Page 26 of Silver
Sally left, leaving me with Charlie. I reached across the table and grabbed his hands. When he laced his fingers with mine, I smiled at my mate.
“Isn’t that cute.”
I growled up at my brother. “Don’t think I can’t and won’t make your life miserable, Flint.” Charlie looked over at my brother, and I could sense his unease. I gave his hands a gentle squeeze. “Be nice to my mate, or I will bash you the next time I see you.”
Flint snorted. “Relax. I was just picking on you. It actually is sweet.” Flint slid in beside Charlie, who scrambled to move over to the other side of the booth. I sent my brother another glare. “I’m Flint,” he said, holding out a hand. “Since my brother isn’t going to bother introducing you to us. Welcome to the family, and congratulations.”
Charlie immediately relaxed, which caused my gorilla to do the same. “Hi. I’m Charlie.”
“So we’ve heard.” Flint gave me a worried glance. “I’m not sure how long Ma will hold off, but you can thank Slate forspilling the news to her.” I groaned. “Clay beat us to it and punched him for ya.”
I glanced over at my brothers, where Clay was staring at us. I nodded to him once and turned the usual scowl into what I would call a sinister grin.
“What does that mean?” Charlie asked.
“It means that while my brothers are helping us move your stuff into what is now our house, Ma and Dad are probably going to show up.”
Charlie nodded once, started to say something, but then stopped at Sally’s reappearance with our juices.
“Are you moving over here, Flint?”
“Naw. I’m just saying hello.” Flint offered Sally a flirty smile. “Do you think I can get a couple pieces of cherry pie?”
Sally sighed. “You know you can. I’ll bring them when I get a minute.”
“Thanks, Sally. You’re the best.”
“Yeah, well, just remember that when you’re leaving my tip.”
“You know I will.” Flint watched as Sally walked off to the next table before he turned back to me. “When do you need us to help you move?” Flint looked over at Charlie. “I assume you’re not packed.”
“Umm…no.”
“Yeah, we can do that. I’ll get them together, and we’ll drop by with boxes and packing stuff after work.” Flint winced as he glanced my way. “What do you want to do about Ma?”
“Nothing at the moment. I cannot keep her from dropping by the house. I don’t have to let her in, but I’ll deal with it if she shows up.”
Charlie wiggled his hands free. I thought he just wanted to reach for his drink, but when I looked at my mate, I realized he was irritated. “Why would you do that to your mom?”
Flint beat me to the answer. “We love her, Charlie. We adore our ma. But she can be a bit much at times. And if she thinks that she can get away with stopping by your place every day, she will. She’ll show up when you’re not really wanting visitors.” Flint cleared his throat. “When you…you know.”
It took Charlie a moment to realize what Flint was getting at. When he did, he looked at me with wide eyes. “She wouldn’t just show up like they did this morning, would she?”
“She would. But she’s not going to have her key for much longer,” I told him. “And these yahoos all know they’re not allowed to just come on in anymore.” I looked pointedly at Flint. “Ring the bell first and wait for us to answer. And even better would be if you call before you come over.”
Flint let out a little growl. “We wouldn’t have dropped in if you’d let us know last night.”
“I was busy.”
“All right, I have food for them, Flint. And your pie is at your spot. You had better get back to it because Slate was looking at it like it was his last meal.”
“Shit.” Flint slid from the booth. “It was nice to meet you, Charlie. I’ll see you later.” With that, he hurried across the diner and back to his own table. I watched as he grabbed something from Slate before he gave his shoulder a not-so-gentle slap.
“All right,” Sally said. “I have food for the two of you.” It didn’t take long for Sally to fill our booth with multiple plates. As the food kept coming, Charlie’s eyes widened.
“Anything else?” She asked once her tray was empty.
“There’s no more room?” Charlie said.
