Page 20 of Safe (King’s Heart #1)

Landon

“What do you think happened?”

Gwen’s sweet little voice filters in through my restless sleep.

Danny’s grumpier voice answers, “I don’t know. He looks like shit, so probably something bad.” A smack sound rings out. “Ow!”

“You know you’re not supposed to cuss. Mom doesn’t like it.”

“Mom’s in jail.”

Smack .

“Gwenny, if you hit me one more time then?—”

I roll over on the couch. “What are you guys doing? Can’t you go argue somewhere else?” I mutter while rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

Danny gestures around the room. “Not really. You’re on the couch—this is the living room.”

I sit up and groan. I slept like hell. The couch was too small for my six-foot frame, and I couldn’t stop thinking about things . I had to push my erection away every ten minutes throughout the night.

“Morning, sunshine!” Simmons calls from the kitchen.

He has a modest, three-bedroom house built sometime in the eighties. There’s a kitchen off the living room that is separated by one of those random cutouts in the wall.

He ducks his head to look through the cutout, waving excitedly at me. “I’m making french toast. Want some?”

“Uhh, sure,” I answer distractedly, following Gwen and Danny to the small round dining table next to the cutout.

We sit down as Simmons puts plates on the table and then the platter of french toast. Everyone starts digging in.

Simmons clears his throat. “So, I called your mom’s lawyer,” he says as he pierces some french toast with his fork and puts it on his plate.

“And she has a sentencing date set. I’ll text you the specific date and time, but it’s in a few weeks. ”

My fork clatters. “A few weeks?!” I ask, unable to keep the exasperation out of my voice.

He nods as his lips thin, then sets his fork down to look at me. “I’m sorry, Landon. She only has a public defender. And they always have huge caseloads, so things fall through the cracks. I can’t afford to give her anything better. I asked the guy to look into getting her a sooner date.”

I shake my head. “No no. That’s not what I meant.” I run my hand down my face and let out a sigh. “I just…”

My voice trails off when I look over at Gwen and Danny, both sporting solemn faces while picking at their food.

“Never mind. We can talk about this later.” I plaster a smile on my face and change the subject. “It was nice to see you guys at the game last night. Thanks for coming.”

Simmons chews his french toast and nods enthusiastically. “Yeah. We all loved it. Right guys?”

“Yeah!” Gwen excitedly agrees.

Danny just scowls at his plate.

“Oh, you loved it, Danny,” Simmons says while patting him on the shoulder.

Danny grunts and blushes for some weird reason.

Simmons pivots his attention back to me, swallowing his food and sitting back in his chair. “But I gotta say, I had heard a lot of good things about your QB and then…” He shakes his head and grimaces.

I roll my eyes at the mention of Grant while that weird feeling from last night ignites in my gut again. “Yeah, last night wasn’t his best performance,” I mutter, trying to keep my weird, bitter, but also sexy, feelings about Grant out of my tone.

“Oh, we don’t like him?” Simmons asks, and when I give him a puzzled look he explains. “You rolled your eyes. You have this whole grouchy, growly thing talking about him.” He waves at my whole body like it’s obvious.

“We don’t really like each other.” Understatement .

“What’s his name again? Cameron? Carson?”

“Caldwell. Grant Caldwell.” My gut clenches saying his name. Fuck. Stop it. “He’s my roommate too, actually.”

Simmons frowns. “No kidding? Well, sorry about that. Is that why you had to stay here?”

No. I had to stay because I dry humped his brains out and can’t stop thinking about how his face looks when he comes.

Gwen jumps in before I get the chance to answer, holding up her fork like she’s about to impart the most sage wisdom on us. “Landon, I can help you. We just had an assembly about bullying.”

“No one said bullying,” I retort.

She ignores me. “You’re supposed to punch them. The bullies.”

Danny snorts while Simmons lets out a disbelieving laugh. “ That’s what your school said to do?”

She giggles. “No, they said to tell a teacher, but, I mean, if you punch them, then you don’t have to tell a teacher and everyone will feel better.”

Danny holds in a laugh. “Can’t argue with that logic.”

Simmons scoffs. “What? No?—”

“Makes sense to me.” Danny shrugs.

I interrupt their odd tangent. “It’s not a big deal. I’m fine. I just missed you guys. That’s all.”

Gwen smiles widely and continues eating, but Simmons and Danny both look at me with distrusting eyes.

The rest of breakfast is filled with random chatter until everyone finishes, then Danny and Gwen place their plates in the sink and scamper off to sit in front of the TV in the living room.

Simmons corners me in the kitchen, his arms crossed, out of the earshot of my two siblings. “Landon, is Grant giving you a hard time?”

Yes.

No.

Maybe.

I just can’t stop thinking about what his cum might taste like.

I give him a slight shake of my head, not trusting anything that might come out of my mouth.

He side-eyes me but decides to accept my answer. “Okay, well you’re welcome here as much as you want.” He looks up at the ceiling, thinking. “Oh, and you can always talk to me about whatever you need. Sorry, parent-guardian people are supposed to say stuff like that. And I mean it.”

I nod and smile. “I’m good. Really. I want to spend time with you all this weekend, and then I’ll go back.”

A few days of ignorance before I have to face my consequences.