AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But he was here now, and we knew why we all were. The focus hit Wolf at that moment, and our dad stepped over to him.
“How about you lead the way, then, huh?” Ramses stated, my adoptive father and my dad in every sense of the word. I’d joined the Mallick family at seventeen, but they hadn’t hesitated to give me their last name and make me one of their own. I’d become an instant family member, Ramses and Brielle, my adoptive mother, so giving. When they found my sister (their biological daughter), they certainly hadn’t had to include me with her.
But they did.
My brother’s eye contact I didn’t miss. It drifted my way after our dad brought an arm around me too. The three of us scaled the steps together, the others behind us, and I was happy to have all the focus off me. The dads always did that when we were all together. I was Bruno Sloane-Mallick, the golden boy.
Mr. Perfect.
The heavy weight of that I felt bog me down all the way into the theater. The dads had gotten us a couple of boxes. They always placed themselves between us guys, so we’d focus on the show rather than talking. They also took our cell phones too, but I noticed I was the only one who got to keep mine when Ramses made his rounds to retrieve them.
He nodded at me before taking his seat between Wolf and me. He always did that too, both of us his sons.
The guys noticed I got to keep my phone but didn’t say anything about it.
Mr. Perfect.
Suddenly anxious, I shifted in my seat. The show hadn’t started yet, and most of the dads were still up and talking.
Thatcher hit Wells’s chest. “Incredible Hulk over there too big for his seat,” he said, snorting. The comment barked a short laugh out of Wells, and I studied the fathers before flipping them both off. I normally was up for a little handling, but this wasn’t the first comment made about my size. I’d been hearing it since I’d gotten home and not just from my friends.
“Guess all them heavy-ass books,” Wells joked, then shut up when he got squeezed between his dad and Mr. Reed. Thatcher quieted too, and I was grateful. I really wasn’t trying to have the focus on me. The last thing I wanted.
My jaw moving, I actually watched the show that night. One, because we were supposed to, but the main one had to do with control. I had a focus point, and I wasn’t jumpy. Calm.
And I needed calm.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Bru
“Wolf!” I jogged toward him.
He’d booked it the moment Prinze pulled up to the Reeds’ house.
The fact that my brother was trying to avoid me was apparent, and he’d been doing a pretty good job tonight. After the show, the dads and LJ took us to dinner. We hit up a local Jax’s Burger franchise. Jax’s was owned by Wells’s dad, and Wolf had made sure at least one body was between us all night. If it wasn’t a dad, it was one of our friends.
I picked up my pace. “Wolf?”
“Kid?” Wolf turned around, but I noticed not until there was a decent amount of lawn between us and the others. Everyone was still unloading out of the damn cars. Wolf tucked his hands under his arms. “What?”
Finally making it to him, I slowed down. He’d undone his tie like most of us, his hair down and his jacket off. His white shirt hung loosely off his big shoulders, his tux in general way roomier than mine, and I’d been envious of the fit. My own had been tighter than shit. “You know what.”
I had to say, I nearly applauded my brother in that moment. He growled at me, a reaction, which let me know he wasn’t drugged or dead. I considered both with how laid back he’d been acting since I’d gotten home.
Wolf scanned across the lawn at the others lazily making their way toward the house. He appeared hesitant to allow others to be privy to this conversation.
Which set my hackles the fuck up.
Prinze, Wells, and Thatcher passed us before Wolf angled toward me, and he didn’t speak until the door shut behind the three. “You’re getting at shit that doesn’t exist.”
“Really?”
“Really.” He waited again. A couple of the dads moved past us. Wolf smiled at them, tight, before facing me. “You’re working up bullshit that, again, isn’t reality.”
“You were acting jealous.” I was never one to beat around the bush, and my candor elicited another sharp growl in my direction. “Don’t lie to me. I’m not fucking stupid.”
I knew what I saw, which made no fucking sense. My brother didn’t get jealous over girls. Again, loved the guy but dude knew he was a fuckboy just like the rest of our friends outside of Prinze. That was just how these guys were, and there was never any judgment there. I was the last person to preach about how people should live their lives.
