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Beau turned back to me. “I won’t have you taking advantage of my brother.”
“I’m not taking advantage of him. I’m taking care of him, and like he said, he’s a grown man and can make his own decisions.”
“He’s still my little brother, and his decisions in the past have fucking sucked.”
“Are you comparing me to Rob and the other pieces of shit who tried to manipulate him.”
Beau relaxed his stance a little. “No, but you’re rarely with any man twice. You don’t believe in anything permanent, and if you’ve been making him promises, he doesn’t need that. He’s been through enough.”
“Yeah, some of which you could’ve saved him from.”
Beau took a step back. He looked like he’d been hit, and I knew I had gone too far. I started to speak, but Travis clasped his hand tightly around my wrist and shook his head.
“Beau didn’t realize how bad it was.”
“All I saw then was that my friend betrayed me, and my little brother took up with him,” Beau said. “I wish to hell I’d known Travis wasn’t staying with him willingly.” The anger seemed to drain out of Beau completely.
“I would never set your brother up for a broken heart,” I said.
“I tried to fucking tell you that,” Ambrose said. “Are we done now? Because my house is not a fucking therapy center. I was actually sleeping. Do you know how rare it is for me to fall asleep at night and stay asleep?”
I looked at Beau, then at Travis. They seemed as stunned as I was by Ambrose’s outburst. “Are you kicking us out?”
“If it weren’t for Travis, I sure as hell would. You two”—he gestured at Beau and me—“can get eaten out there for all I care, but he deserves to be protected.”
“I’m not helpless,” Travis insisted.
“You can’t fight a gator,” Ambrose said.
“But you can?”
Ambrose looked at Travis like he’d lost his mind. “Of course.”
“Don’t you remember in high school when one came for a sandwich and—”
Travis gaped at him, then turned to his brother. “All you told me was that you got away. You didn’t tell me—”
“We got away because this fucker took the gator on and won.”
“Fuck.”
Beau looked back and forth between me and Travis. “You’re telling me this thing between you is real.”
I nodded. “Real as fuck.”
“Travis, you agree? He’s not taking advantage of the fact that you always liked him.”
Travis gaped at him. “Did everybody know?”
I smiled. “Yeah, pretty much.”
He huffed. “Beau, I reminded you yesterday that I was seventeen when Rob started toying with me. I’ve learned a lot since then. I bought all the shit Rob told me, and I shouldn’t have. I was with some other assholes after him, but I saw through them quickly. What I have with Dax is completely different. This is like what you and Corbin have. Don’t act like I can’t tell the difference.”
“I love Travis, and I will do everything in my power to make him as happy as he can possibly be.” Travis’s eyes widened. Had he really doubted I felt that way?
Beau sighed. “Corbin’s going to spend the next week telling me how right he was.”
“What did he think about you charging out here?”
“That I was a fucking idiot and that he wouldn’t have any sympathy if I got the shit beaten out of me.”
“It’s going to be fun getting back into his good graces,” Ambrose said.
I held up a hand. “Don’t you dare tell us how you’re going to do it.”
“It’s Corbin who doesn’t care about oversharing, not me.”
I looked at my brother then. “We’ll get out of here and let you try to sleep some more.”
“I can lead them out,” Beau said.
I snorted. “I’ll lead you out.”
Travis groaned. “I think I might be better off with the alligators.”
“No way, baby. I’ve got this.”
Beau growled, and I rolled my eyes.
Ambrose pointed toward the door. “Get out.”
Travis and I dressed quickly. I let Beau take the lead, but there was one time when I honked at him because he’d gone the wrong way. He pulled over, and we argued about the route. It turned out he was right after all. I would have been pissed as hell if I hadn’t been busy thinking about how much I wanted to get Travis alone as soon as we reached the shop.
20
Travis
When we arrived back at the shop, it was almost three in the morning. Dax and I showered as soon as we got into my apartment. It felt so good to clean off the sweat and grime from our trip to the bayou. We fell into bed, and as much as we tried to fight it, we were both too exhausted to do anything but sleep. Dax assured me Beau wouldn’t expect me at work first thing in the morning and promised to make it up to me then.
