by Lindsey Hart
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“I live here,” Chet said wryly. “At least for the time being.”
“Moving on then? Getting the hell out of Houston?”
Chet tried to read his brother’s face. Was that a hopeful tone he heard in Chet’s voice or not? The guy probably wanted him gone, so that his life could go back to normal, whatever normal was. The guy’s face remained completely impassive, quite a feat. Chet couldn’t pick out a single emotion of the many simmering in those blue orbs.
“Wasn’t planning on it, no. I thought I’d stick around for a while. I looked at a few buildings today. Thought I might pick some old one, an ancient brick one in the industrial end. There’s one that used to be a bank of all things. I thought it would make an interesting tattoo shop. It has two stories overhead. I could turn it into living space for myself and whoever else wants it. Rent out the rest after I have it finished.”
“So, you have a plan then. You really are going to stick around? What happens when you get bored and want to go wondering off again? What happens then? When you leave us all behind? What happens to your investment and your property and your business?”
“I don’t plan on wondering off. Not unless it’s just for a holiday here and there like everyone else does.”
Shane blinked. Clearly, he was taken aback. It was Nina. It was Nina who made Chet want to see. He’d wanted to come back to Houston before, but it was her gentle prodding that opened his eyes to the hurt his leaving caused in the first place. He desperately wanted to undo that hurt. Or at least, he did when he still thought it was possible.
“You got any more beer?”
Chet glanced down at his unopened one. He pushed it across the table. “Just this.”
Silence stretched between them. Finally, Shane reached out and took the can. He popped the tab on that one and hammered back a huge gulp. He set the sweaty can down on the table and just sat there, staring Chet down.
Finally, Chet couldn’t take it anymore. He tried to figure out a way to bring up the subject naturally, but he knew it wasn’t going to happen. Instead he went ahead and blurted it. “I’m going to transfer the money to you. I’m sorry. I never should have made any conditions on it. Even if you’d said no, or if Nina had said no, I would still have given it to you. I don’t know why I did it. It was stupid. It was the absolute worst idea I’ve ever had in my life. If I could go back and undo it, I would.”
The scratch of the beer can sliding cross the table and the slow inhale, the gulp and swallow and sigh followed by the swipe of a hand across Shane’s mouth was the only sound in the room. Chet waited, so tense he felt like the muscles in his neck could actually snap if he tightened up any more.
“Why?”
Chet gaped. “Why what?”
“Why would you undo it? Because you wish you hadn’t met Nina? Because you don’t think she’s worth the trouble?”
“Of course not.” Chet gripped the edge of the table. He kept himself from leaning forward and imposing himself on his brother’s space. He wasn’t trying to be intimidating at all. “It just wasn’t right. That was your money.”
“Actually, it wasn’t. Dad left it all to you.”
“He left it to me because- well- because…”
“What?” Shane’s eyes burned into him.
“Nothing.” Chet shook his head. “I don’t know why he did it. Because he was crazy I guess, or he had this notion of guilt. I was the oldest kid. It made sense. I guess he thought I would do what was right and distribute it fairly.”
“You could have kept it all to yourself. Especially after I- well, especially after what happened at the damn diner.”
“That wasn’t exactly anyone’s fault really…”
“It was. It was mine. I shouldn’t have reacted that way. I’ve been doing some thinking. Some real deep thinking, which I normally don’t like to do because then all sorts of stupid shit gets in my head and I really don’t need it in there. I’m going to ask you again. If you had it to do over, how would you do it?”
“The dates?” Chet paused, unsure what Shane was getting at. Had the impossible happened? Was his brother really there trying to patch things between them? Had Nina said something to get through to Shane? It was unlikely. Shane seemed to have a pretty thick head. Chet had been told a couple times that he did too. Maybe they had more in common than he thought.
“Yes, the dates.”
“I would- I would do it again. I would give anything to go on those dates again. I guess the only thing I would do different is ask properly. I would have asked you to-”
“I would have said no. Hell no. And kicked your ass.”
“I would have asked her then…”
“I would have found out and kicked your ass. Twice over for skipping over me and going right to her.”
“I would have-”
“Anything you did would have resulted in an ass kicking. I want you to know that. It just about happened the other day. I would have taken you out into that alley and given you a few good blows, just for Nina’s honor.”
“A real knight in shining armor.” Chet rolled his eyes, but he did offer the start of a smile. It surprised him a little to see Shane’s lips curl upwards.
“Maybe you did the right thing. Those dates forced my hand. They got you an in when you wouldn’t have had one in the first place. I was being pigheaded. I guess I just got used to having Nina to myself. Not to myself. That sounds wrong. I just… she’s my best friend. Sometimes I still see her as this little girl who can’t look after herself. I care about her a lot. She’s like blood to me. She’s thicker than that.”
Chet got that. He knew Nina and Shane were closer than he and Shane probably ever would be. “Yeah.” It was a completely inadequate word, but the only thing Chet could come up with at the moment.
