Page 76 of Talk Nerdy To Me
I turn around to see Base with his forehead resting on the backs of his hands as he takes even breaths. To him, I say, “They don’t really kill the women. From what I’ve been told, they mostly rant a little incoherently, the women mock their ranting, and that’s about all.”
Base shakes his head, laughing and groaning and laughing again.
“I don’t even know how to deal with this right now,” Dane growls, bringing my attention back to him. “I was just coming by to make sure the painters got the back side of the house better.”
“They haven’t returned,” I tell him, relaxing now that the subject has changed.
“That’s not currently the thing on my mind!” Dane tells me very angrily, stabbing a finger into the air for no real obvious reason.
“Then why bring it up?” I ask, confused.
He pinches the bridge of his nose, as Base finally lumbers to his feet, not standing completely straight.
“We can talk about this when it doesn’t feel like my balls are still trying to work their way north,” Base tells him. “And alone. You can say whatever then. Don’t do this with her in the room.”
I look at Base and question his intelligence for the first time. Clearly I need to be in the room if my brother is turning angry colors. He hasn’t turned angry colors very often, but when he did, those guys left in tears.
Dane looks over at me, then back at Base, then curses again.
Really, all the cursing is growing redundant since no one is explaining why they’re angrily saying crude words.
Dane just turns and stalks out, then walks back in, eyes on me. “Please answer the next time I’m at the door. Just say you’re busy if you’re busy.”
“I tried. My cognitive functions haven’t been functioning properly around him,” I tell him honestly, gesturing toward Base.
His eyes seem to soften a little, but they turn back into a hard glare when he looks at Base again. Then he stalks back out without another word.
Base hobbles over to the couch, groaning as he slowly lowers himself down. I go to grab a sack of frozen vegetables from the freezer. I’ve seen all the guys do this at some point.
As I offer it to him, he takes it from my hand, lips twisting in the beginnings of a smile for no logical reason I can discern.
“That definitely ended differently than I expected,” he mumbles as he closes his eyes and puts the peas on his lap.
“That would have been statistically improbable to have foreseen,” I tell him, patting his leg in case he feels guilty for lacking that foresight.
I sit down on the other end of the couch, and put my legs up as I cut on the movie we paused a really long time ago.
“You swore to massage my legs more later, but you should probably wait until a night when your testicles aren’t swelling with fluid,” I tell him as I turn the movie up.
He coughs out a laugh, not groaning this time, as his hand gently pats my foot. “Thanks.”
“I try to be considerate,” I tell him, even as the TV starts to capture my attention.
My brother’s presence quite literally destroyed any arousal or the potential of it for the night.
When I feel the weight of Base’s gaze on me, I turn my head, finding him studying me with what I believe is a pensive set to his jaw.
“What?” I prompt.
“You never said what bases you’ve touched.”
This time, I understand his meaning. “First and I think second. Though second was more rough groping than erotic petting. It wasn’t at all comfortable.”
He scrubs a hand over his face, muttering something I don’t hear.
“You never said what word you prefer to hear when a woman references her vagina,” I tell him.
Another groan is all I get.
