Page 28 of Her Brother's Keeper

“Yeah, we was just fearless when we were…”

I left the men to their conversation, reminiscing over this and that and slipped behind the bar and into the kitchen beyond. Nox smiled over his shoulder at me as he stood at the range, waiting on what looked like sausage patties.

“You’ll take a hit off of a joint which is illegal all of the time, but you’re afraid to even walk into a room full of alcohol which you only gotta wait four more years for?” he asked, and his tone was gently teasing.

I shrugged, blushing harder and said, “I never said I was consistent, just serious…”

He laughed outright and turned back to the range, flipping the patties gently with a metal spatula.

“Was making breakfast sandwiches, what time you gotta pick Sage up?”

“Noon, unless Ariel calls sooner. I don’t think she’ll be watching him overnight for a while,” I said making a face. Nox’s fell and he cocked his head.

“Why not? What’s going on?”

“Sage being Sage, I guess. She wasn’t specific, just said that it would be a while before she could do an overnight. When I offered to let Ian come over for an overnight at our house, she said no, that it was okay and I get it, I guess...” I mean, I was only seventeen, and I was apparently doing a real bang up job as a single parent type with Sage. Nox nodded slowly and simply stood, raking his eyes over me, like he was trying to decide if I was telling him the whole truth.

“It’ll be okay,” he murmured and I nodded.

“It will all get figured out,” I agreed softly.

He opened his mouth to speak and it was cut off by the shrill trilling of my ringtone. I dug my phone out of the pocket of my coat.

“Speak of the devil,” I muttered, flashing him Ariel’s name on the screen. He nodded and went back to cooking. I answered the phone before it could ring a third time.

“Hello?”

“Maren, hi, um… can I ask where are you?”

“I’m having breakfast with a friend, why, what’s up?”

“I’m at your house with Sage. Um, I need to drop him off a little early.”

I closed my eyes, “What’s happened?” I asked.

“It will probably be better if we talked in person.”

“Yes, you know what, I’m sorry you’re absolutely correct,” I said in my best parenting voice, whatever that was… “I’ll be home in just a few minutes. Twenty at the most.”

“Okay, thank you. I really, honestly expected you to be home.”

“Yes, I’m sorry, I figured I was only a phone call away…”

“Right, well, see you in about twenty minutes.”

“Twenty minutes,” I agreed.

By the time I hung up, Nox was handing me a breakfast sandwich wrapped in a paper towel.

“Guess breakfast is ‘to go’ this morning,” he said with a charming half-smile. It made me smile in return.

“We’d better hurry.”

“You bet, come on.”

I followed him back out to his car, worry gnawing at me. I wondered what had been done, had Sage broken something? Had he hurt Ian or Ian’s little sister?What on earth was going on?

When Nox and I pulled up to the curb outside of my house, the breakfast sandwich had decided to sit in my stomach like lead. I got out of the car before he could even shut it off and met Ariel half way down the driveway. She had been sitting in her car, while my little brother had been sitting huddled on the porch swing near the front door.

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