Page 74 of Nothing to Fear

“Oh, I… I’m sure it will be fine.”

“Good,” Benedict said. “We’ll pick you up at the apartment at six.”

“Remember Tripp’s thing’s tonight,” Caber said, seemingly addressing only Darroch. “You sure you want to miss it to double date with Mom and Dad?”

“I’ll miss it to be with Sav,” Darroch said, tracing his fingertips up her shoulder. “Take Troy.”

“Yeah—”

“Ah, no,” Caber said. “Tripp up, that was the stipulation.”

“I dread to imagine,” Alice murmured.

“Breck going to be there?” Troy asked. “The whole Tripp up thing is BS.”

“This again? He’s the transition. From the upper Breckenridge men to the lower Breckenridge boys.”

“I’m closer to his age than I am to Brant’s,” Troy said. “I’m the eighth, that makes me the midpoint.”

“Boo Boo was unexpected,” Caber said. “We’re the role models, you guys are the screw ups.”

“And you think Tripp falls into your group?” Brant snorted as he laughed. “Shit, he’s up for anything. Any time, any place. Didn’t he just have some orgy in Hawaii with Roman?”

“He was with Struan and it wasn’t an orgy.”

“Twenty women,” Brant said, cynical. “That’s an orgy.”

“I don’t think he slept with all of them. I don’t know if he slept with any of them.”

“Roman did.”

“How do you know that?” Caber asked. “You think you can trust anything out of that guy’s mouth? See, that’s why you’re in the screw up group.”

“You see Sway in the news?” Troy asked. “Roman too.”

“We’re used to seeing them, but Struan, wow, that came as a shock, right? Anyone know where this Bambi came from?”

“That’s one mess I’m happy to have no part of,” Caber said. “The woman must be something.”

“Tripp’s met her.”

Whoever these people were, they obviously meant something to the Breckenridges. The boys anyway. She was… clueless.

“The tone of conversation this morning leaves a lot to be desired,” Benedict said. “We have a guest.”

“I’m sorry, Savanna,” Alice said. “We haven’t raised brutes, I promise you.”

But she smiled. “That you’re sitting around a table at all is far more civilized than my family ever got. I was raised around all kinds of language.”

“It’s not really you,” Troy said. “Dad’s reminding us this is the dress rehearsal.”

“Yeah,” Ward agreed. “Because Grandma’s coming to visit.”

“Oh, God, that’s right,” Darroch groaned.

“When is that again?” Caber asked. “I need to take a vacation that week, or, you know, pay for some horrifically gruesome fate to befall me, so I can be in hospital under sedation.”

The brothers laughed; the parents weren’t so amused.

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