and I opened the back door for Thor to jump into my car. He’d drool all over the windows, but I never cared about that. My car was almost as messy as my home. After closing the door behind him, I dropped into the driver’s seat and plugged my phone into the center console so I could call Mattias hands free. No way was I going to hide what happened. I just had to say it right, so he didn't panic while driving.

Most of the guys had Bluetooth in their helmets, so Mattias answered on the second right, a frown in his voice already.

“Mel? What’s wrong?”

“Other than you forcing me to take a very lonely shower?” I teased. I was hoping to put him at ease enough to keep him from losing his cool. If I wasn’t freaking out, he had no reason to either. “On a serious note, I got a call from Xander’s school. They had him doing a lot of testing today and he freaked out a little. Nothing serious, you don’t need to turn around, I’m on my way to pick him up now, but I thought you’d want to know.”

He was quiet for a minute, and I could tell he was doing his best to keep calm. When he finally spoke, his voice was apprehensive, but not panicked.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I spoke to him on the phone. He’s alright. The nurse said he’s worn out and upset, so I figured I could talk to him, maybe take him out for lunch, and see how he’s feeling afterward.”

Mattias hummed thoughtfully. “I don’t mind him taking a half day if he needs it.”

“Neither do I,” I agreed. “But if it's something he can work through on his own, I want to encourage him to do that. It should be close to lunch time at his school anyway, so give me a chance to work my magic and I’ll update you a little later, alright?”

Huffing out a laugh, he said, “You definitely have some kind of magic. Alright, let me know if you need me to turn around. I got a call earlier, but I didn’t recognize the number, so I didn't answer it. I don’t drive and talk if I can help it.”

“You’re talking to me now,” I pointed out with a smirk.

“I pulled over, brat,” he shot back. “You’re important enough for me to take a minute to do that. I’ll add the school’s number to my phone so I won’t miss it in the future.”

I seriously loved how easily he admitted how important I was to him. There was no awkward period in our relationship. We fell into it like it was natural and it felt like we’d been together a lot longer than two weeks.

We hung up right as I pulled into the school parking lot. Unlike Mattias, I didn’t have a problem driving and talking, but I also had four walls surrounding me and I couldn’t go that fast in the town proper. He needed to focus on what he was doing because more often than not, with motorcycle crashes, it was idiot drivers around them that were dangerous, not the motorcycles themselves.

Leaving the back windows cracked and the AC on for Thor, I hopped out of the car, hustling inside. I stopped in the main office first to sign in. Since I was one of Xander’s emergency contacts, they only needed to check my ID and have me sign a piece of paper on why I was there before they escorted me to the nurse’s office.

Xander was sitting on the edge of a cot in a small room just off her office when I came in. He looked up at me, shamefaced and embarrassed. I offered him a smile before listening to the school nurse tell me more about what happened.

“I don’t think it was bad enough to warrant going home, but he’s really upset and keeps asking to leave. It might be better to take a half day and clear his head before starting again tomorrow.”

I nodded. “Maybe. For now, I think I’m going to take him to lunch and talk for a bit. If he feels confident enough to come back, can he do that?”

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