Oh my God, you are kidding me. Brianna thought her head might explode. What the heck was Brian doing here when they hadn’t spoken in what? A year? Longer? And what did Brock think about her not telling him she had a twin? It wasn’t that she’d wanted to hide that fact, it was just that Brian was so not a part of her life that she didn’t often think about him anymore. It was less painful that way.
Brian closed the rest of the distance to the stage and stopped. He’d lost weight, the skin on his face looking too old and saggy to be in his mid-twenties. He’d added some tattoos and not very good ones. He wore a short-sleeved shirt over a stained off-white tee and a pair of grubby jeans. Brianna had asked their parents about how he was doing a few times and had always gotten something along the lines ofOh, he’s fine. Helping out here when he can but always hustling and working on something bigger.
It looked to her like he’d been working on a nice big drug habit.Nothing new there.
Brock loosened his grip on her and she missed his body immediately. Was he angry? He didn’t look mad, but he didn’t look as confused as she expected, either. He kept one arm around her as he turned to face Brian, wariness in his eyes.
“So, are you okay?” Brian asked. He looked her up and down as if she might be missing a leg and he hadn’t noticed at first glance. His concern confused her as much as it touched her. She figured he never gave her a second thought, either.
“I’m fine. It was nothing. How are you?”
Brian’s brows knitted together like she’d asked him a calculus question and he was puzzling through the answer. “I’d heard…never mind.” He ran a hand through his unkempt hair. “I’m good. Same old, same old.”
Yeah, right. A thought occurred to her. “So, how did you know I was here? It’s been a while.”
His eyes widened. He looked around like he finally noticed where he was and that they weren’t alone. “Oh, I, uh, didn’t know.” His gaze landed on their poor Uncle Sonny, who was trying his best to appear pissed but wasn’t quite pulling it off around the eyes. If Brianna had broken Uncle Sonny’s heart once, Brian had broken it a thousand times. “I figured Uncle Sonny would know what hospital you were in so I came here to ask.”
“Hospital? Okay, first, who told you I was in the hospital? Second, do you think Uncle Sonny or anybody else would behereif I were in the hospital?”
She could practically hear Brian’s eyeballs click as he put all that together. She realized he was swaying, unsteady on his feet, and the defenses she’d so carefully built around her heart cracked a little before she could shore them up.What’s he on now?she thought.
“Brian,” Uncle Sonny said. “Are you breaking my rule right now, son?”
“No, I’m clean. Mostly. Just had a beer, that’s all.”
“Then you’re breaking my rule. You’re not allowed in here if you aren’t clean.”
Brian’s tone turned whiny as he pointed to Brianna. “What? I can’t have a damn beer? I was worried about mytwinsister.” He staggered back and tried to make eye contact with the nearest customer who quickly looked away. “You believe this shit?”
“Brian,” Brianna said at the same time as her cousins and uncle, just one more harmonized chorus in the song of her family’s troubles. They all exchanged looks as the customer quickly packed her things and speed-walked out the door. The second customer was close on her heels.
“Ganging up on me again,” Brian said, his voice turning uglier by the minute. This time, he decided to direct his self-pitying tirade at Brock, whose arm around Brianna was growing tenser by the minute. “You see how they are? And my folks are worse, always raggin’ on me when they don’t fucking know a goddamned thing about what I’m going through. And mysister—”
“Brother, it’s cool.” Brock surprised her with the calmness in his voice because his body felt to her like a tight spring about to uncoil hard and fast. He was scanning the empty parking lot outside the big front windows as he spoke like he was looking for something. “Let’s you and me get a cup of coffee and talk about it outside. Brianna’s gotta be someplace right now and Sonny’s gonna take her.” He glanced at Uncle Sonny, who snapped into action as fast as his bearish body could carry him. He came up to the stage and Brock handed her off. Brianna noticed her cousins had disappeared, probably into the back office.
Is this really happening?Why were they acting like Brian was anything more than a pathetic drunk? Uncle Sonny had a firm yet gentle grip on her arm as he hurried her off the stage and toward the back. Behind her, Brian had started up his nonsense again and it sounded like Brock was agreeing with him as they walked to the door.
“What’s going on?” she whispered just as they reached the office door. Aunt Claire was sitting behind the desk with Kevin on her lap, the boy distracted by a video game—headphones on and all—which was really weird since they almost never let him tune out like that. April had her hand on Kevin’s shoulder as she looked fearfully up at the door. Hannah was on her cell phone.
“They outside?” Hannah asked.
Uncle Sonny nodded and Hannah repeated that information into the phone.
“Will someone please tell me what’s going on?” Brianna demanded.
“Little B,” Uncle Sonny said, wrapping his arm around her. “I like your man.”
What?“Um, that’s great, but he’s not my man, and you haven’t answered my question as to why everyone is freaked the hell out.” She covered her mouth as she glanced at Kevin but the kiddo was still zoned out playing Animal Crossing. “It’s not like Brian’s never walked in here drunk off his ass and caused a scene. That’s why you banned him, right after he took a swing at that guy he thought was looking at him funny, remember?”
“Baby B,” her uncle said, and Brianna thought,Hoo-boy, now we’ve regressed to Baby B. “He’s never done it with a Glock stuffed in his pants.”
Brianna’s thoughts came skidding to a halt. “A Glock? But…I didn’t see it.”
Uncle Sonny smoothed a hand over her hair. “With that loose shirt blocking it, me neither. None of us did. But your…I mean, Brock did. He signaled me and then I saw it. I passed the message on to the girls. Brian’s drunk and God knows what else, he was winding himself up and he was looking at you, and Brock handled that situation like a champ.”
“Oh, God, Brock’s alone with him now.” Brianna tried to turn and leave but her uncle tightened his arm around her as her aunt and cousins chorusedNo, no, no! April even lunged forward to physically stop her.
“He’s handling it,” Uncle Sonny said. “The police are on their way.” He pointed his chin toward Hannah, who nodded and gave them a thumbs up. “No one else is out there, thank God.”
