Crazy Love (mxm)

Chapter Ten

James' POV

I woke up drooling on a note.

After a disorienting moment where I had no clue where I was or who abducted me, I blinked away bleariness and read it.

Had to go to work. I made you some eggs. -Carter

I grinned and tucked the note in my pocket. That way, when he realized he didn't actually have any interest in me, I had a memento.

I rolled out of Carter's bed and decided I could take liberties. I never really felt uncomfortable in my own skin, absolutely never felt shy, so I had no problem climbing into his shower and brushing my teeth with his toothbrush.

After I'd dressed myself in my jeans and one of Carter's sweatshirt (was it too soon to think about it as a boyfriend sweatshirt?) and helped myself to the disgusting eggs that he made.

I had no clue how this guy was a father. His cooking was atrocious.

And right when I was about to leave a cute and overly-flirtatious note back, the door swung open.

"Hi sexy," I drawled, leaning back on the kitchen stool. "Thanks for the eggs, although I'm pretty sure I have food poisoning now."

A middle-aged woman appeared, holding Ronan's hand. She gasped and brandished her purse like it was a weapon. "Robber! I'm not afraid to beat you with this purse!"

"Uh—"

"Once I bashed another woman's head into a metal table and gave her a concussion!" she snapped, pushing Ronan behind her legs. "She was messing with my ex-boyfriend!"

I slowly lifted my hands into the air. "I'm not robbing anything?"

Ronan poked his head out from behind her legs and waved at me. "Game."

I grinned. "Hey little man."

"Oh." She lowered the purse and blushed. "Oh, I'm sorry. I promise I don't usually do things like this. It's just scary being an older woman near a strong young man. I'll be fifty next year."

I plopped down on the stool and shrugged. "That's not old. Honestly I was scared of you. That was a pretty badass story."

"It was fake," she brushed off. She came over at sat by the island, shooing Ronan to go grab his matchbox cars. "So, you must be a friend of Carter's?"

I held out a hand. "Yeah, my name's James Folan. You must be his mother...?"

She grinned and her eyes twinkled with weird mischief, almost like I'd said exactly what she wanted me to. "Yes, but you can just call me Marissa. James, hm? You're such a handsome young man! Carter mentioned that, though."

My back straightened. "Carter mentioned me?"

Ronan padded over and drove his matchbox car up my leg and made engine noises. I let the kid do his thing; this was serious business.

"Oh, yes." She winked. "You wen't on a date last night, didn't you?"

Riiiight. She was probably babysitting Ronan. My heart sunk a little, but I kicked myself for thinking Carter would mention me to his mother for any other reason. Obviously he just needed a babysitter.

"Yeah, we did," I said, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice.

I'd already had the fridge open and a beer in hand before I realized that drinking at 10:24 AM wasn't a good way to make a positive impression on Carter's mom. Awkwardly, I replaced the beer in my hand with orange juice. Ms. Rizzo didn't seem convinced that I'd messed up.