Page 20 of Family Forever
Dylan captured Cole’s gaze. “I don’t want you hitting on Marissa. She’s not your type of girl.”
Cole’s gaze hardened and he arched a brow. “Really? And you get to dictate this, why?”
Why, was a good question. What was he doing? What gave him the right?
Cole filled the silence. “She’s a grown woman who can make her own choices.”
“She just turned nineteen, yesterday,” Dylan fired back.
“Yes, she did, she’s an adult, has been for a while. And if I run the math, that makes her less than two years younger than me, and let’s see, and a little over five and one-half years younger than you.”
Dylan squeezed his eyes shut and sucked in a deep breath. Why did he always have such a difficult time talking about these sorts of things? Though he loved his brother, he disapproved of his womanizing ways, and with Marissa being the sweet naive kind, he feared his brother would just break her heart. And she didn’t need that. He presumed she’d had enough heartbreak already at her young age, with her mom’s passing and her dad’s drinking and basically ridding himself of her a couple months back.
“You know what, just don’t. You’re only here for the weekend, and you and I both know—”
“Know what?” Cole interrupted. His tone was hard and defensive.
Dylan held up a hand. He didn’t want to argue with his brother who was only home for a few days. He had hoped for a nice visit for all of them. “You’re right, it’s not my deal. You guys go and have a good time.”
His brother’s look softened. “I wish you could spend the day with us, or even part of it. Are you sure you can’t get away?”
“I wish I could, but I can’t. I need to make a supply run and help with the afternoon milking and chores, but we’ll all be together at the picnic tomorrow.”
* * * *
It was just before nine o’clock when Dylan finished in the barn. The house was eerily quiet at first but then he heard Cole and Marissa’s voices in the living room.
He pulled a beer from the fridge on his way through and stepped into the living room to find them sitting next to each other on the couch, closer than they needed to be.
His brother glanced up at him and pointed at the television, “We’re just looking at today’s photos. Why don’t you join us?”
Knowing his brother, there were probably at least two hundred photos of the day. Photos were his thing, and he was good at taking them. In fact, Cole was good at all artsy type things.
“I’ll change and be right back.”
He slipped out of his work clothes and into some sweats and returned to the living room just in time to catch a glimpse of Marissa on the television. He nearly choked on his beer at the sight before him. She was wearing an orange bikini that hugged her in all the right places, particularly her breasts.
Where did those come from? How had he not noticed them before? It’s not like they were too small by any means, but they looked much larger in that bikini top than when hidden under her usual t-shirts, sweatshirts, or sweaters.
The next photo flashed on the screen and showed Marissa sitting on a bench seat in the boat next to Cole’s buddy, Jake, his arm draped over her shoulders, and the look in his eyes was unmistakable. Dylan ground his teeth together.
“You okay?” Cole asked, snapping him back into reality.
“Yeah, why?”
“You look a little tense.”
“I’m fine, just tired I guess.”
Cole chuckled. “You think you’re tired, you should have seen the boys when we got back. Even Aric was hardly able to make it to bed before his eyes closed.”
“A long day on the water and in the hot sun will do that to kids.”
Dylan sat on the chair and continued to watch the pictures flash across the TV screen, hoping the next would be of Marissa, and most times he got his wish. There were more pictures of her than of all the boys put together, but the problem was that Jake was in too many of those photos with her, and he was always touching her in some way. A hand on her arm or his arm around her, and him helping to strap her into her life vest, a task he was sure she was perfectly capable of doing herself.
The photo show ended and Cole unhooked the cord between the camera and television and set the camera on the cocktail table in front of the couch before leaning toward Marissa and giving her a peck on the forehead. “It was fun today, I’m glad you came along.”
A soft smile stretched her lips. “Yeah, it was great.” She leaned forward and hugged Cole.
