Page 29 of Love Thy Brother
“Reuben.”
“You know that’s not my name, right? It says Rubi on my birth certificate.”
“It says idiot too. Gigantic fucking idiot. Because that’s what you are.”
“Ouch, sister. Is that why you rang? To tell me shit I already know?”
“No, I rang to tell you all kinds of new shit about your idiocy and ask why the hell you haven’t calledme.”
“Wasn’t sure you’d pick up.”
“You think I’m scared of difficult conversations?”
“Nah, just thought you might not want to hear my sexy voice just yet.”
Orla laughed. “You’re as sexy as a warthog’s toenail. Don’t know what my brother sees in you.”
“Which one?”
“The moody one.”
“That defines nothing.”
Orla’s throaty chuckle filled the line again, a sound that drove Nash to his knees. But it was lost on me. She was the sexiest woman that ever lived, but I didn’t see it. Never had. It’s why everything between us was so easy, even when her humour faded and the real reason she’d called grew horns and a forked tail.
“How is he?”
Orla sighed. “Quiet. I think he’d punch himself in the face if we hadn’t made him promise he wouldn’t.”
“We?”
Clearly, she meant Cam. Or maybe Em. But something ticked inside me and I sat up straighter on the leather armchair I’d crammed myself into.
“He’s upset,” Orla said, brushing by my query, which pinged my spidey senses even more. “With himself, not you. You know that, right?”
“I don’t know anything. We haven’t talked.”
“Well, you probably should. Maybe not now, but soon. When he’s figured out that your shit with River has nothing to do with the mess he’s angsted himself into.”
A frown creased my face. “What does that mean?”
“It means you fucking my little brother—”
“Stop saying it like that.”
“—has taken away his go-to excuse not to look deeper at himself. At his sexuality. He’s not like you and Cam... it’s more complicated for him.”
Of all the directions the conversation could’ve veered, this was a tangent I hadn’t prepared for.
I glanced at River. He was still ignoring me and hammering something louder than he needed to. “Nash is bi,” I said, slowly, in case I was wrong. “I thought he knew that.”
“He does. But he wasn’t raised like you—with parents who didn’t give a shit about stuff like that. He kept it all in until he was grown, and by then...”
“He was in love with you?”
“Something like that.”
“Are you saying he needs to sow his oats before he can be with you? Cos I don’t think that’s it. He’s had years to fuck other people, Orls, and he never has. Not really.”
