Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77120 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77120 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
And across the way, where the band is setting up to play later, Henry stands next to his brother, David.
He’s glaring.
Straight at me.
Twenty-Two
Henry
It begins in my gut.
That low, twisting ache I try to ignore because it’s stupid, because it makes no sense. She’s not mine. We barely know each other. One night. One mistake in a dark barn with hay in her hair and my hands all over her. That’s all it was.
But now she’s over there, laughing with him like nothing happened. Like I didn’t have her pressed up against a wooden beam twenty-four hours ago.
She touches his arm lightly—just a little graze—but it lands like a punch. I taste metal. My jaw tightens.
She can do whatever she wants. She can laugh like that. She can look at him like that.
But damn it, I hate it.
I hate the way he stands too close. The way she doesn’t step back. I hate that she’s not looking at me.
I didn’t plan on wanting more. But now that I know what her mouth tastes like and how she sounds when she falls apart—
Watching her with someone else feels like I’m losing something I never had in the first place.
And that burns more than I want to admit.
I jerk as my brother gives me a light punch on my shoulder.
“What the fuck was that for?” I demand.
“I’ve asked you the same question twice,” Dave says.
“Sorry.” I shake my head to clear it. “What did you ask?”
“I asked how you’re doing, buddy. You and I haven’t talked much.”
“We were never big talkers, Dave.”
“Yeah, I know.” He shoves one hand into his jeans pocket. “But I know what it’s like to be in a weird place. Like when I lost one of my kidneys.”
I feel for my brother. I do. But it’s not the same thing.
Dave was in a bad automobile accident, and yes, one of his kidneys was hurt badly and the doctor couldn’t save it. I wonder if Jason could’ve saved it? Not at the time. At the time, he wasn’t a practicing surgeon because of his own accident.
But as bad as that was, and as worried as we all were for Dave, he didn’t take a life. He may have almost lost his own, but that’s a different thing entirely.
“I’m just saying,” he continues. “If you want to talk, I’m here for you, bro.”
I shake my head. “Nothing to talk about.”
“Henry—”
I take a step backward. “I said, there’s nothing to talk about.”
I cast my eyes to the stage. Jesse Pike and his sister Rory, along with Dragon and the other members of the band, are setting up. I guess they want to get ready before dinner so they can join the rest of us.
Weird that most of them are family now. Dragon is married to my cousin Diana, Jesse is married to Diana’s sister, Brianna, and Rory is married to my cousin Brock.
The other two members of the band, Cage and Jake, haven’t yet snagged a Steel. But you never know. I don’t particularly like the way Cage looks at Sage.
God, Cage and Sage.
That would be ridiculous.
Sage, on the other hand, has been ogling the devastatingly good-looking man on Tabitha’s arm since he arrived.
Maybe I could kill two birds with one stone. Keep Cage away from Sage by getting her into that guy’s arms, freeing up Tabitha for myself.
I shake my head.
Fuck.
Tabitha isn’t mine. The two of us aren’t meant to be. We had a good fuck, and then I was a complete dick to her after the fact. That ship has sailed.
Best start looking toward other ports in this storm. Unfortunately everyone here for the weekend except Tabitha is family.
Dave hasn’t walked away yet.
He’s my brother. We’ve been close in that brotherly, like-to-beat-each-other kind of way.
Maybe he can help.
The rest of the family won’t be here tonight, so it’s not like I can corner Aunt Melanie. The rehearsal is pretty much just for the bridal party and their significant others and families.
And of course, the band and the staff.
Aunt Mel would freak if I cornered her anyway. I’ve been avoiding her lately.
Not that she’d be able to counsel me in the middle of a wedding weekend. She’s retired, so she certainly won’t be looking to work while her niece is—
Dave is snapping his fingers in my ear.
I whip my neck toward him. “What?”
“Sorry, bro. You were just staring into space.”
I’ve been doing a lot of that lately. I have to lock in, at least for this weekend.
I turn to my brother. “Dave…”
“Yeah?”
“I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
He smiles. “I know you didn’t. Are you forgetting how well I know you? We grew up together.”
“I’ve been thinking…”
“About what?”
“I’ve been thinking…about maybe seeing my birth mom.”
Dave’s eyes widen into circles. “Why? Why now?”
“I don’t know. Everything I’ve been through just makes me think I want to know more about where I truly came from.”