“I’m sure he’ll be devastated,” Alex muttered.
“I would be,” I mumbled. “This place is great.”
That had him snorting a laugh that made my insides soar. If I could make one minute of this shitty situation more bearable for Alex, I’d consider it a win. No one should have to carry this burden alone. My chest ached thinking about how many times he’d had to bail his brother out without a lick of support.
Where was their mother?
Hadn’t Alex told me they lived with her?
Maybe she didn’t care. Maybe she’d given up on her youngest son and left him to be Alex’s problem.
“Kenny, you have to at least try to walk,” Alex said with a grunt as the three of us listed sideways, thanks to Kenny’s inability to walk in a straight line.
“This way, man.” I tightened my arm around his waist and tried to get him to bear more weight my way since he seemed determined to bowl Alex over.
A bloody-toothed grin flashed my way. “You know he’s gay?” Kenny said.
“For fuck’s sake, Ken.”
I grinned back at him. “Good to know. Hope that means he didn’t mind when I sucked his dick like a lollipop the other night.”
Alex’s eyes widened so fast I worried they’d pop out of his head and onto the frozen ground.
Kenny, on the other hand, burst out laughing, which only made it harder to control him. “Bro!” He drew out the word for at least four seconds. “Dude, you finally got some. Congrats. It’s been like for-fucking-ever.” He lifted his arm from around my shoulders and attempted to hold it out for a fist bump from Alex.
When Alex did nothing but try to murder his brother with his glare, Kenny giggled like a, well, like a person high off their ass.
We finally made it to my SUV without any significant issues. “You got him?” I asked, shifting the very wiggly package to Alex’s arms. There wasn’t time to worry about Alex’s silence. We needed to get Kenny in the car and get the hell out of there before anyone we didn’t want to run into showed up. I dug through my pocket and retrieved the keys. My car chirped as I unlocked it and opened the back passenger door.
Somehow, we managed to usher Kenny into the car even as he worked against us. Alex only swore seven times and threatened to finish the job the dealers started on Kenny twice. All in all, a successful rescue mission.
Alex climbed into the back seat after his brother. He reached across Kenny’s body and fastened the seat belt around him. I stayed by the door, waiting for him to exit, but he buckled himself in next to Kenny instead. “I’ll just stay back here with him. In case….” He shrugged and wouldn’t meet my gaze. His expression reverted to the one I’d seen so often after I began working at Top Shelf—annoyance, anger, and intolerance of my presence.
“Okay. Sure.” I fought to subdue the wave of disappointment rising from my core. “Makes sense.” What did it matter where Alex sat? Of course, he’d want to sit in the back with his injured and stoned brother to make sure he was all right. Who wouldn’t?
Yet, as I climbed behind the wheel and glanced at the empty seat beside me, I couldn’t help but feel rejected. I’d gone from savior to taxi driver in the blink of an eye.
“Where am I taking you guys?” I asked as I opened the map app on my phone.
Alex rattled off an address on a street unfamiliar to me. I glanced in the rear-view mirror to find Kenny already slumped against his brother’s shoulder, passed out and breathing through an open mouth—breathing through a nose as swollen and bloody as his wouldn’t be pleasant.
According to my app, the trip to Alex and Kenny’s home would only take five minutes. They lived exactly one point six miles away. The idea of them living so close to this shithole had me frowning at my phone. I’d known Alex didn’t come from money like most of us when we’d met at camp. Hell, it was the reason we’d given him the nickname ‘freeloader,’ but I’d never considered his family situation beyond our immature taunts. Thinking of him and his family struggling caused guilt to bring the way we’d treated him back then to the forefront of my mind. We’d been assholes, plain and simple.
No one spoke as I navigated to their home. Every few seconds, I glanced in the mirror to find Alex staring out the window with an unreadable expression, while Kenny slept against his shoulder with audible exhalations, a combination of a snore and a pant.
What was Alex thinking about? The second we saw his brother, he’d transitioned from worried but reachable to downright closed off. Any progress I’d made drawing out a laugh or two vanished into an abyss of a mood I couldn’t decipher.
Was he mad at me? Because I wouldn’t stay in the car?
Maybe. But I didn’t regret it.
I didn’t know the man well enough to understand how his mind worked. I knew him well enough to be certain he liked it when I tongued the slit of his dick and how his eyes rolled back in his head when I sucked his balls. Or that he groaned every time I added a little twist of the wrist during a handy.
All too quickly, I pulled up in front of an older one-story house with peeling brown shingles, rusted gutters, and a dim porch light waiting for Alex’s return.
“Thank you,” Alex said the second I put my SUV in park. “I’m sorry we fucked up your night.” He somehow managed to position Kenny so he wouldn’t fall over while Alex climbed out of the SUV. Kenny slept on, blissfully unaware of the drama he’d caused.
“Alex…”
