“I’m sorry for the way I acted the last time we met, Hope,” Brad said, disgusted all over again at the man he’d allowed himself to become.
Hope made a pffting sound. “I forgave you ages ago. You were living with EG. Most people turn to drink with too much exposure.”
Brad snorted. “Never a truer word spoken, little sister.”
“I didn’t suffer like you boys did.”
Hope had been a quiet child, and because of that and the fact she was a girl, and therefore not worthy of his attention, she stayed out of their father’s firing line.
“Lucky you.”
Her hand rested on his briefly.
“I’m sorry we left you.”
“I chose to stay.”
“Maybe, maybe not. But it can’t have been easy.”
It hadn’t been easy, and by the time he’d woken up to the man he was becoming, he’d done so much damage to himself and others he wasn’t entirely sure if he could repair it.
“I can’t imagine father was happy with this change in you. Appearances are everything to him, Brad.”
Truth time, he thought.
“I haven't seen them for two years, so they don’t know what I look like now.”
Brad watched his sister's mouth drop open. They'd never been really close; in fact, he couldn't remember a time when he was close to anyone, especially not a sibling, but right at that moment he felt it, that bond that some families had. A link. Without his father there to play his children off against each other, he was free to talk, free to just be a brother.
They'd been raised as a family of course, and yes, he remembered that there were times when he and his siblings had played and interacted. But with no role models to show them love or affection, they'd had to stumble through that minefield themselves, and Brad had come up short.
Ethan was the eldest, and had tried to be there for them, but Brad was next in line and had struggled to be anything but difficult as he grappled with his position in the family between his overachieving older brother and his sister.
“Why have you not seen them for two years?” Taylor asked, dropping into the seat beside Hope.
The youngest Gelderman wasn't as tall as him or Ethan, and his build was smaller, but there was no mistaking he was one of them.
“I've called Mother several times, and visited. No one said anything about you not being there.”
Brad just bet they hadn't.
“Did you ask where I was?”
Hope and Taylor looked guilty.
“I had a disagreement with Father,” Brad said, deciding to take pity on his siblings. “I left after that.” He didn't elaborate. No point in digging up all the bad shit he and his father had spewed at each other.
Twin looks of surprise were directed his way.
“I know this is weird, the three of us actually talking, Brad. But you can't just say that stuff and not elaborate. There's obviously been a lot of change in your life, and not just your appearance, and we want to know what,” Taylor demanded.
It was weird but in a good way.
“The shortened version is that I had a disagreement with Father, packed up, and left. I picked up with a few guys on bikes, and we connected.” There was a lot more to the story, but he wasn’t going there now.
“Motorbikes?”
“I'd still be out there if it was a bicycle, Hope.”
