Page 77 of Spotlight
My brows lift, but it doesn’t take a lot of guesses to figure out where he heard that.
“Archer has a big mouth,” I say under my breath.
“It was Brogan, actually.” Knox smirks at me.
“We went on a date.”
“And?”
“I’m not sure there’s going to be another. She’s worried about getting involved when I’m not going to be around that long.”
“Because she has a kid and doesn’t really date casually?”
“Jesus, Brogan,” I grumble and shoot daggers at his back across the bar. There’s no privacy to be had with these guys.
“Partly, yeah. I also think she’s just been burned in the past. Getting her to go out with me in the first place was not easy. I had to throw a no-hitter.”
Knox erupts into deep laughter. “Wait, wait, wait. That was because of her?”
“She said she’d go out with me if I did.”
He barks out another amused laugh. “I should have fucking known.”
He reaches over and musses my hair. I shove at his shoulder in response.
Despite him treating me like I’m still a kid, I’m glad to see the more easygoing version of my brother has returned. He’s had a chip on his shoulder about our dad for years. And I get it. Knox took the brunt of the parenting when Dad left. He quit high school, got a job so he could pay the bills, and put his life on hold. I’ll always be grateful for that. Who the fuck knows where I would have ended up without him.
But since I graduated high school and he’s been able to regain some of his independence, our relationship has shifted. He doesn’t have to be my parent and can just be my brother.
“A kid is a big responsibility,” Knox says, voice returning to that serious, paternal tone.
“Definitely. You should see this kid though. So fucking cute and sass for days. Reminds me a little of Avery.”
“Oh yeah?” That peaks Knox’s interest. He loves few things more than his wife, Avery. Scratch that, I’m not sure he loves anything more. I might have a slight edge but only because I’d never make him choose. Avery is cool as hell. She’s an Olympic gymnast and gives Knox so much sass it’s a fucking blast to watch them together.
“Yeah.” I nod. “And Olivia’s a good mom. It has me remembering back to little things Mom would do. Remember how she would put music on in the kitchen while she was cooking and any time someone would gripe or complain about whatever she was listening to, she’d turn the volume up another notch?”
Knox smiles. “Yeah. On an old radio that had to have been from the eighties. It was all staticky, and the songs would go in and out.”
“I don’t remember that,” I say. “I thought she had that iPod that sat in the dock with speakers.”
“No, she had this white cassette player with a big antenna.” He gets a faraway look on his face as if he’s picturing it. “Hendrick bought her that for Christmas one year after the radio finally died.”
I nod like I remember, but I don’t. It guts me to admit that I don’t remember a lot about her, and the things I do, I often think are just stories my brothers have told me so often my brain has convinced me that it’s my memory.
“Anyway, back to Olivia. I’m sure she’s awesome but dating a single mom is a complication you don’t want. Not now when you’re just getting started. Be young and stupid and selfish.”
I hear him, but Olivia isn’t just a single mom. She’s this absolutely fire chick who is stunning and smart and keeps me on my toes. I like who I am with her. And I like that she’s such a good mom, too. Greer is lucky and so am I for getting to hang with them.
“You did it and you were still young and stupid. And look where you are now. Beautiful wife, badass career…” I trail off. “What am I missing?”
“You forgot about my good looks,” he chirps.
“Obviously your good looks.” I wave a hand toward his face. “And humility.”
He chuckles softly. “It was different for me. You were my brother. It wasn’t a choice.”
“It was a choice,” I insist. If it weren’t a choice to leave family, then dad wouldn’t have left us in the first place.
