Yolo (Carter Brothers #7)

Chapter 20

I want a healthy relationship with toxic sex.

— Bindi to Garrett

BINDI

“ Hey , Gee ?” I called despite hearing him and his parents talking. “ I know that you’re busy, but I can’t find anything at all, and I’m getting a little frustrated.”

The talking stopped immediately and Garrett rushed into the room.

“ Shit , I’m sorry,” he said. “ I didn’t think.”

“ It’s okay,” I said, even though I was sure that my frustration was evident. “ Finding the towel was hard enough, and I slipped and banged my knee on the tile floor. You don’t have any rugs.”

“ Fuck ,” he said, “let me see.”

I immediately calmed down.

Being blind was frustrating.

Being blind in a place that you didn’t have any knowledge of was harder.

It would come with time, but there were certain things that could be done now that would make it easier to live a less frustrating life.

One would be having stuff accessible to me, and not just him.

“ The cleaning lady came today and cleaned, and she likes to pick up the mats and put them over the shower wall,” he admitted. “ I’ll make sure I have a talk with her, and I’ll have the towel bar moved so that you can get it. I moved it up that high because the half-wall allows water to get to it. Maybe I could move…”

He continued to chatter away as he lifted me in his arms and carried me to what I assumed was his closet.

He let me down and took a shirt from a hanger and slipped it over my head.

Only , it wasn’t a shirt, but a sweatshirt.

“ I washed your clothes from yesterday,” he said. “ As well as today’s clothes. You have nothing left but my stuff. Do you want some boxer briefs or sweatpants?”

“ Both , please,” I said. “ And do you have any hair ties? I’ll have to braid my hair to keep it under control since I don’t have any product.”

“ I have nieces out the wazoo, Bin .” He chuckled as he started to move around the closet. “ Of course I have hair ties.”

He showed me where he kept everything in his closet, then helped me into the rest of his clothes and guided me out the door as he spoke.

“ I have a brush out here, too,” he disclosed.

“ Garrett Carter ,” his mother said. “ I can’t believe you’d leave her in that monstrosity of a bathroom alone.”

“ I’m dumb,” he admitted as he helped me to the couch.

“ You’re not dumb,” I corrected him. “ It’s hard to comprehend stuff like that when you know that you have all five of your senses.”

“ True ,” Germaine said. “ I got gas thrown into my eyes once and had to cover them up and rub salve on them for a couple of days. It’s amazing how much you rely on your vision until it’s not there to rely on anymore.”

“ That’s one of the things that I really like about the complex I’m in,” I explained. “ Everything is so user-friendly for the blind. The steps are nice and wide. The whole complex is considered a ‘smart computer’ essentially. I can be in any hallway and call out a question, like ‘where’s the door’ and it’ll give me a direction to follow. All of my lights are turned on and off with the sound of my voice. I can unlock my apartment door with my voice now, too. I can ask what time it is. I can find everything. Heck , even the washer and dryer talks to me.”

“ That’s something we never thought about before,” Garnett said. “ Garrett , let me see your computer.”

I heard Garrett move, grabbing his computer and heading back toward us.

“ Here ,” he said to his mother.

When he got closer to me, he said, “ I can brush your hair, and I think braid it. But it’s been a while.”

“ Oh , that’s okay. I’ve been braiding it for a long time.”

He ignored me and placed the hair ties into my hand and said, “ Lean forward.”

I bent my upper body forward until I was on the edge of the couch cushion, and he moved in behind me so that he was sitting on the couch’s back with his knees on either side of me.

I sat completely still as first he brushed, then he braided my hair.

At first, I thought it was just going to be two braids starting at the base of my skull, but he completely surprised me when he started at the top.

“ Garrett learned how to braid hair for Ande and Addison ,” Germaine said, sounding amused.

My amazement must’ve shown on my face, because he continued to explain.

“ We worked a lot. Having that many kids wasn’t conducive with both of us at home at the same time when they were growing up. And Addison , our daughter that died, had some wild hair,” Germaine continued.

My heart physically ached. “ Your daughter died?”

