Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30

Gage

“Are you serious?”

I swung my bag up onto the bed, and the damn thing’s zipper popped open once again. Rolling my eyes, I tossed my phone down next to it in order to grab both sides to force them back together. Wrestling a zipper closed while my bag was overstuffed was the worst fucking task to do by myself.

Xavier had mysteriously left early this morning with hardly any explanation while I’d still been half asleep. By the time I’d realized it, it’d been well past an hour.

I swore that man had no off switch. Two days out of the hospital and he was already trying to run marathons again.

“You don’t have to go,” I said down to my phone. “I only wanted to pass along the offer since Grey and Ash were asking me to.”

Dexter let out a soft noise on the other end of the line, causing me to smile.

How funny was it that he went from having no friends to two that were up my ass about inviting him to the Christmas/New Years extravaganza?

The second they’d heard about me bringing Xavier home with me, they’d shot me back with a ‘ well, what about Dexter?’ that I thought was so fucking adorable I could barely contain myself.

Since they were little kids, they’d always talked about having a younger sibling, which, unfortunately, never came to fruition after the death of our parents. Now, with Dexter in the picture, it seemed like they were determined to adopt him under their wings.

“You’re actually serious?”

I rolled my eyes again. “I can have them Facetime you and have them ask you themselves.”

He grunted at me, no doubt with a finger shoved into his mouth and halfway through chewing apart a cuticle. He’d done that a lot at the hospital, anytime he thought no one was paying attention to him. By Christmas, the poor skin around his nails was ripped to shreds.

Did I blame him at all?

Nope, not one bit. Hell, I’d been bouncing off the walls the entire three days Xavier had been passed out. By that fourth day, just before he finally woke up, even I was ready to start taking up a bad habit.

“Come on,” I goaded. “You know you want to come.”

He sighed softly. “Yeah...”

I grinned, finally getting my zipper closed and grabbed my phone. “Awesome. Pack a bag for a few days. I can have your dad talk your mom into letting you come since you got to spend Christmas with them.”

Dexter let out a soft snort. “Was that why you kicked us out on Christmas? So you could have leverage?”

“No.”

Maybe.

It wasn’t intentional.

At the time, at least.

I’d actually wanted them all to spend the day with each other like families were supposed to. Not be stuck in a hospital room cramped in those god awful chairs while we all stared at Xavier’s machines and twiddled our thumbs waiting in silence.

Even now, I kind of felt bad taking Dexter away from his mother for New Years; however, at the same time, Xavier deserved a holiday with him, too. During my time in the hospital and getting to know Kate a little bit better, she’d shown me that she wasn’t as bad as I’d made her out to be in my head.

There were still some sensible bones left in her body, even if her husband did try to scripture me to death at one point.

Thankfully, I’d perfectly the art of tuning things out, thanks to my brothers.

“Uh huh,” Dexter drawled. “All right, I’ll pack a bag and have it by the door. You and dad got all your stuff ready now?”

“For the most part. Your dad ran off a few hours ago to do god knows what. He’s barely answered my texts all day, aside from telling me he was heading downtown somewhere.”

Tossing my phone back onto the bed, I looped the handle of my bag over my shoulder to carefully set it down by the door. With my luck, any kind of jostling would pop that damn zipper right back open and then I’d be starting all over again.

“Downtown?” There was a pause. And then, “Oh.”

My gaze traveled back to my phone to squint at it.

What did that tone mean?

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said quickly, flagging my suspicions even further.

Honestly, did I want to know?

No doubt it’d have something to do with the twins and planning some elaborate prank that was either going to embarrass me or piss me off. Such is the way with little brothers and their funny ways with showing that they were going to miss their elder sibling.

Ugh, whatever.

“I’ll let your dad know you said yes to coming.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Text me when you’re on your way.”