“I don’t want to see her get hurt. I don’t want to see her ruined by anyone. I don’t want it to fuck up our family or mine and Nina’s friendship. I just… I want her to be okay. I mean, more than okay. I want her to be happy. What I saw at the diner… that look in her eyes- I’ve never seen that before. She had this glow on her face. She’s never looked at anyone like that. She was always so focused and driven. She worked for four years after we graduated to save up money for school. She’s still working, and she has student loans. She helps out her mom with her brothers. They don’t know she does that, but she does. Neither of her parents have a lot of money. They do what they can, but it was never going to pay for school. She’s a hard worker.”
“What are you trying to say, Shane?”
“I’m trying to say that I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come between you like I did. She was right. It wasn’t any of my damn business. I thought about it after I cooled off and I realized how shitty and unfair I was to her. She’s never told me what to do with my life or who I couldn’t see. She’s expressed concern when I’ve been hurt or when she didn’t like someone I was seeing, but it was always so calm and collected and she left it at that. She never forced me into anything.”
Chet sighed. “I don’t really even know what’s happening with me. If she looked that way, it’s how I felt. I’ve never had anything serious with anyone, but with her, it’s different. It was different right from the start. I’ve never been able to get her off my mind.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve- well, I mentioned that photo back when all of this first started. I saw it and it’s weird. I haven’t obsessed over it or anything. It’s not that way, but I just felt it. Whatever it was. This thing in my head that refused to go away. And then I met her, and it all made sense. It sounds crazy talking about it, but it just works. She and I just work. I want to stay and try it. I want to see if it works and for just how long it would be right. I would work like hell to make it happen and I would never hurt her.”
“I want to believe you.”
Chet sighed. He leaned back in the chair and studied his brother. “Even if she doesn�
��t date me, there will be someone else. There will be someone eventually. You can’t keep protecting her like that forever. People need the freedom to grow and make mistakes. She was afraid that what she felt, what we did, would hurt you and ruin your friendship. She was scared that it would ruin us. She has her head on straight. She has her heart in the right place. Is that enough?”
Shane blew out a hard breath. “I don’t know. Maybe… maybe it is. I hope so, because honestly, I can’t let this ruin our friendship. She’s like a sister and maybe that’s why this is so weird, thinking about her with you. I just have to get over myself.”
“Have you talked to her?”
“No. I’ve tried. She won’t get back to me. I can’t just go to her apartment. I don’t have a key. I’ve buzzed when her car is there, but she hasn’t answered. I’ve called and texted, but she won’t return them.”
It took Chet a minute, but eventually his brain started functioning again. “It just so happens that we both know where her balcony is and where it faces. Right into the back of the parking lot. I remember looking out and staring at the red dumpster over in the corner. We could ring her buzzer and call her and if she refuses us, we could text her and stand right there and refuse to go away. We’ll make a sign or something, so she has to see it.”
Shane rolled his eyes. “I thought you said the date idea was your worst idea. You’re wrong. This is definitely your worst idea ever.”
“It would work though, wouldn’t it?”
“She’s mad enough that she’d probably call the cops and get us hauled out of there.”
“No she wouldn’t.”
“No?” Shane raised a brow again. He shook his head. “Your guess is as good as mine. Nina’s not the crazy type. She’s calm and rational. I’ve never seen her as mad as she was at the diner. She was disgusted with me. It was what she said that I couldn’t stop thinking about. It’s what made me finally decide to change my mind and come over here.”
“I think she was disgusted with both of us. It’s also why I think she can’t refuse us both.” They sat in silence again, thinking. Chet finally let out a long exhale as well. Clearing the air… it was an apt term. “I’m sorry, man. I’m sorry for hurting you when I left. I wasn’t thinking about anyone but myself all those years. I really did think that if you wanted to get to know me you would have contacted me first. I guess part of me remembered you as this little kid. I almost didn’t expect to come home and find a grown man even though I knew how old you were and what you looked like. I did follow your pages and I saw photos. It just didn’t… click.”
Shane nodded slowly. “It’s okay.” He pounded back the rest of his beer and set the empty can next to the first one.
“Is it?”
“Honestly, I have no idea. I guess we can only go from here.”
“Right. I am going to stick around. I am going to make it up to you. I want to make a go of it, back here where I started. I want us to be a family, you me and mom again.”
“And Nina?”
Chet hesitated. “Yeah. And Nina. If she wants it.”
“Well I guess we don’t have time to wait. Let’s go see if she’s home right now.”
“What?” Chet nearly fell over when Shane pushed his chair back.
“Yeah. No time like the present. That’s what they say, right?”
“I… I guess so,” Chet stammered.
Shane turned and started for the door. He had his hand on the knob before he turned back around. “Bring the dog. She won’t be able to resist that face.”
CHAPTER 16
Nina
Shane’s endless attempts to contact her weren’t wearing down Nina’s reserve naturally. The only reason she even contemplated answering the damn buzzer was so that she could have a moment of peace. Between the buzzer going off in a constant annoying drone and her phone blowing up on the kitchen table, Nina wasn’t sure she’d get any peace.
