Page 64 of Stepbrothers with Benefits
“Sorry,” I muttered to Eli.
“S’alright,” he said with a shrug. “You’re not wrong, but don’t go after the people you love just because you’re upset.”
I struggled with the anger bubbling in my chest and forced myself to look at Mason. “Sorry, that was uncalled for.”
The thinness of his lips told me he was pissed; the subject of his late father had always been a sensitive one, even though Mason pretended otherwise. “I’m not saying you’re wrong, but that was a dick way of getting your point across.”
“I can’t decide if I should agree with you or point out that you’re a bigger dick than all of us at the table combined,” I muttered.
At that, the corner of his lips twitched, but the sharpness in his eyes remained. “True, and I guess I need a dose of my own medicine once in a while. However, I need to drag Jace off to a private corner.”
“God save us,” Dom said, rolling his eyes to the ceiling. “Whydoes getting pissed...uh...right, child in our presence. Why does that...do it for you two?”
Moira snorted. “That was more subtlety than most people in this family can manage, including me. Micah?”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s go finish our dessert in my office.”
“But, Mom?—”
“Hey,” Jace said in a rough voice, waiting until Micah looked at him. “This isn’t the time to argue, alright? Go with your mom, I’ll go with you if you want.”
Micah looked around the room, his young face pinched in thought before sighing and pushing away from the table. “Fine.”
They left, with Mason looking disappointed as he followed them, clearly not pleased that his plan was being thrown in the trash. Not that he would say anything, of all the people in the family, Micah was the one person Mason would bend over backward for. Not that he was stubborn about helping the rest of us, but our nephew generated a fascinating sort of...gentleness that wasn’t easy to describe.
“At leastsomeoneknows how to make Mason behave,” Dom snorted, picking up his glass and taking a drink. “Now...how awkward is this going to be?”
Arlo eyed Dom, looking faintly amused. “I’m trying to figure out if you would stay because it’s going to be awkward or if you’d leave because of it.”
“Depends,” Dom said, and I rolled my eyes. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen Milo have a meltdown.”
“Bro,” I grumbled, shooting what I hoped was the dirtiest look imaginable, but knowing it wouldn’t matter. Arlo was the calmest of us, but Dom was so laid-back I couldn’t recall a time recently that he had lost his temper. Not that it wasn’t possible, but I seriously could not remember when I had seen him lose his temper. Mad and irritated? Yeah, but he was even more willing to take things as they came than either Mason or Eli, which was saying something.
“What can I say?” he asked with a shrug. “My life is boring without a little family drama.”
“You literally…” I began and stopped when Eli gave my thigh another squeeze. It was also a warning, but I took it to mean I was taking the bait. Huffing, I turned my attention back to my mom. “So?”
“What do you want me to say?” she asked wryly. “It was a weekend of fun that wasn’t supposed to go past that weekend, but then you came along, which has proven to be better than anything that happened that weekend.”
“Buttering me up isn’t going to make me less irritated,” I told her even if anyone with half a brain and a halfway decent knowledge of me could see her words actually touched me. Not enough to make me suddenly forget I was annoyed, but enough to tone my anger down slightly.
“Is it buttering up if it’s the truth?”
“Mom.”
She sighed. “What do you want me to say, Milo? That I didn’t know I was pregnant, to tell him about his son until it was too late? I didn’t even know his last name. And then he showed up one day and said he would be there for you. That lasted about two weeks before he disappeared. And yes, before you ask, that was a pattern for the first four years of your life. I didn’t see it until much later, but he would never change and stick around. So I told him that if he left, he needed to stay left. He tried a few times after that, but after the last time, he finally gave up pretending.”
“Four years?” I wondered, thinking hard about that. No, I had no memories attached to him at that age. As far as I knew, I hadn’t seen him until I was fully grown.
“That was about the age when you were paying more attention, starting to notice things more,” she said with a sigh and took a drink. “The last time, when I warned him, he was around for a couple of weeks, and it was obvious you were...attached. When he left, just like I knew he would, I watched you cry your little heart out when you realized he wasn’t coming back. That was that as far as I was concerned. I’d rather be the only parent you knew than make you deal with a parent who didn’t know what he wanted...least of all if he wanted to be a part of your life.”
Okay...well,thatdefinitely took the sting out of my tail, and I could feel myself deflating. It was hard to argue with her logic. In her shoes, I would have made the same choice. I’d dealt with enough people in high school and college to know what the infrequent presence of a parent could do to a person. The uncertainty, the inherent lack of security and trust, and the constant hope followed by the inevitable, painful crash when disappointment hit.
“So...why keep it from him once he was an adult?” Eli asked, and I perked up at that, grateful he had been thinking.
She gave him a searching look before sighing and shrugging. “The same reason as when he was younger. Just because he’s grown doesn’t mean he’s not my son. None of you stopped being my kids. And the last thing I want is to put you in the path of something that will hurt you, or help you put yourselves there.”
