Page 5 of Stepbrothers with Benefits
Milo was Milo, and he would be with whoever he wanted and wouldn’t listen to what anyone had to say. It didn’t matter if it was our siblings, parents, or even me. People saw his goofiness and silliness and assumed he was a laid-back, go-with-the-flow, easy-to-deal-with guy. Sure, he was, in some ways, but there was more to him than that. There was a steel rod shoved firmly into his spine, and a fire that was more easily fed than quenched, and anyone who didn’t recognize that in time was surprised at the fury that could roll out of him.
He let the story out, grinning as Rimes continued to stare at him with increasing disbelief that he was attempting to cover up and failing miserably. I said nothing because I was used to how people reacted to the shenanigans Milo got up to. Plus, I wasn’t totally immune to the humor of their reactions. I might have been more cautious than Milo, but hell, there wassomelogic to the accusation that we shared the same two, maybe three brain cells.
“Right,” the doctor said, clearing his throat roughly. “I’ll give you a look over, and we’ll get some scans before we can make a determination.”
“Damn,” Milo sighed. “And I was hoping this would be quick.”
“You probably should have thought of that before you decided to sled down handrails,” Dr. Rimes said dryly.
Knowing they would be a minute, I stepped into the hallway to make a phone call. The phone rang twice in my ear, and I smirked when Moira’s voice answered, clipped and irritated. “This had better be good, and not something stupid.”
“Mmm, it involves Milo,” I told her.
“I said it better not be stupid,” she repeated with a sigh, and I listened as she murmured to someone in the background. I wasn’t surprised when a masculine voice muttered something back that I couldn’t understand. She’d been with Kayden for almost a year, and while he seemed kind of an odd choice, silly and lighthearted to her serious and responsible, it had been a good match so far. Her voice returned, stronger and filled with irritation. “So?”
“Oh, just letting you know you’re going to see another hit,” I told her, knowing she, more than our parents, kept an eye on the family claims and costs, including insurance.
“What is it this time?”
“Mmm, sledding down handrails.”
“Of course,” she said, and although there was a hilarious amount of annoyance in her voice, I could sense faint amusement too. Not that I would ever point that out to her. She was the one who was supposed to be in control, the one who wasn’t supposed to give in to the wild and whimsy parts of life. To let her know that others understood she needed the levity was a surefire way to get her back up and set her off. “And you were?—?”
“The one who got him the help he obviously needs,” I responded, because admitting I hadn’t actually stopped him would result in the conversation going off the rails. She was agood woman, but she was hard. You learned when and how to pick your battles when it came to the most responsible of our siblings.
“If that were true, he would have seen a shrink years ago,” she said with a sigh. “What are we looking at?”
“Other than a traumatized and what I think is a slightly turned-on doctor?”
“God, he found another homo?”
“Moira! Language!” I proclaimed in mock horror that was paper-thin.
“Eli.”
I snorted. “I don’t know about this one, but he was definitely taken off guard.”
“That’s...very Milo.”
“Isn’t it just?”
“Facts. Details. The lot. Quickly.”
“An exam and scans. Other than that, I don’t know.”
“Jesus, what’s broken?”
“Maybe his arm, I’m betting the leg is a sprain or just bad bruising.”
“And not one lesson will be learned.”
“If he learned, he wouldn’t be Milo.”
“I’m aware. Itreallymakes me worry about Mom.”
I blinked, trying to trace that one to its source and then snorting as it occurred to me. “His dad came along after yours, right?”
“Yes.”
