“Don’t mention it. It just surprised me and I needed to walk off the shock. I’m not leaving or anything.” I force my lips into what is hopefully an easy smirk when all I feel is the desire to drive a knife into his chest.
“Okay, yeah. Well, take a minute, but not too long. Lee is looking for you.”
Tilting my head up, I blow out a lungful of air into the sky. “Yeah, I’m coming.”
Kieran laughs and shakes his head. “It’s not that bad. She’s incredibly low maintenance for a girl planning her wedding.”
A real smile covers my face. “Yeah, she’s pretty cool like that. She gets it from her big brother.”
“Yeah, Dieter’s pretty cool too.”
Little shit.
We both laugh as we walk back into the tent together, which draws curious eyes from both of our families. It’s no surprise that I’m not the biggest Byrne fan out there, with the exception of Mac. At the same time, I’m not going to pull a weapon on them at my first given chance, unless of course you’re the second oldest of the brothers.
Lelonie sees me and practically drags Mac over, but there isn’t a hint of annoyance on his face, he happily follows her. He’s such a sap for her, and honestly, what more could I ask for as her big brother? I wrap my arms around her as soon asshe’s close enough.
My siblings and I are extremely close, so when Lee and Mac announced three years ago that they were going to travel the world, it about broke my heart. Especially because it was right after the doctors cleared her from her kidney transplant and right after they got engaged. We’ve been reduced to texts, face time calls, and the occasional trips home that they take. Going from shielding your sister –who has health issues– from the world to letting that same sister explore the world with her soon to be husband was a hard thing to adjust to.
“I’ve missed you, Kostbarkeit.”Treasure.It’s what my Papa, Dieter, and I call both of my sisters.
She grunts from me hugging her too tightly, so I ease up.
“I’ve missed you too. No plus one?” She looks around as if I’ve ever brought anyone around her.
I haven’t even gotten the chance to answer her yet when she’s swept out of my arms and into my arch nemesis’s grasp. Before I can reach back for her, Mac pulls her into his arms and sweeps her away before throwing over his shoulder, “Work your shit out. This isn’t the time or place to have pissing matches.” He pauses for a beat before adding, “Declan” and walking away with Lelonie plastered to his side.
3
Chapter Three
Declan
Walking over here and hugging Lee was one hundred percent a ploy to piss Jakob off. Don’t get me wrong, Lee and I have a special bond after what we went through together, but I’d already hugged and talked to her before seeing her talking to her oldest brother. I don’t initiate that shit more than once in a blue moon, so everyone aside from Jakob knew it was a farce. Now with her and my brother gone, it’s just the two of us standing here in awkward silence.
“Truce?” I ask him, praying he agrees in the way we always did before. I’m sofuckingtired of fighting.
“Fuck your truce.”
Okay… Or not.
“Come on. How long are you going to be pissedabout this?”
He darts his eyes around to see who’s watching us before hissing out in a low voice, “You can’t be serious right now? I’ll always be pissed about it. I don’t want to talk to you, Declan. I don’t want to have to see you. I don’t even want to know if we’ve been within a forty yard radius of each other. I want to get through this wedding, then never see you again.”
That hurts more than I’ll admit. “What about birthdays? Family get together’s? If they have kids?” I’m rambling but realize my mistake as soon as it’s out of my mouth.
“Fuck you, that was low, and you know it.” He shoulder checks me as he moves past, but I won’t let him go that easily. That was a dick move, and I swear I didn’t mean it as a dig. Especially not at Lelonie.
He storms out of the tent and I follow after him. I’m fucking cold blooded, don’t get me wrong, but I’m never unnecessarily cruel, especially when it comes to my family, and that was cruel. Infertility has been a sore spot for Lee and Mac for years, and I know that. He just gets me so pissed I don’t think before saying shit. It’s like watching his eyes darken is a high that I’m addicted to. I can’t help myself.
Watching my surroundings, I make sure Natasha is still caught up in a conversation with an old family friend of hers before following him any farther. The last thing I need is her seeing me sneak off with him, even if it is just to fight. She’ll turn it into something else to hold over my head.
Catching up to him as he storms behind the pool house, I grab his arm and roughly pin him to the back wall. Our position looks almost identical to the one we were in weeks ago, only I don’t have a knife– well I do, but I don’t have it out –and he’s the one pinned by a forearm to the neck. Making sure that I’m only putting enough weight behind my stanceto stop him from getting out of it, I wait and watch emotions dance across his angular face. He settles on mild annoyance while glaring at me.
“I’m sorry.” The sincerity in my voice must shine through because his body relaxes under my forearm, causing me to lean closer to him. “I didn’t mean to sound insensitive. Mac struggles with the kids thing too, and it was a stupid thing to say. Kids or no kids, we’re going to be seeing each other more than just wedding shit, and that was my point.”
“Or we just make it a point to fucking stay away from each other.” The heat in his eyes is so palpable that if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear they’d burn me.
