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“Chaya, take him home and give him some before he blows a gasket. ” She stared back at her brother in shock. “Natches, what is your problem? What? It’s a sin for me to go out and have fun?”
“With him, it should be illegal. ” He glowered at Alex. “He’s too old to be running the roads with you. ”
“Oh geez, am I still in high school?” Janey shook her head and stared back at Natches angrily. “Get a grip, Natches. Go home. Have a beer. I promise to be home in time for curfew. Oh wait. ” She widened her eyes. “That’s right—I’m over twenty-one. I don’t have a curfew. ”
Did his lips twitch? His eyes were narrowed, his lips tightly compressed, but she swore she saw them twitch.
“Damn, I think she’s a Mackay. ” Rowdy laughed as Janey turned and stalked out the door, followed closely behind by Alex.
Boy, she bet he was enjoying having three Mackays at his back.
“Natches, you poke that fist in my back again and I’m going to break your hand. ” Alex’s voice drifted through the night, a low murmur of danger as Janey felt him stiffen behind her.
“Alex, please don’t break his hand. ” Chaya sighed. “I have several uses for it. Natches, stop being an ass. ”
“Yeah, really. ” Janey turned and stepped around Alex.
She caught him. Fist raised, Natches was getting ready to poke Alex in the middle of the back again.
Actually, it was probably more of a full-fledged strike than a poke.
His fist stilled as he stared back at her.
“High school,” she reminded him.
Natches dropped his fist, only to cross his arms over his chest.
“He’s fired. Chaya and I will stay at the apartment with you. ”
Janey leaned back against Alex’s pickup, sensing the tension running high between the two men. Because of her. They were friends. They had always been friends. Was she coming between that?
“Do you trust me, Natches?” she finally asked, needing to know.
She hadn’t asked him that, ever. But suddenly, the need to know rose inside her like an illness.
“I’ve always trusted you, Janey. ” He frowned.
“Then stop,” she said softly. “For my sake, Natches. Please. ”
He leaned closer. The moon added brilliance to his dark green eyes as they glittered in warning. “If he breaks your heart, I’ll kill him. ”
“If he breaks my heart,” she whispered back, “you’ll never know. ”
Natches shook his head at that. “I’ll know, Janey,” he promised her. “Just like I’ve known other things for years. ” He looked at where Alex had been drawn aside by Dawg and Rowdy. He watched them, closely, but he couldn’t hear the conversation.
Janey stared back at her brother coolly. “And what do you think you know?”
“That you think you’ve been in love with him since you were seventeen years old. And he hasn’t been able to take his eyes off you in just as long. I’m not a fool. But I’m not a man who will sit back and watch a man his age mess with his kid sister and toss her aside. Remember that. Because you’re right—you’re over twenty-one. You’re an adult. But you’re still the baby sister I’d die for. Remember that. ”
Janey felt herself pale. She knew Natches meant every word. When she was eight, she had watched him nearly die at Dayle Mackay’s hands as he beat Natches to the floor for daring to try to protect Janey from a slap.
Natches hadn’t fought him back. He’d let Dayle expend his rage, and after he’d healed, he’d shown the man how he’d retaliate. The bullet that had taken Dayle’s car windshield out barely missed his head.
Dayle had known who pulled the trigger, and he knew Natches would kill him, over Janey.
Yeah, her heart was at risk, but she had learned a long time ago how to hide her feelings. Natches might think he knew something, but unless he was certain, he would never strike out.
She patted his cheek lovingly. “I love ya, Natches. But my heart isn’t going to be broken. You forget.
