Page 43 of Guarding My Love

“No problem,” Foster said and drank more of his beer. “I’m just hungry.”

He stood up and moved to the table where the snacks were laid out and filled a plate. He was here for the food more than the social aspect of it.

But two hours later, he must not have been convincing enough to talk with his siblings about work and other family members that they’d seen just a month ago at West’s wedding because when he went to get another beer, West followed him in.

“What’s going on?” West said. “You’ve got something on your mind. Maybe not a problem, but something you’re working through.”

There wasn’t hiding much from his older brother. “When I was coming here, there was a guy on my neighbor’s porch looking through the window. She’s not home. I know she is out of town. I stopped to ask if I could help him and he all but ignored me. It didn’t feel right.”

West didn’t ask him how he knew his neighbor was out of town or even if it was a woman. He wouldn’t pry like that. “Did you get the plate?”

“I did,” he said.

“Call Henry. He’ll run it for you,” West said.

Henry was West’s head of security.

“It’s a holiday weekend,” he argued.

“I didn’t say do it now,” West said, smirking. “But if you’re thinking it, you’re worried.”

“What’s Foster worried about?” Laken asked, moving in.

Shit. She was the one who would pry.

“Nothing,” West said.

“I don’t believe it. I know my brother. Something is going on and he isn’t saying. Everything okay?”

There was no getting out of this. If he didn’t give a little information, they’d pester him the rest of the time he was here and dinner hadn’t been served yet.

He moved back to the patio where everyone was sitting. Penelope was in the heated pool with Jamie. Everyone else was still sitting on comfortable furniture that most couldn’t even afford in their house let alone outside.

“When I was coming here, there was a strange guy on my neighbor’s porch looking in the window. I got his plate number and stopped to ask if I could help him.”

“You asked someone you didn’t know if you could help them?” Nelson asked with his jaw open.

Jesus, he wasn’t that much of a dick, was he?

“It’s the right thing to do. I know Charlotte isn’t home this weekend.”

Too late he slipped when he’d never done that before.

“Before we get to the guy,” Laken said. “I want to know more about Charlotte and how you know her name, let alone the fact she isn’t home and it’s a woman that is your new neighbor.”

He turned to look at Braylon, hoping for some backup. “Sorry, you’re on your own,” Braylon said. “We’ve all had to go through this with Laken.”

“The same way you guys did it to me,” Laken said. “It’s part of being in this large family.”

Which he knew and could trust them.

“I’ve helped her a few times,” he said. “She lives alone and almost broke her neck carrying a ladder across her yard on Easter Sunday. Then her lawnmower all but exploded if I didn’t run up to stop her. Thankfully it stopped running before it could. I heard it knocking at my place. It had no oil in it.”

“So you’re helping some single older woman who can’t take care of her place?” West asked.

He could let them assume that but chose not to.

“She’s not older. Probably my age or younger. I can’t tell those things,” he said.

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