CAM
Church was quiet this morning. The five empty chairs at the table seemed to mock me, as if the extended absence of our brothers was a cardinal sin I didn’t know about yet. But maybe that was just me.
Embry was fine.
Nash was fine.
Folk, though...
My gaze drifted to him as Embry outlined the progress his crew had made on the Whisper Farm site in the last week or so since Mateo had been gone with the others. The new stable block Saint had fast-tracked so Liliana could keep her odd-shaped horse forever.
Folk had the best face for pretending he was paying attention when I knew he wasn’t. He liked Chappie well enough, and he loved Liliana, but he didn’t care about the price of cement and bricks or the durability of roofing materials and how much we’d spent on them. He cared about people, and his person wasn’t here.
Knew how that felt, but if his heavy eyes were anything to go by, I was bearing it better than him.
The meeting broke up. Embry and Folk left—Embry to go back on site, Folk to round up prospects to help them build a life beyond bikes and beer. College courses. Trade qualifications. A new fucking dawn.
Nash stayed, frowning at budget spreadsheets that hurt his brain, because we hadn’t had Folk in our arsenal twenty years ago when brothers like Nash had needed him.
I made him the breakfast the others hadn’t had time for. “What are you doing today?”
Nash shoved the iPad away. “Physio, finishing the chopper River forgot about. Then I’m taking Orls for an appointment before I pick up the timber load, then I need to start servicing the next rigs out?—”
“All right, all right. Sorry I fucking asked.”
Nash grinned. “Whydidyou ask? You need me for something?”
Beyond the million and one things I already relied on him for? Not a chance. “I’m around today if you need me to come to hospital with you.”
“Nah.” Nash wrapped his inked hands around the buttie I’d made him. “I’ve got it.”
Shocker. My sister and her men had closed ranks around the baby she carried, keeping the rest of us at arm’s length, as if they didn’t want us too attached to the life growing in Orla’shugebelly. As if it wasn’t already too late for that. But... they wanted space, and I loved them too much to deny it, even if it stung to be shut out of something that meant the fucking world to me.
I let Nash eat, playing to my strengths by keeping him fed and letting him know he had my ear if he needed to talk.
He didn’t though, even with Locke and Rubi gone, and my VP had always been more astute than most people gave his pretty face credit for. “Something on your mind, brother?”
So many fucking things.My fingers itched for a cigarette, but I was making a conscious effort to smoke less around him. “What makes you say that?”
Nash pushed his plate away. “You look constipated.”
“Fuck off.”
He didn’t fuck off. He sat back in his seat and drank more tea, waiting for me to spit it out.
“I’m worried about Folk. I think you should talk to him.”
“Me?” Nash cocked his head. “No fucking chance.”
“Why not?”
“We don’t have that kind of relationship. He’s a wise one, remember? A Knower. There’s nothing I can say to him that he doesn’t already, like,know.”
“About what?”
“No clue. And that’s the point, isn’t it? I love that brother, but he’s not easy to get to when he’s in a fucking mood.”
I blew out a breath, drumming my fingers on the table. “That’s what Embry said.”
