Page 35 of Eat You Alive (Court Legacy 4)

I doubted he’d tell me. I mean, he’d certainly told me none of this was my business before, so I definitely didn’t expect anything but a bark in my direction.

“Because above all else, I need them to believe this.” His hands gripped the dresser now, fidgeting. He both tucked and re-tucked his hands under his arms before ultimately pushing off of it. “They have to. Last year had them worried sick about me, and even though I’m back and things are okay now, they haven’t stopped. They hover and are completely in my business.”

He scrubbed his face, his admittance giving me pause. I sat on the bed. “What had them worried?”

Again, I didn’t think he’d tell me, but then he was looking at me. My heart did something, a slight jump, flip. Especially when he squeezed the bridge of his nose again.

“I had a health scare,” he said, and my gut churned then, tight. His tongue darted across his lips. “And it freaked everyone out. It was bad.”

“Well, are you okay now?”Why are you asking?

Why do you care?

It was like that stuff with his sister again, all the trauma he seemed to have in his life. He did have so much, and my heart couldn’t help but go out to him.

A small smile took his lips, smoky eyes drifting to me. He tipped his chin. “You care about me now, Red?”

I didn’t, but I had a heart.

He approached the bed. “I’m fine. Like I mentioned, things are better now, but that hasn’t stopped their worry. They’re all over me, and I do need to focus on school.”

“Why didn’t you just say that at Jax’s?”

“Because I’m a private person, and no offense, but you aren’t. You air people’s shit all over, and I really don’t need the world knowing my business.”

My head shot back. “I wouldn’t have shared all this.”

“Yeah, because I know that?” He was in my face again, breaths away when he leaned in. “I don’t know you, so no, I wasn’t going to tell you all this.”

My gaze hardened. “What happened in high school was a job.”

“Yeah, well, now I’m your job.” He pushed away. “And this time, it won’t be what it was. This shit is for my fucking family. It is, and they fucking mean the world to me.”

It was rare I heard emotion from Wolf, but when talking about his family, I heard it.

His head dipped a little, dusky waves shrouding his face. “They need to know I’m okay. That I’ve moved on from last year, and things are better. They need to know that I’m good and not just physically. That will give them peace of mind, and I fucking need that for them.”

But it didn’t seem like he was good, better. I mean, I didn’t know him either butbetter peopledidn’t do stuff like this. Lie to their family? “Wouldn’t us just suddenly living together, I don’t know, set off red flags? Create worry?” I huffed. “I mean, that’s the reason you didn’t jump into telling people we were official yet.”

“Correct, but the story I’ve told my sister and the guys is you needed a roommate. You were hard up, and I’m helping you out.”

My jaw dropped. “You’ve already told them.”

“Yes. I explained you left your old roommate situation for personal reasons, and rather than go through the roommate process again, I’m taking the spot. I wanted them to think I was crazy about you. Not crazy.” He flopped some of his hair forward. “They didn’t like it, but they got over it. My sister ended up being the harder sell, but once I had the guys on board, I got her. My buddies weren’t that hard to convince, and if you knew anything about my brothers, you’d understand.”

“Brothers?”

“Yeah. My friends Dorian, Wells, and Thatcher are like brothers to me. They are brothers, and when we get passionate about shit, we go all in. They understood me wanting to help you out. Even if that would sound crazy to most. That’s just who we are. Once we get invested, we show up for who needs us.”

That was all great, except this was a lie. “All this does is buy you time, though. This arrangement? If it’s only temporary, what’s the point?”

“True, but those weeks are relief for both me and them. They are hovering, and I need to focus on school. That’s why I’m leaning more toward this being weeks instead of days. We’ll see how it goes.”

Regardless, I didn’t like either. “I can’t live with you, Wolf.”

“You can and you are. Like I said, your sentence goes from months to weeks. It puts a time clock on us, and I know you want that.”

I did want that, but I couldn’t live with this guy. He was so angry, crazy, and I did ridiculous things around him. Things like agree to get in a fake relationship in the goddamn first place.

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