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He didn’t advance on me. Instead he paced in the grass, the heels of his boots digging in.
“I could say I’m sorry, but I’m not. I trust this person completely, and when you find out who it is, you’ll agree.
“Not your mother.”
“God, no. Not my mother. I couldn’t burden her with this.”
“Yeah? Who could you burden, then?”
His baby sister. The person he was most protective of in the world, other than his pregnant wife. I hadn’t thought this through. Too late now.
Joe continued, “One of my brothers.”
“You’re getting closer.”
“Who, then? Who else is there? One of their wives?”
“I hardly know Jade and Ruby.”
“Then who, Bryce? Christ.”
Marj wasn’t even in the running, as far as Joe was concerned.
I was in deep shit.
“I’ll tell you, but first you have to know something else, which, when you get over your shock, I hope you’ll consider good news.”
“I’m really not in the mood for your evasive language, Simpson.”
He never called me by my last name. We were always Bryce and Joe. Never Simpson and Steel, like some of the other guys in school had called us.
“Calm down. This isn’t easy for me to say.”
“I ought to fucking knock your lights out.”
In truth, I was surprised he hadn’t tried already. The Joe I knew would have come at me as soon as he found out I’d broken our trust. “If it’ll make you feel better.”
“I’m angry as shit right now.”
“I know. I get it.”
“You’ve pissed me off before, Bryce. You know you have, and even though I’ve wanted to smash your face into the ground more than once, I never have. You know why? Because you’re my brother, man. As much as my brothers by blood. So you’d better start talking.” Then, “Wait. Let’s move farther away from the building.”
When we’d walked several hundred feet more, he turned to me, his dark eyes angry. “Now.”
I shoved my hands into my pockets. This was Joe. The guy who’d been at my side for nearly forty years. Jonah Bradford Steel, oldest heir to the Steel fortune. The ultimate hothead—but also the ultimate good guy.
“I’m in love, Joe.”
His facial features softened. A little. He said nothing.
“Did you hear me?”
“Do I look deaf to you?”
“So you have no comment on that?”
“You haven’t left town without me knowing about it since your father died. How the hell could you have met anyone?”
