“Don’t do that,” Billy snapped.
“Do what?”
“Act like it’s okay that I’m an arsehole. I know you do it with him too, and Mia, and you fucking shouldn’t. Why do you let people walk all over you?”
“What makes you think I do?”
“This entire conversation.”
I knew what he wanted. A fight. A screaming row. Maybe he wanted to punch someone. To punch me. But it wasn’t going to happen. There was nothing he could do to make me set my emotions free. Didn’t he know that if I let them go I’d never get them back? Didn’t he, of all people, understand that? I spread my hands in surrender. “This conversation is whatever you choose it to be, mate. I don’t care if you think people walk all over me. I’m not going to change because my personality annoys you.”
“You don’t annoy me.”
“No? You look pretty damn annoyed.” Annoyed. Wild. And so beautiful it didn’t matter that he was so ridiculously unreasonable I had no clue what to do with him. “Look,” I said. “Can’t you just give him a break? It was never going to be easy for you two to work together after so long.”
“So long nothing. We’ve never worked together, and the last time we were in the same room for more than two hours was ten years ago.”
“I know that. And I went through this with Mia when she first came back and was suddenly living with me when I hadn’t seen her for five years. You think it was easy to have her up in my face all the time? Shouting, throwing things around, and banging your brother in my kitchen? I’d missed her so much, and I loved her, but man, if I didn’t want to throttle her half the time.”
“You could’ve schooled me without referencing my brother’s dick.”
“I’m not schooling you.”
Billy grunted and lit another cigarette. “Sounds like it, and I get your point, but you’re forgetting a major difference between my situation and yours.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
Billy slid out of the van and blew smoke in my face. “You’re the nicest bloke in the world.”
He walked away before I could answer.
I figured he’d head back to the ladders, but when I climbed onto the roof we were working on, he was nowhere to be seen.
Luke shook his head. “I asked him to bring those boards up. Guess he’s decided he doesn’t want to work after all.”
“You asked him to carry scaffold planks one-handed up the ladder?”
“Course I did. I need them up here and he’s down there. Somewhere, at least. If he’s not in the pub by now.”
“He hasn’t been in any pub since he got back.”
Luke frowned. “Why are you defending him? He’s been a pain in the arse all day.”
“And you haven’t?” A sudden irritation swept through me, too spiky and fast for me to contain it. “Jesus, Luke. You’ve been on him like white on rice. What did you expect?”
“I didn’t expect anything. I’m just trying to get the job done.”
“By asking him to hoof scaffold planks around when he’s only got one working shoulder? Are you serious? Or do you just not care that he’s in pain?”
My shout rang out on the rooftop, and Luke flinched. In the lifetime I’d known him, I’d never raised my voice in anger. What was the point, when there was always someone around to shout me down? But Luke wasn’t like that either, and our friendship had been built on a mutual respect of each other’s desire for a quiet life.
He set his drill down and took a cautious step closer to me. “What are you talking about? He told me his shoulder was fine when I asked.”
“When did you ask?”
“A while ago.”
“A while as in before he came back? As in months ago when you were dealing with the court case and he probably didn’t want to worry you?”
