“You’re an asshole!” Liam shouted before swinging a fist into his rib cage. His brother managed to get in a few decent licks before Parker got enough leverage to throw him onto the floor.
“What the fuck, Liam?” he yelled, sitting up. Touching his mouth, he found where Liam had gotten in at least one good punch to his face. “You split my lip.”
“Good,” Liam yelled back. All the yelling brought Ronan stumbling out of their bedroom half-asleep.
“What is going on?” he asked, rubbing his hand through his hair.
“Why did you have to screw this up? You said something to her last night that made her leave this morning,” Liam said, still sitting on the floor.
“What are you talking about?” Parker was trying to catch up, but he was still exhausted. His brain was lagging behind. Looking over at the clock on the stove, he groaned. Eight in the morning on a Sunday was way too early to deal with his brother’s teenage bullshit.
“You’d better fucking answer me,” he said waiting for Liam to finish whatever his tirade was about.
“Astrid. She’s gone,” Liam said, sounding truly angry. Parker stood and crossed to his bedroom door to look inside. Liam was right, she was gone.
“Why would she leave?” he asked himself. He split a look between his brothers as if they had the answer. Ronan shrugged and flopped down on the couch. Liam, however, had more to say.
“She needed to get away from you,” he spewed. “She’s the best thing to ever walk into your life but you’re too fucking stupid to see it.”
With a sigh, Parker squatted down until he was a few inches from his brother’s face. He supposed he should be angry at being called stupid. But Liam was still too young to understand what was going on. Hell, he was older and wasn’t sure he even did. One thing was clear, though. Liam had his facts wrong.
“Look at me, Liam,” he said. He waited until Liam finally met his eyes. “You are the best thing in my life. You, Ronan, Dad, you’re all that matters.” Liam opened his mouth to argue, but Parker held up his hand to stop him.
“I know you don’t understand this.” He continued, “But Astrid will never be mine. What do I have to offer her, Liam? I have a bar I can barely keep open, an overcrowded apartment full of men, and a rehab bill I can’t afford to pay. Why would Astrid want any of it?”
He was exhausted from trying to balance it all. Parker knew that was no excuse to burden his brothers with it, but sometimes it just overwhelmed him.
“I promise I’m doing the best I can,” he continued. “I just can’t take on anything more. I’m tapped out. And Astrid? She doesn’t deserve to be saddled with any of it.”
Liam threw himself at Parker without warning. Instead of continuing their fight though, he wrapped his arms around Parker’s neck in a desperate hug. He pulled his brother close, fighting the emotions in him that were threatening to overflow. Feeling another set of arms wrap around him from behind, he reached back and added Ronan to their moment.
“You’re wrong,” Ronan said quietly. “She doesn’t care about all of that. You’re enough, Parker. You’re all she’ll ever need. All you need is each other.” Parker closed his eyes as he tried to breathe. They were wrong, but he knew they were too young to understand.
“Hey guys,” Parker said after a few minutes. “Who wants pancakes?” Liam sat back and wiped his eyes. “I’ll cook up half a pig of bacon too. How does that sound?”
Half an hour later, they were all stuffed full of breakfast. Parker watched as Ronan spent the entire meal on his phone. He looked at Liam, motioning with his head at Ronan.
“It’s the girlfriend,” Liam said, rolling his eyes. “I’m getting shut down like nobody’s business, but Ronan is getting more ass than both of us combined.” With a scowl at Liam, Parker looked over at Ronan.
“Do we need to have a sex talk? Astrid thought you needed more information. I’m telling you it had better stop at second base,” he said to Ronan.
“Oh God, can we not talk about it? Can we just tell Astrid you were very informative? Besides, I’m pretty sure if I even tried to slide into home plate, Aubrey would kick my ass,” Ronan answered, not lifting his gaze from his phone.
“Besides,” Ronan continued. “I’m not sure I’m ready for what you have to say. I heard you slap Astrid’s ass through the door last night.”
“Okay,” Parker said, leaning back with his arms crossed over his chest. “I had higher hopes for you, but now you might be joining your brother at an all-boys school next year.”
“That’s fine. I’ve always wanted to sneak onto an all-girls school campus. That’ll just give us more incentive,” Ronan answered. Parker couldn’t help laughing. Liam was right, they needed Astrid. She managed to force manners into the three of them when she was around. Without her, they were all lost.
After cleaning up, Parker walked back into his room. Since it was Ronan's turn to decide what to take their dad for lunch, he figured he had a few minutes to lie down. Taking out his phone he typed out a text.
Parker: Hey, you snuck out before I could make you breakfast. Everything ok?
He waited, staring at his phone. He finally had to give up when no response appeared. He pulled on a fresh pair of jeans and a green button-down shirt and yelled for his brothers to get ready.
He had already made arrangements to take a day off from the bar. The plan was for the four of them to find something fun to do after visiting their dad. Apparently, he had fucked that up too.
He checked his phone one more time. There was no message from Astrid. He debated trying to call her. But he was worried that if she just wanted space, he would only piss her off. She had him tied up in so many knots now, he didn’t know if he would ever be able to untangle them.
