Elliot sighed. ‘Yes, I’m fine. Why do you assume I’m not?’
‘Nobody calls unless it’s an emergency.’
‘Fair.’
‘So, what’s going on?’
Elliot steeled himself. ‘Are you in the middle of a job?’
‘Just finishing one up, actually.’
He could hear the questions in his brother’s voice. Elliot hadn’t spoken to him since his video chat with Daisy. It was weird for him to be calling. It was weird that he was asking about jobs. None of this was how their relationship worked. At least, not anymore, not since Elliot had abandoned their business and run off to this town to lick his wounds alone.
He sat down heavily on a bench on the front porch of the inn. The paint was peeling off the railings. A ceiling fan spun lazily overhead. He could see the ocean from their perch on the hill. It could be beautiful here. He was going to make it beautiful here… he just needed…
His damn brother.
‘Any chance you want to come down and work on this inn job with me?’
Silence.
It stretched out so long Elliot moved the phone away from his ear, thinking maybe the call had dropped, but then Caleb spoke.
‘You want to work together again?’
‘Well, the contractor had a family emergency.’
Caleb chuckled, but Elliot could hear the hurt in his voice. ‘Oh, got it. You’re out of options.’
‘That’s not it.’
‘That is it, and you know it, El. At least be straight with me.’
This conversation was going about as well as the one they had before Elliot left when he’d tried to explain to his brother that he needed to do things on his own for a while, that he needed to prove to himself he could survive without his wife, without his family. Or he’d just wanted to be alone to wallow. He didn’t know anymore what his reasons were or if any of them were valid.
And as he sat on the sunny front porch, thinking about what to say, about how to be honest, he couldn’t find any good reason to keep his brother at arm’s length anymore. Why would he want to? Who wants to survivealone? Hadn’t his life gotten a thousand times better when he let Daisy in, even if she only wanted friendship. Hadn’t he been happier in the last few weeks than in the last few years?
Why then was he still being a dick to his brother?
‘Okay, yes,’ he started. ‘I am out of options, but the real reason I’m asking is that you’re the best man for the job and I… I need your help. Iwantyour help with this.’
More silence.
Elliot went on. ‘I’m sorry I ditched you and the business we built. It was a shitty thing to do. I was hurting and I… I just…’
‘It’s okay, El?—’
‘It’s really not okay,’ Elliot cut him off. Now that he’d started, he needed to get this off his chest. ‘All you’ve ever done is look out for me and I’ve been acting like a giant baby about it lately.’
Caleb laughed. ‘Agreed.’
Elliot shook his head with a laugh of his own. ‘Sorry.’
‘Lucky for you, I’m a very forgiving man.’
‘Gee, thanks.’
‘The divorce messed you up. I get it.’
