“Isodon’t need your help in that department,” He growled, as we pulled up to the Circle.
“Really? Then when was the last time you got laid?” I asked, smirking at him.
“None of your goddamn business,” he said as he turned off the roundabout.
“That long, huh?” I said, mock-pity in my voice. “Poor baby.”
“Fuck you,” he said, but without much conviction.
“Nah, even if I wasn’t your brother, you’re not my type,” I teased, looking him up and down appraisingly. “Though you are in pretty good shape, for an old guy.”
“Again,fuck you,” he growled as he parked the car.
I watched with concern as he got out of the car more slowly than normal, his gait uneven as he walked toward the restaurant doors. Lee’s hip had been replaced following the ambush. I suspected he had stopped going to physical therapy, another item I intended to grill him over today.
There wasn’t much business at this time of day, which was one of the reasons I had suggested it. They were primarily a breakfast place, so were at their busiest first thing in the morning. I absolutely loved their waffles and came to the restaurant a lot. Admittedly, I hadn’t been in for a few weeks because of my work schedule, but it was one of my favorite places to eat. The hostess who seated us looked familiar, but the other waitstaff wasn’t. She took our drink orders, gave us menus, then told us our server would be over shortly.
I studied my brother as he looked at the menu.
“So, how are you doing?” I asked. “For real, I mean.”
“I’m fine,” He said, his jaw stiffening. “How have you been doing?”
“Uh, uh. This talk isn’t about me, it’s about you,” I said, gesturing at him.
“This ‘talk’?” He asked. “Who said we were having a ‘talk’?”
“Um, well…” I squirmed a little in my seat. I finally decided I needed to just come clean. “Mama D might or might not have asked me to get in touch with you today…”
“Uh oh,” he said, and sighed. “What now?”
I looked at him from across the table. He looked tired, like he hadn’t been sleeping. I knew from experience his nightmares were scary. One night he’d fallen asleep on the couch in the living room. I’d been coming home late from a shift at the bar and heard his pained moans and gone in to check on him.
He’d been tossing and turning, the blanket someone had tossed over him wrapped around his legs and body, twisted and tangled. He’d been moaning and calling for Mack and other members of his team who had died.
I’d tried calling his name, but he didn’t respond. So I’d leaned over and touched his shoulder, thinking I could shake him awake. Big mistake. Before I’d known it, he flipped off the couch and pinned me to the floor. There had been no one home in his eyes as he wrapped his hands around my neck. His fingers were biting into my throat and cutting off my air supply. I’d struggled to unseat him, using every trick in the book to get him off me, but things had been going grey before I’d finally resorted to punching one of the areas that I knew he’d taken a gunshot wound. I hadn’t wanted to really hurt him, but I also didn’t want to die. He’d grunted and collapsed sideways, his personality slowly bleeding back into his face. He’d apologized, repeatedly, and never seemed to really accept that I understood. I had my own nightmares.
It had been right after that he had insisted he wanted to move into the house he and Mack had designed, but never gotten the chance to live in together. I felt that he had been worried he would hurt someone else in the family if he didn’t.
“Mom’s worried about you. She thinks you aren’t sleeping…” I fibbed. It was true, from a certain point of view. I knew shewouldbe worried about him not sleeping, if she knew. “…And she wanted me to ask you what’s going on with this guy, Mason.”
He glanced at me, and I saw it. A tell-tale blush started up his face. This was going to be fun!
“I don’t know what you mean,” he said, trying for nonchalance and failing miserably.
“I call bullshit,” I said, looking into his eyes. “You knowexactlywhat I mean. The whole fam saw the way you guys looked at each other last night. It was hot enough in that room to start a fire.”
“Nothing is going on between me and Mason,” he said again. “The twins screwed up his hotel room, so he’s staying with me while he’s in town. That’s all.”
“Oh, I see,” I said, enjoying the opportunity of teasing my oldest sibling. “You justhappento meet this smart, funny, talented guy, not to mention rich, who also has an ass you could bounce quarters off and he,coincidentally, doesn’t have anywhere to stay andhasto sleep in your secluded cabin in the woods? Yep, sounds legit to me.”
“Fuck you,” he said and threw a wadded-up napkin at me.
“Again, with the no thank you,” I said, “…but if you keep bringing it up, I might just have to find you a blind date.”
“I don’t need a blind date,” he said. “And you can tell the moms that I’m fine. Nothing a little sleep won’t solve.”
I was debating whether to keep arguing with him when our server walked up from behind me. I pretended to read the menu while stealing glances at my brother’s blushing face. Wait until I told Bishop…
