His brother gave him a disarming grin, one that almost certainly worked on people he wanted to sleep with. It didn’t work on Owen.
“Adam.”
His younger brother’s eyebrows snapped together to a more honest frown. “Yeah?”
“You’ve been here an awful lot.”
“We’ve been over this.”
“Have we?”
His brother tossed his bag into his truck. “I dunno. Maybe you’ve been deliberately obtuse and ignoring all the signals I’ve been clearly sending your way so you aren’t surprised when I get into fire school.”
Owen expected that kind of snap back from his other brothers. Josh would toss a few f-bombs in there, Seth would use only the first five words and let Owen sort the rest out himself. Will would say it all in a diplomatic gloss.
But Adam?
He scrubbed a hand along his jaw, painfully aware he’d turned into a tension ball on the way over. “Try me again.”
“Nah, it’s fine.”
“I’m all ears.”
Adam’s eyebrows shot up. “No disrespect, but you don’t listen to me.”
Ah, fuck. “I want to. I get tangled up inyounot listening tome, that’s all.”
“My life,” Adam said. “Remember?”
“Sometimes I worry it’s you that doesn’t remember.”
“Was that a shot about Mom and Dad? Because I do, and you’re a jackass. But you’re a jackass who cares, so listen up, big brother. You can’t protect me from life.”
“I can try.” Owen heard the futility in his own words. “I want to try, God damn it.”
Adam leaned against the back of the truck. “Do you want to stop me from doing something I want to do?”
Owen swallowed hard. Why had he charged over here? He should have kept walking, down to the lake. “I want to influence what you want to do.”
“Ah, man. You do, every day.”
Then why did he feel like if Adam got hurt, it would be his fault? “That doesn’t make me feel better.”
“What are you afraid of?”
Owen glance down at Charlie. He’d spent far too long being afraid of what this sleeping, perfect child would mean for Becca’s life. “I’m afraid of risk,” he finally admitted.
“Me, too.” Adam huffed a hard laugh. “I hated the army. You know that?”
No. Owen hadn’t known that. “Tell me about that.”
“I hated how it messed up Stevie. How it turned out to be bullshit on the inside, just like everything else. Sometimes I worry that firefighting will be the same. That’s why I’m hanging out here a lot. To try and see it from their eyes, to make sure this is a good idea. Because you warn me that it’s not, and I listen to you.”
Owen stopped the gentle push-pull on the stroller and dragged his brother in for a hug. “You’re a good kid.”
“Not a kid.”
“You know what I mean.”
