Page 389 of One More Kiss

Silas

I pacea circle in front of Delaney, my hands tearing at my hair, my face pinched up. “He’ll calm down,” I mutter, but I think I’m trying to convince myself more than her. “He’ll calm down and then he’ll understand.”

She doesn’t say anything, but she doesn’t have to. Her face says it all. This is bad.

“That wasn’t how he was supposed to find out. I wanted to sit down with him. Talk to him.”

“Go after him, Silas,” she says, her voice soft. “Go chase after him. Talk to him. If he leaves, he’ll work this up more in his head. You know he will.”

She’s right. He will. My brother isn’t the type to think about things rationally and with a calmer mind after the fact, the way I am. He gets more twisted and worked up instead. “Knox is upstairs. He’s sick. I can’t leave.”

“I’m here. I’ll go check on him.”

“Delaney—”

She cuts me off by placing her hand on my chest, over my pounding heart. “I’ve got him. I mean it. If I need you, I’ll call. Go after Liam.”

Lacing my hands through her hair, I kiss her. “Whatever happens with Liam, we’re doing this. His reaction changes nothing between us.”

Then I’m gone, flying out of my kitchen and into my garage. I hit the button and sure enough, Liam’s car is long gone. But it doesn’t matter. I know my brother. I know where he’s headed. It’s where he always goes when he’s upset about something. He went there after Delaney ended it with him. After our dad died. When we found out about Knox’s diagnosis.

I seriously fucked up today.

First with Delaney on the bench and then not hearing or seeing the missed calls from Knox’s school and then Liam. I hate having to leave Knox when he’s sick. He let me tuck him into bed and put a trash can up by his head, but he wasn’t talking. He barely answered my questions, and that was only after I repeated myself half a dozen times.

I have no idea how he’s going to do with Delaney there.

With the promise that she’ll call me if there’s an issue, I focus on finding Liam.

I know he’s mad. I know he has every right to be.

But I also know we need to have this conversation, brother to brother.

The lights of the once prestigious, but now dingy bar glow through the grease slimed windows. Liam and I found this place by accident. I was in my first year of residency, married to Ann, and Knox was almost two. I was in love with her. Or so I told myself. We had said “I do” three years prior and things were going as they should for two resident parents to a toddler son.

Except they weren’t.

That was also the night I discovered Ann’s little secret. She’d been screwing her attending for a year. I was despondent and she didn’t give a shit at all that I was upset. She laughed at me actually. Told me she didn’t like being a wife or a mother.

Liam was in the car with me while our mom watched Knox. He took me out to get my mind off things. We stumbled upon this pub, and it’s been our place of drowning misery since.

And sure enough, Liam’s car is parked right out front.

I don’t hesitate before opening the old wood door that creaks above the roar of the Red Sox on the televisions. I might not have any intention of apologizing for falling for his ex, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have other things to apologize for.

He doesn’t look up. He doesn’t have to.

The place isn’t all that crowded since it’s still early, but Liam knew I’d come.

“A Jameson neat,” I order as I take the stool beside him.

“You should go.”

My hands wrap around the glass the bartender hands me and for a moment, I don’t say anything. I just stare into the amber liquid before tossing it back in one gulp. I nod to the bartender for another and then admit, though it’s no secret, “I’ve been unhappy for a very long time.”

A loud exhale as he stares down at his untouched drink.

“I saw her out at a bar when I was there with a work friend, seeking a quick night because Knox was with Ann. I didn’t go near her. I didn’t dare. I just sat across the bar, watching her because I couldn’t remove my eyes from her while she had fun with a friend. Then some jerk she had dated came over and made a scene.”

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