Page 74 of Tangled Hearts

I can’t help but laugh, but I’m smooshed between Roman and Nic, so I’m actually quite happy. Especially since it means I can touch Nic, and it’s not suspicious. I have to fight back a gasp when he hooks his ankle around mine under the table.

He keeps it there through the rest of dinner.

“I’m serious,” Holden says, laughing. “He was freaking the fuck out. They called me down from the pediatric floor to help. He was pacing back and forth, losing it, and there’s Eli—sitting on the bed with his broken arm, not a care in the world.”

Nic’s warm chuckle washes over me, and I smile.

“It’s not funny, CT. It wasn’t funny then, and it’s not funny now,” Beck says, rolling his eyes.

Julian throws another log on the fire, then turns back to look at Nic with a grin. “I laughed so hard when Holden got home and told me. Not about the broken arm—about Beck.”

“I can’t believe you freaked out so badly,” Nic says, still laughing slightly.

I turn to him with a grin. “Some people are good in a crisis. And some people are my dad. The one and only time he’s ever yelled at me.”

Beck groans.

“Aww, baby. Are they picking on you?” Roman coos, pressing his lips to Beck’s forehead.

Ugh, they are so sickeningly sweet together. I fucking love it.

Julian sits down, pulling Uncle Hold into his lap as Holden starts giggling again. “I thought someone had died. I’ve never laughed so hard at a medical emergency in my life. It’s genuinely astounding to me that I’ve run codes with this man, worked through actual life-or-death situations with him, and he’s losing his mind over a broken arm. The fracture wasn’t even displaced. A cast and eight weeks, and Eli was right as rain.”

“Meanwhile, I thought forsureI was about to get my ass handed to me for wrecking the car.”

Beck shakes his head. “No way. Cars can be replaced. You can not.”

That makes me smile. “I know, I know. But I was freaking out pretty badly.”

“You wouldn’t have known it,” Holden says. “I thought Beck was gonna pass out when I got down there. Eli’s just giving me this smug little smile. And waves. Like, ‘Hey, Uncle Hold, fancy seeing you here.’”

A round of laughter goes around the campfire, and Beck reaches over to pat my leg. “Well, I was kind of losing it. And then Eli’s just repeating, Sorryabout the car, sorry about the car,over and over.”

I shrug, my cheeks starting to burn. “It didn’t even hurt that bad. I was kind of surprised, actually. But it would be my damn luck that the very first time you let me take your car out, I’d wreck it.”

Beck shudders. “Okay. Shh. Stop talking about it.”

I glance at Nic. “I have pictures of the car that I can show you later,” I whisper.

Nic’s eyes widen. “I don’t want to see the car.”

What? “And why not?”

He rolls his eyes. “The thought of a world without Eli in it? No thanks. I’ll pass.”

“Thank you!” Beck says, throwing a hand up in the air.

“Oh for the love of God, you two. It was a broken arm. I didn’t even come close to dying.” I lean over and bump Nic’s arm with my shoulder. “Wanna go check out the swings with me?”

His eyes dart around like maybe he doesn’t think that’s such a good idea.

“They’re awesome,” Holden says, grinning at Nic. “Sometimes I go out there and swing. Like a callback to the childhoodI didn’t get.”

Nic laughs. “You didn’t have swings growing up?”

Roman clears his throat, and Uncle Julian gives Hold a squeeze. “Something like that,” Holden answers.

I wonder when Holden’s gonna tell Nic about his past. It’s a little strange to me hehasn’t.He’s usually really open about it. “Anyway. Swings?” I ask.