Page 27 of Flock Around and Find Out

“You know, I think you worry too much. You think you need to catch up to someone else, but you’re your own person.”

“That’s what we always tell stupid people so they don’t feel so bad about themselves.”

He handed me a piece of sharp cheddar as he worked at laying out the plate. “You know what I remember? When your brother got scammed out of his money when he was thirteen. He’d worked that side job over the summer, but some person offered to sell him a coupon to a spa, and he wanted to give it to your mom for her birthday. The coupon ended up a fake, of course.”

“He’s always been too nice.”

“My point is that that would have been the end of it. He’d have lost out on all that money, on his gift, and he felt horrible. None of us knew what to do, even the police just said it was a lesson learned the hard way.Youwent out and found the scammer though, all on your own, and you got his money back.”

I laughed softly, thinking back to when I’d been young and human. It hadn’t actually been that hard. I’d gotten the description of the idiot who had scammed my brother, then waited out to find him trying his trick again. The truth was that conmen never stopped a good con. Since he’d gotten some money from it, he’d do it again.

Sure enough, I’d found the little twerp and followed him to his car. People like that always had enemies, always had people looking for them. I knew it, because I was like that.

The only difference was that he still worried about it.

It hadn’t taken much prompting to make him realize I could be a very big problem. He’d given me the money back just so I’d leave him alone, and I’d used it to get an actual spa ticket—along with the bit of donation that he’d given me to keep my mouth shut—and handed both off to my brother to give to our mom.

“It wasn’t that hard,” I argued. “Anyone could have done that.”

“Maybe, but anyone didn’t.Youdid. That’s the point, Grey. You like to compare yourself to others who you think are better, but the truth is that you’re unique. You do things your own way. Maybe it isn’t the same way others do it, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. That doesn’t mean it isn’t important, that it doesn’t matter.Youmatter, Grey, and you’re a bigger part of this family than I think you always feel. That’s why your mom did this, because she wanted to really show you that you’re part of this family, that we love you and want you here.”

I blew out a long breath. “You’re really going to just guilt trip me like that? I can’t just run away after you said that.”

He snorted. “I know—why do you think I tried that? It might be tricky, but it’s also true. Though…”

“What?”

“Well, you have an interesting group of friends. It wasn’t what I expected.”

“What did you expect?”

“Bikers and circus performers?” He smirked and gave me another piece of cheese like a peace offering.

“Well, you pretty much got that, didn’t you?”

He picked up the tray and handed it to me. “No more avoiding it. Off with you. Take these out there for everyone.” A push to my back got me moving, my drink in one hand and the tray balanced on the other.

Each step took longer than it needed to, my nerves slowing me down. It felt like if I went slow enough, maybe I could miss the whole thing?

I laughed at the stupidity of that plan.

If I didn’t get going, I was pretty damned sure someone would come and drag me out. Who it was, that I didn’t know, but it didn’t matter, either. Someone would get me and I doubted I could argue with anyone of them.

The door to the backyard was open, with strings of lights illuminating the space. I paused at the doorway, as though surveying a battlefield instead of a party.

Sure enough, I spotted Galen and Kelvin—at opposite ends of the patio. I sure didn’t expect to spot Porter, though, seated in the corner, my mom’s cat in his lap. No doubt he’d rather be there instead of speaking to anyone else. The fact he was there at all amazed me. He wasn’t exactly a party type.

I had a few options for where to go, but I knew the first person—the one at fault for this whole mess.

I stalked over to Kelvin, who was drinking a beer as he stood there, his gaze locked on me. It was unnerving, made it difficult to walk over to him with the confidence that I would have liked, but anger had a habit of being able to really dissolve nerves.

“You’re late,” he pointed out, as though I didn’t know it.

“Yeah, well, seeing as you shouldn’t be here at all, I don’t think that’s a big deal.” I set the tray down on one of the bar-height tables set around the patio. “Why the hell would you do this? And I hear you’ve been stopping in to see my mother?”

“You know I’m not a man who fights fair. When I realized how close you were to your mother, it seemed only obvious that I should use that to my advantage. If your mother likes me, the odds of you accepting me go up as well. I will take every advantage I can because this isn’t a battle I plan to lose.”

“Only you would view romance as a battle.”

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