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Wait.
Wait.
Wait.
Nick turned around, his eyes wide. “You think Quinn is pregnant?”
Michael stared back at him. “She’s not?”
“No. She’s not.” Nick sat back down.
Michael blew out a long breath. “Thank god. That—I just—
wow.”
“Crisis averted, right?” Nick could barely keep the bitterness out of his voice. Of course Michael hadn’t guessed right.
“Something like that.” Michael pulled a credit card out of his wallet and slid it into the folder.
Nick couldn’t stop the disappointment tightening his chest.
As much as he’d hated thinking Michael would be such an idiot as to believe sexuality was a choice, there’d been a measure of relief in not having to tell him.
Now they were back to square one. And they were leaving. In half an hour, he’d be at home, feeling more alone than ever.
The waitress took the leather folder and zipped away.
And Michael just seemed relieved. Quinn wasn’t pregnant, nothing else could be wrong. Reliable Nick always had a handle on everything, and wasn’t an unplanned pregnancy like the worst thing he could possibly face?
Nick didn’t want to look at his brother anymore. Being wrong wasn’t Michael’s fault—but it felt like it. “Why would you think that?” he asked, his voice quiet.
“Actually, it was Hannah’s guess.”
“Hmm.”
Michael centered on him. “It wouldn’t have been a bad thing.
I just—I didn’t want you to think you couldn’t tell me.”
Nick didn’t say anything to that.
Then the waitress was back and Michael was signing his name, and this little moment was ending.
Nick didn’t move. He couldn’t. He felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down at water far below. A short flight through air, with an impact that might kill him.
Michael hesitated at the edge of his booth. “You ready?”
“No.”
Say it. Tell him.
Two words. He couldn’t even get two words out of his mouth.
You care more about what other people think than you care about me.
Adam had faced a lot worse than this.
Nick looked at his older brother, then shoved the empty beer glass toward him. He felt dizzy, like the air was too thin to breathe.
