Page 90 of The MC's Little Brother

“You’ve been teaching her, haven’t you?”

Circus gave me the biggest shit-eating grin he could muster. “What? I have no idea what you’re talking about. Oh, look. They’ve got snacks. I’m starved.” He ran away before I could even open my mouth to respond to him. Idiot.

When I raised an eyebrow at Mel, she shrugged. “He’s the only one who didn’t freak out and get all overprotective when I asked him to take me. We come here once a month at least to blow off steam.”

Dragging her closer, I stroked her chin with my thumb. “I feel like I should be pissed, but you looked good out there.”

She beamed, lifting onto her toes for a kiss. I’d never say no to that and spent a few minutes just enjoying the fact that I could do this whenever the hell I wanted. No more pining like an idiot over the woman I wanted but couldn’t have. She was mine, and I’d keep taking care of her until we were old and gray.

When I pulled away, she hummed a happy sound, her eyes still closed. I loved it when she looked like that, and I hated to ruin it, but I couldn’t help throwing in a little dig for hiding that she was doing something dangerous for years.

“We’ll see what Prez has to say about it.”

Her eyes flew open, and her jaw dropped. I laughed and ducked when she swiped at me.

“You better not! Mattias!”

Jumping away from her, I took off, grinning to myself. I wasn’t the playful sort of guy, but playing with Mel lit me up. And when she called Xander to help her and he tried to tackle me, I laughed out loud. Teasing her was worth it for moments like this.

It wasclose to dinner time by the time we got back. Xander gushed the entire way home about how much fun he had and how he wanted to invite his new friend at school to go with him next time. Jonah mentioned something about a frequent flier program. I’d need to look into it because I got the feeling Xander wouldn’t be happy with just going once a month with Mel.

He was still talking when we got out of the car, leaning into me when I threw my arm around his shoulders. I tucked Mel under my other arm, one hundred percent happy for the first time in my life. I had the perfect girl, my little brother was safe and happy, and my crew always showed up when I needed them.

The happiness only lasted so long before someone called out to us. I hadn’t noticed someone parked in front of the house, too busy listening to Xander, and when I saw the CPS worker getting out of her car, I bit back a growl. Why the hell couldn’t we just get a few days of peace without something coming up?

Xander stiffened when he saw her approaching, and his smile fell away. I hated that. He was finally happy. I wanted this whole process to be done already, so they could just leave him alone.

Mel stepped forward, her smile a little tense around her eyes. The few times she’d been here when the social worker was, she was quick to reassure me the woman wasn’t biased, but I knew the truth. This could’ve been done a lot faster if she wasn’t.

“Miss Packman. Have you been waiting here? We were out.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed, but she kept her expression neutral. “It’s fine. Surprise visits can sometimes come at bad times. Can I come in?”

She’d seen the house half a dozen times already. She didn’t need to keepshowing up. I grumbled to myself, leading Xander inside, since he was too busy glaring at the woman to move.

“Let Thor outside, will you?” I asked as we came inside. Since we were gone for half the day, Tank showed up at least once to let him out to do his business and take him on a walk, but he probably still needed to go. Xander was quick to agree, and patted his leg to get Thor to follow him.

Ms. Packman came inside after Mel, looking around suspiciously like usual. I bit back the urge to question her about it. I knew why she did that.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Mel asked. “We’ve got water and soda.”

“No, thank you,” Ms. Packman replied tersely. “I’d like another tour if you don’t mind.”

She looked at me when she said that. That felt like a bigger test than the rest of it. Could I be polite to her long enough to get through another tour of the house? My gaze flicked toward Xander, who was holding Mel’s hand and frowning at me. He looked nervous. I refused to screw things up to get him taken away from me.

“Sure. What do you want to see?”

“Let’s start with upstairs,” she said casually.

Grinding my teeth, I headed upstairs, showing her once again the bathroom and spare bedroom that Mel never used anymore. We still needed to find time to move her in completely. I opened the door to Xander’s room but didn’t let her inside. When she raised her eyebrow at me, I crossed my arms defiantly.

“It’s his room. You want permission to go in there, you have to ask him.”

The corner of her mouth twitched, almost like she was biting back a smile. I didn’t know what for and I didn’t care. I just wanted this to be over with.

“And what’s in the boxes?” She gestured to the boxes piled on the landing. I still hadn’t found where I was going to put those. Once Mel moved downstairs, I would probably just put them back in the spare room. No one ever went in there.

“Work stuff,” I grumbled.

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