“Sure.” Tyler locks eyes with Alex like they’re in a staring contest. “I’m good with separate cars. I suspect I’ll be ready to leave in an hour or so.”
Mallory snorts. “As if you’ll last that long. You hate shopping.”
He shrugs, unfazed. “Things change.” Then he heads for the stairs. “Give me five minutes to go change clothes.”
Fair enough since he’s wearing a pair of black sweatpants and a long-sleeve T-shirt.
“If we’re driving separately, we can just meet you there,” Alex calls after him, as he bounds up the stairs.
“It won’t hurt to wait,” Valerie says.
“Ten seconds ago, you were telling us to leave cleaning up the kitchen to you so we could get going,” he grumbles.
“Oh, Alex,” she says with a disappointed sigh. “He’s making an effort. Can you say the same?”
Alex clams up. Mallory drops her gaze, clearly wanting no part in this round.
What is going on with these two? I know about Alex’s rivalry with his younger brother, but he never mentioned problems with Tyler. They seemed okay last night. But I can’t ignore that Tyler assumed Alex was the reason I was crying.
I pitch in with the cleanup while we wait, but there’s barely a mess. By the time we’re done, Tyler appears in jeans and a black puffy coat.
“Ready.”
Mallory insists I wear her coat again, so we grab our outerwear off the pegs in the mudroom. Tyler beelines toward the Jeep Wagoneer, and Alex stops on the driveway. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Dude.” Tyler opens the driver’s door. “You know I call dibs on the Wagoneer when I’m home.”
“Mom gave it to me to drive last night to pick up Finley.”
“That was last night,” Tyler says slowly, like Alex might not be the brightest bulb. “You can borrow Mom’s car.” He slides in behind the wheel. “Or ride with Mal.”
Mallory is already in the Honda parked in front of the Jeep, engine rumbling.
Alex looks ready to call the whole thing off, but instead, he presses his palm to the small of my back and guides me over to Mallory’s car. When he opens the front passenger door, I say, “Alex, you can sit in front.”
“Nope.” His voice is firm but gentle. “You ride with my sister, and I’ll hop in with Tyler. We need to talk. But first…”
He crooks a finger under my chin, tipping my face up until our eyes lock. His voice drops. “Are we okay?”
My breath catches, traitorous, even though he practically gags at the thought of me. I force myself to sound casual. “Why wouldn’t we be?”
He lifts a brow. When I don’t answer, he leans closer. “Tell me what I need to do to make this less awkward.”
The easy answer would be nothing’s awkward, but we both know that’s a lie. “I’ll be fine. I just need some time.”
He looks like he’s about to press, but I slip free and climb into Mallory’s car. I expect him to get in the back seat. Instead, he strides to the Jeep, yanks open the passenger door, and hops in.
He barely shuts the door before the arguing begins.
“What’s happening?” I blurt before I think better of it.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Mallory says, a spark of excitement in her voice as she watches them in the rearview mirror.
Based on my chat with Tyler, I can only imagine what they’re arguing about. But there’s a good chance this has nothing to do with me and everything to do with some old sibling grudge. “Are they in the middle of some kind of fight?”
“They’re not exactly besties,” she says, still watching. “But last I knew, they weren’t mid-battle either.
I can’t see much through the side mirror, so I throw subtlety out the window and turn around to watch outright.
