Page 57 of Wilder

I winced, feeling the burn again.

Morning chores were going to be a bitch to do tomorrow.

CHAPTER 14

Asher

Morning light bled through the curtains covering the window across the room from me, casting weak, pale rays along the living room floor.

They weren’t the warm, golden glow I was used to seeing down in Texas while walking Pelly out of her stall in the morning. These were dull, barely cutting through the heavy quiet that had settled over the house.

Ironically, mimicking my mood.

My back ached. A sharp, insistent stiffness that spread between my shoulder blades from where I’d ended up slumping over the couch waiting for Grey to drag his sorry ass back from the bar.

Somehow, I’d managed to twist myself into a position even worse than the last time we’d been forced to share a bed, when I’d woken up half tucked into the mattress with my spine bent at an angle that defied human anatomy.

I sat up slowly, wincing as my body gave a protesting twinge, and reached around blindly for my phone. My fingers brushed against fabric and cushions until I finally found it wedged between two of them and held it up to check the time.

8:34 a.m.

I exhaled sharply, unlocking the screen, hoping—stupidly—to see a message saying my brother was on his way back, and another text confirming he’d made it home and hadn’t had the heart to wake me after seeing me sleeping on the couch so peacefully.

What I found instead was a different message entirely.

Met someone. Heading over to their place for the night. See you tomorrow.

The frustration I’d tried to sleep off came roaring back hot and instant, burning through my already-thin patience.

This was supposed to be a vacation, a chance to see each other and spend time as a family for once after an entire year of being states away.

Wasn’t that worth something to him?

Didn’t he miss me at all?

Even a little bit?

I was his twin for god’s sake. We’d come into this world together and had been attached at the hip for our first eighteen years of life. We were inseparable in ways that made most people roll their eyes at us while joking about how we shared one singular brain cell.

Our lives had gone in different directions by the time we both became legal, sure, but that wasn’t supposed to mean anything. It wasn’t supposed to be a goddamn omen for what our futures held.

I clenched my jaw, fingers tightening around my phone as I shoved myself off the couch.

Fine.

Whatever.

If he wanted to waste his time chasing strangers in order to get some ass instead of spending it with his family for the rest of the few days we were still in the same state, then I wasn’t going to sit around waiting for him like some idiot.

I needed to keep my hands busy. Put my energy somewhere else that wasn’t me sitting on this damn couch while stewing in my own frustration.

Cleaning.

Cleaning would help.

That was what I did on the ranch when I got pissed off. A rare occurrence, but when it did happen, I’d found a way to channel it into something productive that gave me control over the one thing that wouldn’t let me down.

So, I stalked into the kitchen with a mission.