Page 87 of Goldilocks

At Sam’s silence, Connor nodded to the man sitting by the bedside. “Eric found you knocked out cold in the garden.”

“I don’t know,” Sam said.

The man, Eric, stood. “I’ll get the nurse.”

Sam watched him approach the door but found his gaze returning to Connor, the only familiar one. But even with Connor, he didn’t know why he was here. They broke up, didn’t they? Sam’s head ached trying to remember their last interaction. “You brought your friends to visit me?” he asked, trying to prompt an introduction of some sort.

Eric slowed to a stop before he reached the door. He frowned in Sam’s direction.

Connor looked puzzled. “My friends?”

Sam flicked his gaze to the teenager leaning against him, then to the guy sitting at Sam’s feet.

“I think you hit your head pretty damn hard,” Connor said with a sigh. “You don’t recognise them? This is Laurence, my brother. And that’s Goldilocks, your boyfriend.”

Right. Yeah. Sam at least remembered that Connor had no siblings. “You’re an only child.”

“His mom married my dad,” the teenager, Laurence, told Sam. “Although they’re divorced now. But we kept Connor.”

Sam’s head hurt a lot. “Right. Okay.” His gaze travelled to the guy there was nowayhe was dating, and those golden eyes stared steadily back at Sam. “And you’re my boyfriend?” he asked, voice full of doubt.

“Yes,” the guy answered.

Sam stared, gaze travelling down the guy’s body. He saw something that made him turn back to Connor. “So why ismyboyfriend wearingyourclothes?”

“Mine didn’t fit him,” Laurence offered. “And Dad’s were too big. And Nick wouldn’t share even though I told him to, which just left Connor.”

“Is he your brother too?” Sam asked.

“No,” Connor said.

Sam’s head was really hurting. Enough that his eyes burned, but there was no way he’d let himself cry in front of strangers. He swallowed thickly. “Are you screwing with me? Because if so, there’s a time and place, and this isn’t it.”

“Okay. Enough.” Eric stepped back to the bed. “I think you guys should leave and not keep confusing him.”

“And who is it you’re supposed to be?” Sam asked.

Connor and Laurence drew up in surprise, their expressions genuine enough that Sam caught on that he should know the answer to that one.

“Eric. Your older brother,” Eric told Sam in an oddly blank voice.

Sam stared at him in silence. His older brother? Thoughts moving like thick molasses, his mind finally agreed that such a person used to exist. “Oh.”

Eric nodded to Connor and Laurence. “Can you two get the doctor?”

Connor stood up. “You good with that, Sam, or do you want me to stay?”

“It’s fine,” Sam said. His throat was raw and hurting, and the longer he was awake, the more he wished he wasn’t.

Eric sat in the spot Connor had vacated. “It’s okay. Don’t think too hard about it. We’ll figure it out.”

“Okay,” Sam said.

Eric’s gaze travelled to Goldilocks, Sam’s supposed boyfriend. “How long have you two been dating?”

“Six months,” Goldilocks answered.

“And that’s your name? Goldilocks?” Eric asked, a sardonic note in his voice.