Page 36 of Winning You
“No. Go. Let the poor man rest.”
They were still arguing as they disappeared behind Lucas’s front door. Frankie stood still in the hallway for another moment, gathering himself. The last thing Fallon was going to need was him flipping out or saying anything about Charlie.
The relationship had to end, but he wasn’t going to push the issue tonight. Tonight, he was going to take care of his brother. He’d deal with the rest—and his anger—when things were finally calm.
The commotion hadn’t woken Elodie, thank god. It gave Frankie a chance to look Fallon over, then get him ice for his jaw. He was going to be sporting a pretty nasty bruise when the color set in. He hadn’t said a word since Frankie walked back into the apartment, but when Frankie took a seat on the couch, Fallon tucked himself into his side the way he used to do when he was being bullied in school.
Frankie’s chest felt hot. He wanted to be able to do something—to be able to stand as a guard between his brother and the rest of the world so Fallon didn’t have to feel this way. He’d rather take the burden of everyone’s pain.
But that wasn’t realistic.
When enough time had passed, he cleared his throat softly and said, “I think you should stay here for a few days.”
Fallon bowed his head.
“I overstepped a bit. I told Charlie he had to move out of the apartment. If you don’t want that?—”
“I want that.” His voice was ragged and rough. “I don’t want to see him ever again. Not ever. I…I put up with a lot. People say mean things about me all the time, and I get it. I’m the weird one. They don’t understand me, and people get upset when they don’t relate to someone. It’s why they’re so angry at trans people all the time. They don’t want us to just live our lives because they don’t get it.”
“I know,” Frankie said very softly. He had always outwardly supported his brother, but there had been times—when he was first trying to understand what transgender even was—that he asked the universe why. Why couldn’t Fallon be just like everyone else?
He never laid that burden at his brother’s feet though, and he got it now. He understood that Fallonwashimself. He always had been. His journey was just different, and that was nothing less than beautiful.
“I can take the words. Half the time, I’m so busy in my own head I don’t even hear them. But…” He trailed off for a beat. “He hit me.”
“He did.” Frankie’s jaw felt so tense it was giving him a headache.
Fallon tilted his head up to look at his brother. “I don’t want to be hit. I don’t want to be hurt. Ever.”
“Do you want me to go make sure he never hurts you again?”
“I’d lose you,” Fallon said. “They’d take you away from me.”
Frankie couldn’t promise that wasn’t true. If he was given the go-ahead, he wasn’t sure he could stop himself from doing something very, very bad. “I won’t. But he’d better not show his face around me ever again.”
Fallon let out the smallest laugh. “I heard his voice. He’s scared of you. I bet he peed in his pants a little.”
“I think he probably peed in his pants a lot. Especially after Gage hit him.”
Fallon blinked rapidly. “The pretty one?”
In Frankie’s eyes, Lucas was the pretty one. But he nodded anyway. “Yeah.”
“His boyfriend is cute too.”
Frankie laughed softly. “They’re not boyfriends. They’re best friends. Trust me, I asked them about it, and they got super offended.”
“Oh,” Fallon whispered.
“He works at the fire department.”
Fallon’s eyes widened. “I did that calendar. But he wasn’t in it.”
“The chief though?” Frankie mused. “That was the guy with the paint, right?”
Fallon laughed. “Yeah. He didn’t like it. I wouldn’t like it either. The paint would make me feel like peeling my own skin off.”
“He’s still the chief, isn’t he?”
