Stone swallowed because he could hear what his unclewasn’ttelling him. Zane was the lone holdout. More than likely, his brothers had shared what was going on with him, but he wasn’t as open to the idea as the rest of them.
“I can still come by the house,” Stone said.
“Stone, I think—”
“I’ll talk to Zane,” he inserted, refusing to let Curtis shut this down because Zane was being stubborn.
It was one thing for Zane to reject the plan, but since he hadn’t heard it for himself, he didn’t get to do that. Not yet.
“I’ll head over to Moonshiners in a little while,” Stone continued. “And I’ll call you after. Let you know how it went.”
A grunt was his uncle’s response.
“I’ll talk to you in a bit,” Stone told him, disconnecting the call before Curtis could say anything more.
Two hours later, Stone walked into Moonshiners. The lightness he’d felt after last night had dissipated in the face of anxiety. He could feel his opportunity slipping away, and he wasn’t even privy to the reason. That was what irked him the most. Almost anytime there’d been a big issue in his life, he could chalk it up to someone—himself included—being too damn stubborn to talk about it.
It was time to rectify that with Zane.
Stone skimmed the dim interior of the bar, searching all the familiar faces and the ones he didn’t recognize until he landed on Zane. His cousin was sitting in one of the booths along the side wall, his back to the door. Aside from the beer sitting on the table before him, he was alone.
Not anymore.
Stone took the opportunity to grab a beer at the bar before he walked over.
“Mind if I sit?” he prompted, not waiting for Zane to answer before he slid into the booth.
His cousin’s expression remained pleasantly neutral.
“It’s been a minute,” Stone told him. “How’re you doin’?”
“Good. You?” Zane’s tone was remarkably dry. Not an ounce of emotion in it.
This was how they were going to play it? Their words cordial, but the underlying frustration simmering like a live wire? No thank you.
“I talked to your dad earlier,” Stone explained. “He mentioned you’d be here.”
Zane nodded, tilting his beer to his lips. “Congrats. You found me.”
“It took me a while.”
“You get lost or what?”
Stone heard the animosity but couldn’t understand where it was coming from. For the past few days, he’d spent too much time trying to figure out Zane’s motivation. No matter how far back he went in his memories, he couldn’t recall anything happening that would’ve triggered anyone to ghost him the way Zane was. Well, maybe Stevie or Nico, but he was directly responsible for what happened between them.
As much as he wanted to pretend it was merely timing that had prevented this conversation from taking place, Stone wasn’t in the mood for games. So, he got right to the heart of the matter.
“You’ve been avoidin’ me.”
Zane set his beer on the table. “Not really. I just didn’t have anything to say to you.”
“I don’t need you to say anything,” Stone countered, trying to keep his frustration from slipping out of his mouth and into his words. “But I’d appreciate you listening.”
“Not interested,” Zane blurted.
“What the fuck is your problem?”
Zane’s eyebrows slammed down, his blue-gray eyes glittering with unleashed anger. “You. You’re my fuckin’ problem, Stone.”
