Anders stares at me long-sufferingly.
“What’s ‘a can of whoop-ass’?” I ask him solemnly.
His face breaks out into a grin and a moment later, we both lose it.
I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.
There’s a hose by the back door so it’s not too difficult for Anders to wash off his brother’s vomit. I offer to help, but he waves me away, and the perpetrator of the crime is nowhere to be seen. We can hear him around the corner, in hysterics, with my sister. The sound of their laughter is bouncing off the walls of the surrounding buildings and echoing back at us.
“Has it always been like this?” I ask with amusement as Anders winds the hose back in. “Youtaking care ofhim?”
He shakes his head. “It used to be the other way around. What about you and Bailey? She’s a bit younger than you, right?”
“Yes, by six years. But I haven’t had much of a chance to be a protective big sister.”
He stares at me and nods, an intensity in the depths of his green eyes. When he gets all serious like this it makes myinsides go a little funny, but I don’t feel a whole lot of relief when he looks away, either.
He goes to grab his motorbike and we set off in the direction of home, Anders wheeling his bike on the road beside me. Bailey and Jonas are up ahead. They’re getting on well. Too well? Should I be worried? ShouldCasey?
“How long has Bailey been married?” Anders asks me, as though reading my mind.
“About five months,” I reply, my unease growing. “Your brother wouldn’t make a move on a married woman, though, would he?”
Casey did say that Jonas had a reputation for sleeping around.
“It hasn’t stopped him in the past.”
Oh shit. I really hope Bailey wouldn’t be cruel or stupid enough to cheat on her husband, but she hasn’t exactly been raving about how fulfilled she feels. If she’s looking to inject some excitement into her life...
Anders shrugs. “I don’t know, maybe it’s only a line he crosses with his ex.”
“His ex is married?”
He nods. “She was his girlfriend when we were in school. Jonas was madly in love with her, thought they’d get married themselves one day, but she left him for another guy when she went to college. She went on to marry this same guy and have kids with him and Jonas has never got over it.”
“So they had an affair?” I ask with a frown.
“They were on and off for a while, but she ended it, supposedly for good, a few years ago. Jonas hasn’t had a serious relationship since. He’s still hung up on her.”
“Does she live around here?” For some reason I’m thinking of the woman at the grocery store.
“She actually moved back to town recently,” he replies. “I think it’s partly why he’s been messed up, but he hasn’t said anything to me about her. He wouldn’t, not since the hell I gave him the last time I suspected they were fooling around. I hear everything Heather-related from Ma these days.”
“That’s her name? Heather?”
He nods.
“What does she look like?”
“Long dark hair, blue eyes...” He glances at me. “Why?”
“I saw Jonas in town about a week ago,” I reveal. “He was parked outside a grocery store. There was a dark-haired woman inside, paying. She had a small boy with her.”
“How old was the boy?”
“About two.”
“She has three kids, but that could be her youngest.”