She was trying to study, and Shane wasn’t giving up. She wondered how long it would take for him to get it through that thick skull of his that she wasn’t going to let him in. She didn’t want to talk to him. She didn’t want to hear anything else about how she’d ruined their friendship or how she couldn’t look after herself. She didn’t want another fight. Not over her. Not between brothers.
She did miss him though. It was a long week, between trying to study for exams, finish her papers and sort through the messy, knotted tangle of emotions in her heart, she was wrung out. She wasn’t sleeping. She couldn’t fall asleep and when she did, she couldn’t stay asleep. She felt exhausted. At the end of it all. Worn down.
“Shut up!” She yelled at the buzzer. Surprisingly, the incessant whine cut off a minute later. She was left with her ears ringing in the too silent apartment. The noise seemed to bounce off the walls long after it was gone.
It appeared that after five straight minutes of buzzer ringing and endless texts she didn’t bother even looking at, Shane was going to leave her alone for another day.
Nina sighed. She leaned forward and stared at her open laptop through the curtain of her hair. The paper she was trying to work on wasn’t going anywhere. The studying was even worse. She couldn’t concentrate on anything. She kept having to go back, read and re-read everything.
Maybe I should talk to Shane. If she broke down and got it over with, she wondered if she’d be able to concentrate. She desperately needed to focus.
She’d always been so on her game before the fight. No, before Chet. If she was honest, the whole fuzzy, dizzy, out of focus, flying and falling sensation happened long before that day at the diner. Ever since she’d laid eyes on Chet, his dark hair and those smoky grey blue eyes, she’d been falling. Falling and falling, unable to catch herself.
Irritated, she swiped a finger over the track pad on her laptop, intent on getting down to business. Just as the blackness cleared from the screen, her phone went off.
“Are you kidding me?” She growled. Frustration crawled up the back of her throat.
Abandoning her laptop on the coffee table in the living room, she marched to the kitchen and snatched her phone off the table. She was going to turn the damn thing off, but the screen lit up again and her eyes chanced on Chet and Shane’s name together. Which was weird. Not just weird, it was totally improbable and completely crazy. Their names together on a group text.
Her eyes scanned down the list of missed texts. There were over twenty from both brothers. Some short, others longer. The last one, from Chet, riveted her attention and started a hard, heart slamming reaction in her chest.
Go outside. Stand on your balcony.
Nina almost didn’t do it. She almost shut her phone off and locked herself in her bedroom, but that would mean that the bed would remind her of Chet and how much she’d enjoyed him there and the whole thing would spiral back in her head. That would be the end of her night. The beginning of a wicked headache started brewing up behind her eyes. Peace. That was what she needed. She knew that she wasn’t going to get it as long as she let whatever was going on between her and Chet and Shane go unresolved.
The fact that the two of them were texting her at the same time sent a pretty clear message. That, impossibly enough, they’d worked their shit out.
Though she hated the balcony, Nina opened the patio door and slipped outside. She glanced around the parking lot, at first seeing nothing and then, just in front of the dumpsters, there they were. One blonde head and the other dark and curly. Shane dressed in a t-shirt and jeans and a ball cap and Chet in his normal all black ensemble. One broad and towering, the other tall and sleek and athletic. So very different from each other in every way, and yet they were there together.
And they’d brought Charlotte. Of course, they brought the dog. That was all Shane. She could see that bit of trickery as something he would do, because he knew she couldn’t resist. The damn guy must have given her a positive reference because her paper work for her own puppy came back just fine. The lady she talked to a f
ew days ago said everything checked out. The process was still ongoing, but she was confident she’d have her little roommate soon. So confident that she’d already given notice for her apartment. She’d start looking for a place as soon as her exams were over. If she didn’t find anything, there was always back home until she did. Or suck up her pride and make things right with Shane.
As bad as it was between her and Shane, she knew there was no room for her back at home. Neither of her brothers would be happy to give up their room and share a bedroom again, like they’d done when she lived at home.
“What are you doing out here?” Nina stayed away from the railing. She refused to even look over. She hated the damn wood thing. Shouldn’t it be made of something stronger? Iron or concrete?
“You wouldn’t answer your buzzer and let us up,” Shane hollered back. She could barely hear him. His voice was taken by the wind, but that’s what she thought he said.
She shook her head. “This is ridiculous,” she muttered to herself. Charlotte began to wag her tail furiously and let out a few happy barks when she was spotted. Nina’s heart melted. “I’m coming down,” she shouted back.
The bastards hadn’t left her with any other choice, not unless she wanted the entire apartment complex to be in on their business. Which of course, she didn’t.
Grabbing her keys on her way out, Nina flew down the stairs and out the back door. She regulated her steps as soon as she was outside, not wanting either of the brothers to see her as anything less than composed. Which would have been easier if she wasn’t wearing faded jean shorts, a cut off pair she’d made herself and a tank top. She wished she’d put on something classier. And less revealing.
She stopped a few feet away and crossed her arms. “So? We’re outside so Charlotte and I can do what? Referee a boxing match?”
“We’re outside because you wouldn’t answer your damn door. Ever.”