Locke winced. “Sorry about that.”
“Can’t blame the child for being easily led.” Rubi kept his mock glare on me. “But you might want to rethink your top pick for stepdad material because this wanker needs an ASBO?—”
“All right, all right.” I cut him off before his datedantisocial behaviourrant poured a bucket of awkward on the morning-after glow I wasn’t ready to lose yet. “I don’t know why we’re here. I just got out of bed.”
The truth, and Rubi knew it. He didn’t always call me on the half-baked versions I had to give him sometimes, but I never got a lie past him.
I waited for him to grumble and wander off.
He didn’t, forcing me to give him my full attention.
I sighed. “What?”
“You know what.” Rubi jabbed an inked finger at my chest. “If the accountant’s here,you’rehere, and Saint’s round the back praying to the sun or whatever, that means the O’Brian horde is out thereun-fucking-supervised.”
The O’Brian horde: Cam. Orla.River.
Damn.The anxiety Rubi was hiding with humour began to make sense. I scrutinised him for signs of the migraines that had plagued him before he’d found the yoga gods. He still got them when he was stressed enough, and he was definitely stressed now. Looked all right, though. At least his eyeballs were pointing in the same direction, which I took as a win.
I went back to counting heads. Circled back a few times to be sure I had the right number.
More than a few. “Folk’s not here. Maybe he’s with them.”
Wishful thinking.
Rubi shook his head. “He’s catching a nap.”
“Embry?”
“Haven’t seen him, but I know he’s here.”
Last I knew, Embry and River had been due to take over from Saint and Mateo guarding Willow. But with Willow here with us, it was a moot point. Which meant everyone who mattered was on the compound except the ones where it all began.
As that reality hit home, Willow came closer and stole her drink back from Locke. She swept her Halliwell gaze over him and her brow ticked up. “You look different. Did you get your haircut?”
Rubi snorted. “He got something all right.”
I bunched my fist to thump him.
He jerked out of my reach and ambled away, but I knew my friend. Knew he’d be back bending my ear in five minutes flat if River didn’t come home soon. And I didn’t blame him. O’Brians equalled fire. No good ever came of them roaming the outside world without a hydrant to temper them.
Was I that hydrant?
Was Rubi?
I’d say so. It was likely why they hadn’t told either of us where the fuck they were going. Which accounted for Orla’s love life, and River’s. But what about Cam?
It was cold in the windy yard. I dug deep for all the subtlety I could muster and communicated to Willow that she should hustle her dad inside.
One of my favourite things about this kid was her nose for subtext. She winked and towed him to the chapel to show him something on her guitar. I watched them until they were safely indoors, then I sought out Alexei again, turning my head in the same moment he turned his. In the same momentEmbryjumped from the roof, landing like a cat on a picnic table.
Couldn’t say why, but combined with the look Alexei pegged the good father with, the timing seemed significant, and I knew I needed to lay eyes on Saint before I could say for sure that something was up.
It was outrageous that Saint didn’t magically appear, leaving me at the mercy of Alexei’s penetrating attention and Rubi’s angst as he stomped back to where I still stood by Willow’s car.
“Something ain’t right,” he grumbled.
“You don’t know that. Maybe they went to the cemetery or some shit.” Where their parents were buried, close to my uncle and Rubi’s entire family.Lark. I’d never met the kid, but my heart ached for him all the same.