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“I mean, what do you want me to say to that?” My shoulders lifted. “You’ve been talking to him?” I had said he could talk to Callum, but I thought that conversation had only been that day.
“We’ve been texting,” he said. “Off and on.” His eyes lifted, as if to gauge my reaction to that. “Even more recently. I texted him that day I mentioned it. I wanted to let him know we were okay like I told you, but also just wanted to talk. He had lied, and I wanted to hear from him, you know?” He rocked back and forth, his hands on his arms. “He’d been so cool with us. Cool with me, and he was my friend.”
I swallowed. “What did he say?”
“Took ownership of it like that day he told us everything.” He dropped his arms on his knees. “And believe me, I gave it to him. I thought it was bullshit he lied even though he was trying to help. I didn’t talk to him for a while after that, but recently, I opened up the dialogue again when he checked on me. He just wanted to see how I was doing, and we talked for a while. A long while.”
I moved my legs up on the bed.
“He just gets what it’s like, I guess. Being on the outside, I mean.” He looked up. “He lost his entire family after what he did.”
I figured he had. I mean, he should have. It’d been so wrong, terrible.
“But he doesn’t claim things should be any different. These are the cards he drew for himself, and he deserves that shit. He knows.”
“Bru…”
He glanced over. “He just gets being on the outs, and I honestly believe he wanted to help us, help you. Dad came to him for help, and Callum definitely didn’t have to do the right thing. He did, though. He took care of us, and I know what he did in the past. It was completely fucked, and I know that.” He forced out a breath. “But he did take care of us, and he’s been a friend to me, Sloane. He has, and though others have lied to me, he did to help you. He did, and that’s important.”
His face screwed up, his hands rubbing any and all emotions away from my sight. I maneuvered over to his side of the headboard, but he wouldn’t look at me.
“I get what it’s like to be on those outs,” he said, my heart clenching. “We related on that, but I won’t talk to him anymore if you don’t want me to. I know it’s more complicated for you.”
It was more complicated, severely.
I lay my head on his shoulder. “I’m on the outs too, you know?” I said, cringing. “I don’t know this family.”
“But they’re your family.” He touched my hand. “You can always claim that.”
He was right. I could.
I closed my eyes, looping my arms around his. I didn’t know how I felt about him talking with Callum. I had a physical reaction but saw his conflict. In fact, I believed I only didn’t have my own because I’d pushed that part away. I hadn’t had to deal with it because my priorities lay elsewhere. I did have a family.
I had a choice.
“I’m not sure he’s that same person, Sloane,” Bru said, squeezing my hand. He shook his head. “And he’s only been good to us.”
He was right. He had. Callum could be plagued by his dark past, but for me, I had to be complicated. He’d hurt so many people in my life.
I squeezed my brother’s hand back, knowing what I had to say to him. I really hadn’t been a good sister to him either, let alone a friend. I had no idea all these emotions were going on inside him. I’d had suspicions but nothing like this.
“I won’t get in the way of you talking to him,” I said, because I wouldn’t. My brother felt he had few real friends these days.
So how could I take away the one he felt he had?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Dorian
Sloane rocked with the families today. In fact, she was hanging with the moms and her grandmothers when Wells tugged me to see Thatch. Apparently, Thatcher had something to say to me that couldn’t wait.
I waved at Sloane when I passed her and the group, but she really hadn’t needed me or any of us today. She’d handled her own and even appeared to be enjoying herself at her brother’s birthday party.
Which was a damn relief.
I think after the fight on campus earlier in the week, none of us had been sure how things would be. Sloane and Wolf appeared to have created a semblance of patching things up, but Wolf had pretty much avoided Bru today. That’d been easy since it was basically Bru and Sloane’s coming out party. They both met the Legacy families and Sloane’s grandparents, two of which had flown in from New Jersey. Everyone had been hella excited to meet her and Bru both, and Wolf hadn’t stood in the way of that. He’d been cordial with Bru when they had interacted, but for the most part, they had kept to their respective corners.
This left me to man the task of taking care of my girl, but like I said, she hadn’t needed me. She’d been mingling and hard with all the people ready and waiting to see her. She’d already met Bow and Thatch’s parents, but the Ambroses and Johnsons were new to her. I’d been there with her when Ramses and Brielle introduced Bru and her to them all, and it’d been nice to see everyone together.
