Page 5 of Burn

The least I can do? She’s talking about cheating on me with my brother, and it’s the least I can do?

But then her smile fades and I understand why. She hates to be alone.

Jacey hates working holidays at the bar she bartends at, mostly because it’s full of drunken idiots and she insists me or one of my brothers keep her company. I have four brothers—Evan, Gavin, Kellan, and Taylor—all firefighters aside from Kellan, who’s a cop. Our dad’s a firefighter, his dad was a firefighter and his dad before that . . . a firefighter. And here Kellan goes and becomes a fucking cop. If we’re being honest, I think it’s just because he’s always been that one brother who likes to set himself apart from the rest of the Ryan boys. If we all agreed on pizza for dinner, he’d have a bowl of cereal. Never liked to go with the flow.

“After I take a nap.” Despite Jacey wanting me at the bar tonight, I know therealreason as towhyshe wants me to go out with her. We’ve been over this many times. “You realize when Evan’s girlfriend finds out he’s still messing around with you, shit’s gonna hit the fan.”

She stares at me blankly. “I’ve never understood that expression.”

“Why?”

“Have you ever thrown shit at a fan? I doubt with the heaviness of shit—it would actually do anything but flop on the ground.”

I scrub my hands over my face. “Can we talk about something else?”

“You’re the one who brought up shit.” She slaps my thigh. “Go take your nap so you can take me to work.”

“I just worked forty-eight hours straight. I don’t want to go out tonight,” I argue, hoping she understands how exhausting that is.

“I know, I know. You want your bed and pussy in it. So let’s go out tonight and find you some.”

See, that’s a bad idea. “I still don’t want to. Kellan’s off tonight. Ask him to take you out.”

Jacey frowns and swallows heavily, as though the idea of Kellan going with her is scary. “No way. Last time I went out with Kellan, he tried to get me to let him handcuff me and some other chick together.”

“Like he wanted—”

“Yep,” she says immediately before I can finish my statement. Kellan’s my younger brother. He also has an obsession with banging two chicks at once. Hence why he was trying to handcuff them together I suppose. Not sure.

“I’m tired,” I tell her again, but I still don’t get up from the couch. It requires too much energy to lift myself up. “I need a nap.”

“I’m amazed there’re five Ryan boys.”

“Why?”

“Heath works the same hours as you do. Or he did back before he was Battalion Chief. With as tired as you are all the time, when do you think he and your mom had time to make five of you?”

I gag at the thought of my parents making babies. “Stop talking about my parents like that. And besides, you’renevertoo tired to fuck.”

“So then why won’t you go out tonight?”

“Going out requires effort. It’d be a lot easier if one was in my bed already.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Are you asking?”

I toss a pillow at her head. “No, I’m not.”

Jacey groans. “Come on, Caleb. The holidays depress the shit out of me. Please come to the bar tonight.”

“Why do the holidays depress you?”

Her expression tells me I shouldn’t have asked that. Mostly because I know. “Hello?” Her eyes widen as she tosses her hands up and lets them fall to her lap. “Dead parents . . . no family?”

Though I feel for her, I’m always giving Jacey a hard time. “Oh please. They died when you were eight and you have us. Ever since then, you’ve spent every Thanksgiving and Christmas with us.” I stand up and step over Owen on my way to the stairs. “Don’t tell me you don’t have family.”

“Shush.” She throws a pillow at me. “Go take your nap and then take me to work. I’ll give you free drinks all night.”

That gets my attention. Free beer? Who wouldn’t take up that offer? “Okay, fine. But onlyonedrink.”

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