“Some of it I'd like to.” Ethan sighed. “Gussie Neeps told me she'd lost another tooth to an abscess today.”
“Nice.”
“You take the good with the bad.”
“It's a weird town, Ethan. These people just kind of step in and take over your life. I'm wearing shorts”—he looked down at them—“that DJ O'Donnell picked for me.”
“Walt Heath told me Annabelle needed taming when I first showed interest in her. ‘Wild one,’ he said.”
“Not far wrong there.”
“That's the woman I love you’re talking about.”
“I remember the first time I saw her, and thinking that you'd have your hands full.”
Ethan was quiet for a while, and Brad wondered if he'd pissed his brother off.
“She's warmed all those dark places inside me, Brad. I don't have nightmares, and I don't carry too many dark thoughts about my childhood anymore.”
He knew what Ethan meant, because he had dark places too.
“I'm glad.”
“So about Macy.”
“Move on, Ethan.”
“She's had a tough run, Brad—”
“And you think I'd hurt her?”
“No, in fact I think you'd be good for each other. I just want you to know that this is a small town, and she has people who watch over her because of what she suffered.”
Brad liked that people watched over her.
“We're adults, Ethan.”
“I understand that too, but I'm saying she's not like some of the other women you've had in your life. She's not a love-and-leave kind of girl, Brad, and I have a feeling you could hurt her easily.”
“We know where we stand,” Brad said, wondering why his brother didn't think he could get hurt just as easily.
“It's not only Macy I worry about, you know.”
“Don't worry about me, I know how to keep myself safe.”
He felt Ethan's eyes on the side of his face.
“And that's just sad, but I take your meaning, because I was the same.”
Brad swallowed a mouthful of beer.
“You play ball?”
“Round or oblong?”
“There's a round ball?” Ethan said.
“Apparently people kick it.”
