Page 78 of Perfect Storm
“I don’t know, dude, from what I’ve seen, you’ve always been the best kind of brother.” Landry hadn’t told him everything, but he’d told Levi enough. Enough for Levi to know that while their parents had been intricately and intimately involved in their lives and that he’d always felt the warmth of their love, Aidan and Riley hadn’t been the same. They’d only really had each other.
Aidan made a scoffing noise. “Yeah, well, even the best of intentions don’t mean anything.”
“Still. I know you basically took care of him. Raised him. Made him into the quarterback he is today.”
Aidan’s mouth clamped down into a tight line. “Riley made himself into the quarterback he is today.”
“Bro, take a little credit. Riley gives you plenty of credit. He’s always talking about it.”
Aidan’s smile emerged again. Soft and sweet. Now Levi recognized it as his Riley smile. How had he missed it before? Probably because he’d been too busy being stupidly jealous.
“Yeah, he is. Kind of loudmouthed about it, if we’re being honest.”
“He loves you.”
“Yeah.” Aidan leaned back in his chair. “I love him too. We only really had each other for a long time. Forever it felt like.”
Kind of like Mo, Levi had always felt like Aidan and Riley’s parents were sort of a banned conversational topic. Aidanneverbrought them up. Riley hadn’t used to, but slowly over the last few years, as he’d become the Condors’ starting quarterback and found success, he’d started not discussingthemmore openly but at least the fact that Aidan had been largely responsible for his upbringing.
Still, he felt like he should ask. Get the truth out of Aidan’s own mouth, anyway.
“What was up with that?” Levi wondered.
Aidan looked surprised, like he hadn’t expected Levi to ask.
“Uh, well, long story short, ’cause nobody wants to hear the whole ugly thing—”
“Never said I didn’t,” Levi interrupted casually. He kind ofdidwant to know.
Aidan shot him a look but kept going. “They got divorced,” he said simply. “You know when you hate something so much you want to hate it more than you want to find something you actually love? That was them. They got so occupied hating each other it was like they forgot about us.”
Levi had thought it was something like this. Landry had mentioned a few things, over the years, even if it was never the details. But that didn’t mean the details didn’t hit hard, when they hit.
“Oh shit.Shit. Bro.”
“I mean, not entirely.” Aidan shrugged. “Maybe if they had, it would’ve been easier. But like, I’d arrange everything for Riley. Make sure he was taken care of and stuff, you know? And then they’d remember oh shit, yeah, we have sons. The next day, the whole schedule would be fucked up, because they suddenly thought they knew best.”
“No wonder you’re a control freak,” Levi said softly.
“I’m . . .don’t say it like it’s a good thing. It’s not a good thing. It wasn’t a good thing.”
Levi was surprised by the fierce note in Aidan’s voice. “No, well, maybe not to the extent you were with Riley, but, dude, you did right by him. At a time when nobody else wanted to.”
Aidan looked even tenser then, and Levi felt desperate to say something, therightthing to get him to understand. But not just that, torelaxhim,too. To realize that out of everyone, Levi was the last person who’d judge him.
“You guys are good now, though,” Levi added. “I saw you together this summer, and it seemed good.”
Aidan nodded. “Yeah. Of course. But I nearly screwed it up—”
“No, you didn’t,” Levi argued. “I mean,maybe, but is it really screwing it up when it comes from a good place? Landry told me you’d do all this film study not just foryou, but forhim. Time you probably didn’t have, just to help Riley out, help make him successful in the NFL.”
Aidan relaxed a fraction. Not a lot. Not enough. But some. “Landry told you that?”
“Listen,bro, you thought his dream could hurt him, and you werestillout there, helping him make it possible. That’s . . .I don’t even know what that is. Like fucking unselfish behavior.”
“I didn’t know Landry had told you that,” Aidan said. He didn’t seem upset, only surprised.
“You know we’ve always talked a lot. And while Logan tends to handle most of the overprotective-brother shit in our family, Lyla and Landry will do their share, too.” Levi hesitated, unsure of how much of this he should say. How much Landry hadalreadysaid. “He worried, too, when he and Riley started dating.”
