“Sorry,” I said, a tiny little part of me even meaning it. “Does offering your help mean we’ve got a deal?”
He pulled a checkbook out of his jacket without even asking for a ballpark figure, the look on his face no more concerned than if we’d been discussing spare change.
“You’re writing a check,” I said, surprised that someone as young as him—only a year or two older than me at most, if I had to venture a guess—was still carrying around something that old-fashioned. “You know you can pay electronically in this century, right? Like with your phone?”
He shrugged. “I enjoy the suspense of whether I have funds.”
An unexpected laugh bubbled out of me and he tensed at the sound, but then cleared his throat, tore out the check, and handed it over. “Do you have any idea of the shipping timeline?”
“Six weeks,” I said. “It could be a week or two more or less, but that’s a safe estimate. Where do you live?”
After I took the check from him, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans, his thumbs hooked around the denim. “The motel across town.”
That wasn’t exactly what I’d meant, but I guess my dad had a point. The guy was sticking around in town until his bike was fixed, which meant the motel was a perfectly reasonable—and the only—option if he wasn’t going to head to wherever home was while he waited.
He gave me a small shrug and started turning before he suddenly stopped. “Six weeks, huh?”
I nodded slowly, afraid he was going to change his mind, but not about to let him see that. “Like I said, give or take, but these parts aren’t easy to come by.”
Unless I was very much imagining things, there was a smile ghosting across his lips when he nodded, completed his turn, and strode to the door. He disappeared as quickly and quietly as he’d arrived, and I frowned after him once he was gone.
Odd man. Handsome but odd.
Head shaking, I looked down at the check in my hand and started toward the office, calling out to my brother as I went. “Avery! We got the job. Call Phil. We’re going to need his help on that bike.”
CHAPTER 3
THEO
As soon as I hit send, I knew I was about to ruin Alex’s evening. If notruin, then definitelycomplicate.
Years ago, I’d learned that the longer an explanation got, the more likely Alex was to overanalyze it, so I’d kept my email short and sweet.
Hey,
Sooooo, my bike’s dead. I got stranded in Arizona and the repairs are gonna take a while, so I’m not gonna make it back by the end of September as planned. Honestly not sure when I’m heading home at this point. Don’t wait up.
— Theo
My brother treated family structure like it was constitutional law, and he wasn’t going to like the delay, but it was what it was. Besides, it gave him more time to line up that parade of eligible bachelorettes, so maybe he’d appreciate me for a change.
An hour later, however, I was sitting on top of a rusty washing machine in the motel laundry room, listening to my clothes tumble around, when my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket, sighing when I saw Jesse’s name on my screen.
“I’m assuming you heard about my unintended vacation in Arizona?” I said by way of greeting. “It’s either that, or you’ve just got really interesting timing.”
“Nah. I heard. You nearly gave Alex a brain aneurysm.”
I snorted. “Was it really that bad?”
“It was worse. You shocked him intosilence.”
“Silence, huh? That’s always healthy when it’s coming from him.”
Jesse laughed. “Yeah, Silent Alex. Imagine that, but when he finally managed to speak again, he asked Zach if they’d heard from you recently. I think he’s worried you might’ve joined a militia.”
I grinned and then inhaled a deep breath, letting my head drop back against the wall behind me. The laundry room smelled vaguely damp, like wet concrete and detergent, but there was a faint undertone of cigarette smoke to the air, presumably still left over from back in the nineties.
One fluorescent light overhead buzzed every few seconds. The dryer across from me made a worrying grinding noise. In a weird way, it was cozy, the perfect place to gently break it to my brother that our other brother was just going to have to wait until I was good and ready.
