Page 90 of Pin My Alpha
My fingers tighten on the bowl.
“He does them because he loves me,” Milo adds. “And I do things for him, too. That’s all.”
It’s so simple. So annoying.
“So Declan offering me money was what?” I ask. “A love language?”
Milo’s mouth presses into a line. He looks down at his soup.
Jude starts to say something, but Soren touches his arm.
The room goes quiet except for the low rattle of the ancient AC.
I hate quiet. Quiet leaves too much room for things to crawl out.
“He messed up,” Soren says.
Everybody turns to him.
Soren’s cheeks go pink, but he keeps going. “I don’t know Declan as well as you do. But I know he loves you. Everyone can see it. And maybe he said the wrong thing because he was scared, too.”
My laugh comes out sharp and ugly. “And that’s supposed to help?”
“No.” He twists the edge of his sleeve around his fingers. “I just mean… you deserve someone who wants to take care of you. You don’t have to earn it first.”
The words land and I can’t breathe around them.
Soren looks down before I can answer, like he’s embarrassed by how honest he just got. The room smells like all of them, their familiar scents layered together under the soup and cold brew and the clean laundry smell of our apartment.
Home.
The word gets under my ribs and digs in.
“I didn’t ask to be taken care of,” I say, my voice quieter than I want it to be.
“No,” Milo says. “But you asked to be loved.”
I look at him.
His eyes are shiny. Damn it.
“I didn’t—”
“You did.” He gives me this sad little smile. “Every time you stayed upstairs. Every time you went back. Every time you helped with the bar even when you kept pretending it was only work.”
“That was work.”
“Sure,” Benji says. “And I’m the mayor.”
Jude pushes to his feet so fast the desk chair wheels back into the wall. “Okay. I need more soup, because if I stay in here, I’m going to say something that gets me murdered.”
“You’ve already said several things that qualify,” I tell him.
“Come on, Milo.”
Milo glances at the pot. “There’s enough.”
“Second batch,” Jude says, grabbing the pot handles before Milo can object. “We need to reheat it.”
