Page 21 of Tender
Emmett nodded.“Then you have a few weeks to kick your feet up.Maybe get some sun by the pool.”He dropped his hand, but only to grab Miles’s wrist, and he tugged him a step forward.“Come on.”
“I don’t have money,” Miles argued, pulling back against him.“I can’t pay rent.”
“We’re not asking for rent.We’re trying to make amends.”
Miles successfully managed to free his arm, though he missed the touch.It had been so, so long since anyone had been gentle with him.His throat felt a little tight.“I don’t think that’s your job.”
Emmett scoffed and rolled his eyes.“Yeah, well, we enabled her to be…this.It’s something Mo and I have to deal with, but the least we could do is help you right now.”
“To make yourselves feel better?” Miles asked.He was shocked at his own boldness, but he was also out of fucks considering his situation.
Instead of getting angry, Emmett just laughed. “Yeah, that’s definitely part of it.I don’t like knowing I screwed up in such abig way.But it’ll help you, won’t it? And besides, we both really liked you.”
Miles couldn’t really argue, though he wanted to. How could they like him when all they knew was the mess he was right now?
If he was less desperate, he might have said no, but for the foreseeable future, he really had nowhere else to go.“I have a friend who might be able to help me, but he’s on his honeymoon.So…maybe just until he gets back.”
Emmett looked both relieved and disappointed.“Fair enough.Now, have you eaten?Because you two bailed on lunch before we could order anything.”
Miles didn’t get a word in as Emmett hustled him across the parking lot, got him into the car, then took off while blabbering a mile a minute.Miles was overwhelmed, but the one thought that nipped at his heels the whole drive was how the hell a man this goddamn sweet managed to raise a monster like Selene.
Miles was still in shock when they pulled up to Emmett’s house.It was everything and nothing like he expected.It was lavish, but not a mansion.It was on the water, so it was definitely a seven-figure home, but it had a sort of quiet humility about it that very much seemed to fit Emmett.
Cosimo, he wasn’t quite sure about, but he figured he’d get to know the man in due time.
Emmett parked in the circle driveway, then hurried around just as Miles was climbing out.He carried Miles’s suitcase without being asked and let him through the front door with a sweeping gesture.
“What’s mine is yours,” he said.“Or…whatever.Basically, feel free to use anything you want without asking.We’re not fussy.”
The house was massive. The ceilings were tall, everything was tile, the paint a sort of pale latte color. He only got a glimpse of the living room as they passed through a hallway and then paused in the doorway which led to a huge kitchen.
He tried to imagine Selene growing up there. But even as everything was starkly clean and very modern, there was a homey feel to it, and that didn’t seem like her at all. He couldn’t picture her in her teenage years having dinner at the table with her dads or doing her homework at the counter. He couldn’t imagine her living the life he’d always fantasized about: parents who wanted him. Who held him and comforted him.
Not because she didn’t deserve it, but because she seemed to revile it so much.
“…okay?”
Miles realized he’d drifted and turned when he heard Emmett’s voice and then felt a tap on his shoulder. “Sorry.”
Emmett signed something Miles was pretty sure meant, ‘It’s fine.’ He’d seen Selene use it before. “Please stop apologizing. I know today has probably been too much. I was just telling you that whatever you need, I want you to help yourself.”
Yeah, Miles was most definitelynotgoing to be doing that.At all.Ever.He’d spent his entire life trying to make himself seem as small as possible because when kids like him got noticed, it was never for anything good.He’d learned to carry that with him as an adult, which was probably why all his bosses and department heads walked all over him.
But Emmett was doing a huge thing for him.He was not going to take advantage.
“Thanks,” he eventually said, voice a soft rumble against the back of his throat as Emmett stared at him.
Emmett frowned, but after a moment, he nodded and beckoned him along.“You’re probably exhausted.Let me show you to the guest house.”
“I thought you said it was a pool house,” Miles said, half-panicked. He reached out and touched Emmett’s arm. A guest house sounded a little too lavish for a free stay.
Emmett sighed as he turned back.“It is.I was trying to make it sound a little nicer, so it didn’t seem like we were throwing you in some shack in the yard.”
“Oh, I’d take a shack in the yard,” Miles admitted with a tiny grin.“Otherwise, it was going to be a friend’s couch. Or a shelter.”
Emmett looked freshly pissed, but he swallowed thickly like he was choking on his words, then jerked his head toward an alcove which led to a patio door.It slid open and Miles caught his breath as they stepped out onto the deck.There was a small road before open beach, and a set of stairs led down to a small but gorgeous pool.He saw the pool house immediately.It was on the slope, close to the patio, and it was tiny.
It couldn’t have held more than a bathroom and a bed, but he’d slept in so much worse.
