Page 5 of Bull's Boy

Malcolm did his best to hold on to his temper as he looked up from his phone and pretended to consider the suit Evan was wearing. It looked exactly like the first three his brother had tried on, but he knew better than to say that.

He should have known better than to think “getting lunch” with Evan would be anything less than awful or just consist of eating food—which they were supposed to do forty-five minutes ago, but Evan had wanted to stop and grab something from the department store really quickly.

Ha.

Malcolm’s stomach growled, but Evan was too busy admiring his thin frame in the wall-length mirror to notice. “Looks great.”

“I don’t know…” Evan said, turning so his body was in profile and studying his nonexistent ass. When the store worker stepped closer, he didn’t even bother looking at her as he barked, “Bring back the last one. The lines on this one are off.”

Malcolm rolled his eyes and looked back down at his phone. It was a ninety-dollar, off-the-rack suit. What did his brother expect? He pulled up his texts and shot one off to Dahlia.

Malcolm

why did I agree to meet with him? My one day off this week and I’m stuck watching him try on suits while my stomach eats itself.

Even though he knew she was at Bo’s, her response came almost immediately, making him grin. Sally and Bull were super chill about letting them have their phones on them as long as it didn’t interfere with taking care of customers, but he had a feeling Dahlia had been waiting to hear from him. She’d told him to cancel as soon as she found out he’d agreed to the lunch, and, of course, she’d been right.

LBF

I tolllllllld you.

Malcolm

I know, I know. I wish I could leave but he picked me up and is holding me hostage. I’m seriously so hungry I could cry. Why would he torture me like this?

He knew why though. His brother had always been all about the power moves. When he’d called Malcolm a few days ago and suggested they have lunch his next day off from the restaurant, he’d made it sound like Malcolm was being the terrible brother for keeping his distance and how much Evan—and their parents—missed seeing him.

So he’d caved. Like always.

But the parade of cheap suits was at least half for Malcolm’s benefit, rubbing it in his face that not only did he not need one—beingonlya server—but that even if he wanted one, he couldn’t afford it. He couldn’t even afford to fill up his gas tank until his next shift, assuming he got some decent tips.

As Evan stepped out of the dressing room while still doing up his pants, he finally glanced over at Malcolm. The look in his eyes was familiar, so he braced himself, not wanting to give Evan the satisfaction of seeing him flinch no matter what he said.

“I proposed to Cathy last week.”

Malcolm stared at him, confused for a second by Evan’s nonchalant tone. “That’s great,” he said carefully. “What did she say?”

The smile Evan gave him wasn’t nice. “I don’t have your trouble with girls, baby brother. She knows she can’t do better than this.”

He could feel his face flushing, but he did his best to smile as his phone vibrated in his clenched hand. “Congratulations. I’m happy for you both.”

LBF

Where are you?

He told her the name of the store, knowing she would have offered to come and get him if he were in town. Unfortunately, Evan had driven them to Ridgewood for some reason, and there was no way even Sally would be cool with letting Dahlia leave for over an hour to come and save him from his obnoxious brother. He should have insisted they eat somewhere in Knotting Pine sohe could have at least walked home or to Bo’s when things went up in flames.

“We’re thinking of doing a destination wedding,” Evan was saying, back to examining his figure in the mirror.

“Okay.” He pulled up Google and quickly typed infood near me. If Evan wanted to keep trying on hideous suit after hideous suit, then Malcolm could just walk somewhere to grab a damn sandwich.

Wait. Did he say destination wedding?

He looked up from his phone to find Evan staring at him, nose scrunched in annoyance. “Can you pay attention for ten seconds?”

The sharp reprimand threw Malcolm back to when he was a kid and teenage Evan constantly screamed shit like that in his face. Neck flushing with annoyance, he set his phone on his leg and held his arms out. “You have my full attention.”

Light brown eyes, completely different from his own dark blue ones, narrowed on him. “Did you hear what I said?”

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