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“No, she’s at home.” Reilly sighed. “And you aren’t going to like her reason for being at the Dawg Pit any more than I did.”
Reilly and Jeanette had always been close, but lately River had noticed her confiding more and more in Reilly. And it was starting to piss him off. “Spit it out.”
“She’s working there.”
No way could he have heard right. “At the Dawg Pit? What the fuck, Reilly? The place is a dump.”
His brother held out both hands. “Hell, I didn’t know either. I just found out tonight. She said she needs the money for college.” He shook his head. “Can you believe that?”
Jeanette was working on a law degree. When she wasn’t in class, she was studying. It was a tough schedule, and River couldn’t be more proud of her. “Then why didn’t she come to us for money? Or she could’ve worked at the Blackwater if she’d wanted a job. Either is preferable to that shithole.” They would make room for her at the family restaurant they’d all worked so hard to save after their father’s death. Jeanette had only to ask.
“Jeanette has pride in spades,” Reilly replied, bringing River back to the current problem. “No way would she ask for a handout.”
“It’s not a handout,” River grumbled as he headed for the door. “She’s practically family, and she knows it.”
Reilly caught up to him. “If you value your private parts, please don’t tell her you have nothing but brotherly love for her. That’s too cruel, and you know it.”
River ignored him and took hold of the doorknob. Reilly slammed a palm against the wood surface of the door as if to stop him from going to her. He’d have better luck stopping a Mack truck.
“Where are you going?”
“To see Jeanette,” he bit out. “Where else?”
“You can’t.” Reilly’s voice softened. “It’s not even light out yet. Let her sleep before you start lecturing her. She’s had a long night, River.”
River saw red. “And you’ve been right by her side, haven’t you?”
River knew it was guilt that caused his brother to look away. Hell, he knew the look too well. They were twins, after all. “She called me from the police station, needing a ride,” Reilly said. He’d know nothing short of full disclosure would appease River.
The words pierced his heart. “Why didn’t she call me? She can always come to me. She knows that.”
Reilly cleared his throat. “Um, she’s still not over the incident.”
The incident that Reilly referred to had taken place months ago. Jeanette had walked in on River having sex with…Holly, he thought was the woman’s name. A curvy redhead and the exact opposite of Jeanette. They’d been on the couch, naked. Jeanette had used the key he’d given her years ago and let herself in. When she saw the two of them together, she’d lost it. He was a jerk, she’d shouted. She was through being his friend. At first, River had thought Jeanette would get over it. She could never stay mad at him for long. But this time was different. She was pulling away from him more and more every day. He could feel it. The fact that she’d called Reilly after having been mugged was proof. She’d needed a friend tonight, and she hadn’t chosen him. His gut churned at the thought.
River couldn’t figure out why Jeanette was still so pissed off about seeing him with another woman. He’d always been very careful to keep his relationship with Jeanette strictly platonic. And even though she’d always had a crush on him, and he’d had some scorching fantasies about her, Jeanette had seemed content to keep it just friends. Sex would screw everything up; he knew it in his bones. But things were changing between them, and River didn’t like it.
“I’m not just going to twiddle my thumbs while she’s in need,” River ground out, hating the sense of helplessness riding him.
“Yes, you are,” Reilly said as he headed for the kitchen. “Because right now she needs rest more than anything else. And if you go over there all riled up, rest will be the last thing she gets.”
“Fine, but to hell if I’m waiting around until she graces me with her presence. I’ll be in my sixties by then.” He sighed. “I’ll give her until noon; then I’m going over there whether she likes it or not.”
“Whatever.” Reilly rubbed a palm over his face. “In the meantime, you got any coffee around here? I need it bad. I think I used the last of my energy reserves making the trip over here.”
River headed for the cabinet next to the refrigerator and took out a can of Italian roast. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping too? And where’s your better half and those handsome twin babies of yours?”
“Lucy is where I should be—asleep.” A sappy grin spread across his brother’s face. “The twins are just now beginning to sleep through the night, so she tries to catch as many Z’s as she can.”
River felt instantly guilty for keeping his brother from his family. Reilly had met the woman of his dreams. Not long after, she’d ended up pregnant with twin boys. River had never seen his brother so happy and content. He envied him that happiness sometimes. He wondered what it would be like to wake up rested and smiling every day. To have a woman and children who thought you hung the moon. River didn’t think that sort of happy-ever-after was in the cards for him.
“Go home, bro. You don’t need to stick around.”
He snorted. “The minute I leave, you’ll be out the door and on your way to Jeanette’s apartment, and we both know it.”
Truer words were never spoken. As he put the coffee on, River watched his brother slump into a chair at the table. He’d been up all night, and he was exhausted. Reilly had been doing River’s job, taking care of Jeanette. Even though it stuck in his craw to have his brother doing what he so badly ached to do, he was glad Jeanette hadn’t been alone. She would never be alone, not as long as he drew breath.
Back when Jeanette first started college, her parents had been in a horrible car accident. A drunk driver had plowed into them at an intersection. She’d lost them both in one nasty twist of fate, and she’d been on her own ever since.
