Page 172 of The Incredible Ordinary

I lean over Jordan and kiss his temple.

“Too early,” he mumbles.

I laugh.

This kind of happiness is new. It’s light. It’s easy. It fits seamlessly.

“Go back to sleep,” I say.

His eyes are closed, and his hand moves and pats over the bed until he grabs my ass and squeezes.

It makes me laugh again. I kiss him once more before I roll out of bed.

I go through the living room to the kitchen, where there’s a note on the counter from Aiden. He’s gone to get food. I grab a cup of coffee, slide the door to the balcony open and sit down on the floor with my legs outside. I prop my elbows on my knees and drink my coffee.

Footsteps approach, light and hesitant. He stops a few feet behind me.

I finish my coffee and put the cup down before I turn my head to look at him.

He’s dressed in a T-shirt and a pair of sweats he’s already outgrown, even though it feels like it was only yesterday that I bought them. Guess there’s another shopping trip on my itinerary.

Rory hesitates for another beat before he comes and sits down next to me.

For a while, we’re both silent, and that’s okay because I like sitting here with him like this.

“You okay?” I eventually ask.

He ponders the question for a long time before he nods and then shakes his head right after.

“I…” he says and then stops speaking. He glances at me, then looks away. “What happens now?” he asks, so quietly I can barely hear him.

“Well,” I say slowly, “I figure you haven’t had much say in what happens with your life, so I suppose the first thing we have to do is ask you… What do you want to do?”

He fixes his gaze on the city that’s spread out before us. He doesn’t say anything for the longest time, but then he turns his head and looks at me.

“I want to stay here.”

I nod. “I want you to stay here, too.”

He looks down at his hands and starts playing with his fingers. “I didn’t think you did.”

“I tend to take my sweet time before I get my head out of my ass. But, kid? This is your home. We—all of us. Me, Aiden, Jordan, Theo—we’re already your family. It’s up to you if you want to be in it.”

“I do,” he whispers. He glances toward me again. His throat bobs when he swallows. “But I’ve been… What I did… I’ve been a real assh—butthead.”

“You’re in good company. I’ve been a butthead about so many things it’s impossible to count them all.” I nudge him with my shoulder. “I don’t know how to be a proper big brother. There’s a steep learning curve, and I have failed and will fail again in the future, too. But here’s an offer. This is a space without criticism, okay? Whatever you tell me while we sit here, I will not judge. I will just listen, and then we’ll figure out what’s next.”

He’s so still it almost feels like he’s frozen next to me.

“Nobody’s really wanted me,” he eventually says. “Since my mom died. Staying with Dallas really sucked. But then he found out about Gerard, and I don’t know what Dallas did exactly, or how it happened, but one day he just told me I was going to go and stay with my father, and that he had a plan for how I would… finally be useful. I didn’t even know who Gerard was, but Dallas took care of everything.” Rory shakes his head and keeps his gaze firmly on his fingers. “Anyway, I was sent to Gerard’s. And it was fine, I guess? He didn’t really bother with me. He just kind of left me alone.”

“Sounds like the Gerard I knew.”

Rory nods slowly and his eyes flick to me for a second before he goes back to looking at his hands. “It wasn’t really difficult to figure out Gerard had money. So… the plan was that I would… get closer with Gerard. And then, when Dallas ‘kidnapped’ me… Gerard would pay.”

“Okay,” I say. “But then he died.”

Rory drops his head and seems to somehow shrink, like he’s trying to take up less space. He nods.