“ Yeah ,” Germaine said. “ She died.”

“ Her hair was so crazy wild compared to Ande’s ,” Garnett explained. “ I’m talking, wash their hair, get out of the shower, brush it, and then bam, ten minutes later it’s so tangly that she might as well look like she didn’t brush it.”

“ So I started to learn how to braid hair,” Garrett explained. “ Plus , I was the youngest and had smaller fingers than the rest of them. If Mom wasn’t around, it was me who braided it for her.”

“ I’m sorry,” I said quietly.

“ We’ve made peace,” Germaine said gently.

I’d have to make a note to ask Garrett later how she’d died.

I sensed that it was a sensitive topic and chose not to put his parents through that kind of grief if I could help it.

“ I had to learn how to do my own hair,” I admitted. “ Mom and Dad work their asses off. Still do. My mom stayed at home with me until I was eighteen. When I went to college, she went back to school for her nursing degree. We both graduated from the same school at the same time. Me for my paramedic degree, and her for her nursing degree.”

“ That’s pretty cool,” Garnett said. “ I’d always intended to go back to school and get my degree because it pays better, but having all these kids, and multiples at that, made it sufficiently hard to do much more than work and rear them.”

“ Multiples ?” I asked.

“ Yes ,” Germaine said. “ Garrett didn’t tell you that they were all twins? Except for Quincy , Quaid , and Quinn . They’re triplets.”

My mouth fell open. “ You have four sets of multiples?”

“ Yep .” She paused. “ And just sayin’, but it runs in the family and hasn’t skipped a generation yet.”

Garrett’s grip on my hair was the only thing that kept me in my seat instead of turning around and saying, “ We fucked up.”

Hopefully my face didn’t show my panic.

“ You should invite your parents down for a visit,” Garnett suggested. “ And maybe your mom could help me blind-proof Garrett’s house? And we can discuss other things.”

“ Other things?” Garrett laughed.

“ Things that will come later,” she hedged.

I had no idea what that meant but, “ They’d already planned on coming down. Dad owns his own business now. He’s a mobile welder and can work when he wants where he wants. Mom is planning on taking a contract here for a month at the hospital up the street from the police station.”

“ Oh .” Garnett sounded so excited now. “ That’s perfect!”

“ Will you ask them if they want to stay here?” Garrett asked quietly. “ I have a huge guest room suite back there. I actually built it for when Ande , her husband Keene , and their kids want to stay over. Which happens more than you would think. But it’s completely open right now, has a separate entrance and exit, and they can come and go as they please. Plus , enough room for a big ol’ truck that might or might not have a trailer attached for welding equipment.”

I smiled, my eyes filling with tears when I did.

“ I think they’d take you up on that. They were having conniptions when they saw the price of VRBOs here,” I admitted.

“ Sounds pretty perfect then, Garrett Parrot ,” Garnett crooned.

“ Okay , what the heck is with Garrett Parrot ?” I laughed as he started on the other braid. “ Because I am all for it.”

“ Athena started it, I think. Now they all call me it.” The man at my back sighed, his fingers forever gentle as they worked through my thick hair. “ Even the kids are calling me that now.”

“ Don’t worry,” I teased. “ I’ll make sure our kids call you Daddy and not Garrett Parrot .”

There was a moment of silence as the words I’d just uttered sank into the room.

That’s when I winced, realizing what I’d said.

“ I …”

“ I’d appreciate it,” Garrett murmured. Pulling my head back with a tug on my hair, he pressed a kiss to my forehead that made my anxiousness melt away.

“ Like I said, we have things to discuss.” Garnett laughed. “ I just placed a huge Amazon order. Look for the package tomorrow, darling. We’re going to go eat some cookie cake.”

Garrett finished my hair as Garnett and Germaine let themselves out of Garrett’s house.

He was almost finished when he said, “ Keep making comments like that, and I’ll think you’re ready for more.”

I smiled despite my earlier embarrassment for blurting out my inner thoughts without checking them over in my head first.

“ Garrett , I’m not quite sure it’s a bad thing at this point.”