Page 76 of Wild Justice

“Have you reached out to him?”

“Yes, and he texted back. He just hasn’t mentioned the job, that’s all. It isn’t a big deal. He…probably forgot. He’s a busy man.”

“And Chase is pissed off that Ben forgets things?”

“Yes,” Lulu sighed. “Chase never forgets anything. Ever. Even silly small stuff like your favorite ice cream flavor. Ben used to get so frustrated with Chase when we were growing up.”

“It sounds like two brothers who love each other and their families but have very different ways of showing it. They’re living their lives based on their own belief systems, and they haven’t yet come to terms with the fact that they’re not the same just because they grew up in the same house with the same parents.”

“For an only child, you’re laying down some wisdom this morning,” Lulu said. “Where did you learn all this psychological sibling stuff?”

Kai popped a bite of his coffee cake into his mouth before answering.

“I went to boarding school with a set of twins. I roomed with one of them, because heaven forbid, they roomed together. They fought like cats and dogs. Apparently, at one point they were close. And I mean really, really close. They finished each other’s sentences close. They wore the same clothes, ate the same food, played the same sports, got crushes on the same girls.”

“That doesn’t sound healthy in the least,” Lulu observed. “That sounds like creepy enmeshment.”

“I can’t say whether it was or not, but eventually one day one of them decided to do something different. He didn’t want to wear the blue shirt. He wanted to wear the green one. It set off the other one and it was a world war after that. That’s why I was rooming with the rebel twin. The other one just couldn’t let it go until one day one of the teachers sort of blew up at him. The kid was complaining about his brother again and this teacher just sort of couldn’t take it anymore. He asked the twin, ‘Has it ever occurred to you that your brother is not you?’”

“This was news?”

“Apparently. The other twin just sort of stood there with his mouth hanging open. I don’t think he had thought that his brother was a separate person. They were twins, in his eyes, and that meant conformity in all things. I’ve always wondered if it was something the parents had encouraged, or if he was like that on his own.”

“Did the twins reconcile? I’m a sucker for a happy ending.”

“Sadly, no. The one twin was simply too angry about it all. They barely spoke all four years of high school. I don’t know what happened after graduation though. They might have reconciled then.”

“That’s sad. I hope Ben and Chase don’t end up like that. It would be terrible.”

Frankly, she couldn’t see her mother allowing games like that to go on. She’d make them sit down and hash it all out before she’d let them hate one another.

“I’m not saying Chase and Ben are that far gone,” Kai explained with a shake of his head. “I’m sure that Chase knows that his older brother is a separate human being. But it might be hard for him to see his older brother off in the big city, doing big city things.”

“Chase has always been happy being in Harper.”

Kai smiled at Lulu’s adamant tone.

“You seem pretty damn sure about how your two brothers think and feel. Maybe they’re saying one thing but feeling something else. Maybe Ben misses home, and Chase is wondering if he made the right decision to stay. You took your time working out what and who you wanted to be. Ben and Chase might envy that.”

Lulu had never thought that her brothers envied anything about her life. They’d always told her that she needed to calm down, think things through, and not be so impulsive. Could it be that they had been the impulsive ones? They’d chosen their futures early, and maybe…just maybe…were thinking about what might have been?

Nah, there was no way. Ben had always been sure he wanted to be in business in a city that didn’t roll up its streets before nine. Chase had loved working with their mom at the coffee shop, and he’d been stoked to take over when she retired. It was too hard to believe that they were regretting their life choices.

Lulu had always been the one who questioned her life, not her brothers. She’d been the one floundering to find a purpose that had meaning. This was just a silly disagreement between her brothers, and it honestly needed to stop. If Chase needed to yell at Ben, then she’d arrange it so they could eventually move past it.

She might not be able to fix the world, but this was one thing she was sure she could pull off. The Reilly family couldn’t go on being fractured and at each other’s throats. Ben and Chase could work out their shit and then leave it behind.

It would be job number one when she got back to Harper.

21

The sun was shining, the temperature perfect - not too chilly, but not too warm. Rain had been predicted for the weekend, but somehow a few clouds had passed over them without even a small shower.

Kai and Lulu had arrived at the cabin, thrown their bags inside, and then headed straight outside again to go for a long walk beside the lake. For a grown man, he’d enjoyed simply holding her hand far too much. There was something about being with Lulu out here in nature that felt comfortable and right.

Eventually, they’d climbed into the rowboat and lazily drifted across the smooth surface of the lake. Lulu was reclined against him, her fingers trailing in the chilly water. They didn’t speak much unless it was to point out the shape of a cloud that looked like a bunny or a watering can.

“I’m thinking about getting a dog.”

---