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I squeeze the phone, hearing him laugh under his breath.
Dylan doesn’t matter. She’s not a factor in what goes on between him and me. I should tell him that.
But he wants me to argue because it puts me on the defensive.
I spot Farrow out of the corner of my eye, watching me, and now I’m aware of the tightness in my muscles. My rigid spine. My flexed jaw.
I turn my head away, itching to say something back to Kade, but the seconds stretch. The moment becomes longer and further away until it’s gone, and now he knows he won.
I yank the phone away from my ear and end the call.
I shake my head.Fuck.
I wrap my fist around the phone, hearing it crack in my hand. All I had to say was something. Some dumb, fucking quip that would’ve been fine if I’d just said it with confidence.
But no. I was brain dead, as usual, when it comes to him.
A shadow of him.
I disappear around him.
Turns out, after a year, he’s still better.
Farrow is at my side. “Was that your brother?”
I jump off the treadmill. “Forget it.”
I start to walk away, but he grabs my arm. “Did you fucking hang up on him?”
I push him off, but he clenches the back of my neck, and I growl as he pushes me to the ground. He comes down on my back, pressing me into the mat. I grit my teeth, breathing hard.
“Did he get the last fucking word?” Farrow yells at me.
I flip over, grabbing his head and attempt to lock it under my arm, but he throws himself over my shoulders and wraps an arm around my neck.
“Did he?” he growls as everyone stops their workout to watch us.
Twisting around, I rise, and so does he, but I pin him to the mat before he has a chance to get his feet under him. I straddle his back, growling in his ear. “Back off. We’ll have the last word…when we win.”
“And her?” he inquires. “You’re mad at her, too?”
Screw this.I climb off him and stand up. He follows, brushing invisible dust from his chest.
Walking over to the barbell rack, he retrieves a cigarette and lights it.
“You’re pissed at her too,” Farrow points out. “Why?”
I just stare at him, breathing hard. I’m not pissed at her, other than that she’s a distraction I don’t need right now. She’s preoccupying this team’s attention.
Farrow moves toward me. “Does he love her?”
“Of course, he does,” I say through my teeth. “She’s his family.”
“Does hewanther?” he says like he’s spelling it out for me.
They all know Dylan doesn’t share any blood with Kade and me. We’re family through marriage only.
“Does she want him?” he asks next.
