Page 159 of Story of My Life
We traded leisurely blows for a few minutes. “Don’t know what you can handle these days. Been gone a while,” he said, delivering a one-two punch to my gut.
I grunted. “Well, I’m back now. You told me not to date her, and then you took her out.” I feinted right, then glanced my left off his face when he dropped his guard.
“I didn’t take her out, you monumental piece of shit. But you sure as hell did after we told you not to.”
“We aren’t dating. We’re sleeping together,” I insisted.
He leveled me with a look that suggested that distinction wasn’t as important as I thought it was.
“No, fuck you,” I said, sticking my finger in his face. “We’re talking aboutyoumaking a big deal about how I’d be endangering the family business if I got tangled up with a client just so you could clear the deck and ask her out yourself.”
“How do you even get dressed in the morning? We weren’t on a date, you fucking simpleton,” Levi spat out.
“Don’t pull that gaslighting shit with me, you overgrown fuckface.”
“I didn’t ask her out to take her to bed. I asked her out so I could talk to her about writing, you stupid, temperamental baby.”
I dropped my fists and stared at my brother. “Writing? What? You wanna start a career in romance?”
“I was thinking more like thrillers,” he said, delivering a swift uppercut that rang my bell.
I caught him around the neck and dragged him in for a headlock. “Are you fucking serious?”
“What do you care?” he rasped.
“You’re my brother. My asshole brother. Of course I care. I just thought you didn’t want to do anything but work for the business and pretend to have fucking chickens.”
He dug his meaty, military-trained fingers into my forearms. “You moved away to do something different. Gage is a lawyer. Why the hell don’t I get something that’s just mine?” With a grunt, Levi swept my legs and took us both down to the ground.
“You never said anything,” I complained through gritted teeth as we half-heartedly wrestled for purchase.
“Why the fuck would I say anything? Bishops don’t talk.”
He was right. I rolled off him and onto my back. Levi stayed where he was, stacking his hands under his head and staring up at the leafy canopy above us.
Was it my fault it was true? Had I failed my younger brothers by not teaching them how to communicate?
“What are we supposed to talk about?” I asked.
“How the fuck should I know? We didn’t talk about Dad’s stroke. Laura’s accident. Miller.”
Our brother-in-law’s name hung there between us. If he were here, he’d have dragged us off each other and then kicked both our asses.
Both times, I’d arrived for the aftermath. But Levi and Gage had front-row seats to the trauma.
“I’m thinking about sticking around…for good,” I added.
Levi grunted his acknowledgment.
The late-summer breeze ruffled the leaves above us. The excited voices of canoers carried across the sparkling water. Meanwhile two grown men lay in the dirt, bleeding unnecessarily.
“So thrillers, huh?” I said.
“Yeah. Keep being a dick and I’ll murder you for research.”
“Noted.” I preferred Hazel’s research methods. Just the thought of her made me wince. “I think I fucked up.”
“No shit, Sherlock. You really like her.”
