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“Love him,” Hilton finished with a pout.
As I stomped toward Hilton, I realized whatever had been left of my wood had died, and I was twice as pissed off as I might’ve been otherwise at the cockblock.
“Jude,” he said in a timid voice. Well, why wouldn’t he be quiet? He’d already gathered the audience he wanted. “You didn’t leave me for him,” he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at Ellis and almost smacking him in the nose. “Did you?”
Tav growled behind me, and I wasn’t sure what to do. “What’s happening?”
“Nothing. Hilton is leaving,” I said, edging toward desperation.
Hilton shook his head hard. “Jude left me and I’m here to get him back.”
“We were never together.” I hung my head in my hands as a headache started up behind my eyes, a dull throb that seemed to grow worse by the second.
Hilton settled into some heartbreaking weeping—which seemed to tear Ellis apart. He carefully hustled Hilton over to the couch and let Hilton use his chest as a pillow. I rolled my eyes, and Ellis frowned at me like I was the bad guy.
“Get him out of here,” I said to Ellis, who didn’t budge.
“He’s upset!”
“He’s always upset!” I only realized I was shouting again when the volume of the tears escalated. I wanted to rip my hair out. That noise just dug under my skin and made my brain hurt. How could Hilton even stand himself?
Tav stared at me like he thought maybe I was some type of plague-bearing creature—definitely nothing as cute as a rat. Something much worse.
Lisa popped her head into the room and did a quick assessment of the chaos. She flashed me a wide grin. Shit, I would need to give her a raise for enduring this crap. “Oh, Hilton is back. Lovely.” Her face implied it was a pure joy for her. She’d been able to tell early on that he annoyed me more than anything else. “One more for breakfast, is it?”
“No!” I called after her, but she’d already disappeared. It felt like the situation was out of my control before I’d ever stepped into the room, and I had no idea how to claw it back in line with the reality I wanted to live in.
“Please, I miss her cooking?” Hilton said around a sniff.
“You ate here once. How much could you miss it?” I growled.
Ellis rubbed Hilton’s back. “You know, you should be nice to people who are upset,” he said to me in a slightly chastising tone I’d never heard from him. He shook his head at me. “When I first met Tav, I was sad a lot, and he would be nice to me. It helped.”
Hilton shot Ellis a small wobbly smile and puffed up under the attention, clearly pleased. Oh, fuck no.
“Hilton. No one wants you here. If you want that tattoo covered up, I’ll give you more cash for it, but you have to go now,” I said, staring him down.
More tears splashed on his ridiculously attractive face. Weren’t people supposed to get uglier when they got all weepy?
“He’s crying,” Ellis whispered to me as if Hilton couldn’t hear him. I could feel Tav’s gaze scalding the back of my neck, but I didn’t dare look at him. I had no idea what he would think of all this.
“He cries over everything. Don’t get sucked in.” I tossed up my hands.
Tav moved so he could glare at me with more gusto. Directly into my eyes. Hell, it was like he wanted to set my soul on fire.
“What? It’s true!”
“Oh, you have nice arms,” Hilton said, squeezing Ellis’s bicep with wide eyes.
Ellis looked at me, and I could already tell I’d lost. Ellis wasn’t going to toss Hilton out the door. Not now. I glanced at Tav, and he seemed to be much more likely to boot me out on my ass, especially since I hadn’t given him an explanation yet—and I didn’t want to get into it in front of Hilton and Ellis.
I ran my hands down my face and let out a frustrated sigh.
“Breakfast is ready!” Lisa called, then came charging into the room wearing her best smile. She was a demon disguised as a kind old Scottish woman. “Come on now. Everything will be solved after a nice meal. Go on, boys.” She pointed emphatically in the direction of the dining room.
Tav stiffly walked away, and Ellis helped Hilton to his feet like he was an injured baby fawn.
I opened my mouth to tell Hilton to leave, but Ellis gave me a look, one I knew well because I’d seen it in the mirror when I was younger. He was fucking smitten with Hilton’s boy in distress ploy. I sighed and stared at the ceiling while Ellis walked Hilton toward the dining room.
