Page 115 of My Brother's Enemy
I was staying.
“Not sure what all that was about, but it’s nice to see my brother like this.” Skylar had found her way back to my side.
“Like what?”
“Happy. Grounded.” She studied him, nursing her drink. “I’ve only seen him like this one other time, the day Zoey was born. That first morning in the hospital when he held her, he was content. Calm. He’s always had this restless energy, like the world was eating at him and he wanted to take it on.” She turnedto look at me. “It’s a good look on him. Let’s keep him that way? He’s so much easier to deal with.”
“I’ll do what I can.” My lips twitched upwards.
Hers twitched too, and she gestured to her drink. “You want something?”
The first notes of “Bohemian Rhapsody” filled the room, and Meester took the lead. Eric did the screaming parts, along with some sort of running-man dance in the background. Meester’s eyes were closed, his head tipped back. He was entirely somewhere else.
“They’ve been like this all night.” Sky shook her head. “Those two took one look at each other, and I’m pretty sure they both saw their soul animal.”
“Soul animal?”
“You know, like how dogs will sniff each other to determine if they want to be friends, and then bam, they’ll start chasing each other around? Those two did some sort of thing like that. Eric’s not this way with anyone. Except you, but you had to dance with him first. After that, he decided he wanted to be besties.”
Tyler brought over Nolan Everwood and introduced us, then he and his sister fell into an easy teasing routine. Nolan Everwood was intimidating. He was a smart and lethal player, but he was more intimidating because I knew he was Tyler’s best friend. And he seemed reserved about me, not overly warm.
Tyler shifted to stand behind me, and I leaned into him. His hand went to my hip before slipping under my shirt.
That’s okay, I thought to myself. I was used to reactions like Nolan’s. He just wasn’t sure about me. As long as he didn’t try to make Tyler change his mind, we’d be okay. Not that Tyler was the type to be influenced that way.
Still, a little tendril of fear slithered down my back. I pressed against Tyler, pulling his other arm around me.
Skylar and Nolan were chatting, and the song had changed. Paul was now on the microphone as the opening bars of “Baby, One More Time” began. Eric jumped back on stage, hip checking Paul, who only laughed, content to share the song with him.
Tyler nuzzled my ear. “You okay?”
My throat was suddenly full. I was a mess. Happy, then scared, because what if all this went away? The usual numbness started to creep in, but I stopped it. I needed to stop expecting things to end a certain way. I needed to begin thinking the opposite, letting in the positive and believing goodwouldhappen.
Tyler happened.
Tyler was good.
I held onto his arms in front of me with a cement grip. I would never let him go.
Mal. His dad who wasmydad…
“I’m okay,” I told him.
His arms tightened around me, and I leaned against him.
67
TYLER
Rain and I still hadn’t had a real talk. After the bar last night, we crashed, but she brought me up to date about how my boss was going to be my future brother-in-law. What a mindfuck that was. Rain still seemed shocked by the whole thing but was also half falling asleep from the couple of drinks she had so I gave her a kiss, tucked her into bed, and promised we’d go over everything tomorrow.
It was tomorrow and Rain was hurrying around everywhere. I called Ski to talk about Coach’s Thanksgiving invitation. After some negotiation, we’d go to Coach’s house first and end the evening at Ski and Zoey’s.
“That way it’ll give us more time to talk,” Ski explained. “Be more intimate.”
I frowned at the phone. “Intimate? You sound like you want to date her. You don’t, right?”
“No. Though I do wish I was more into women.”
