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“Why’d you invite her tonight?” Reese asked, uncapping his bottle.
“Don’t be a dick,” Tag told him. “You don’t have to answer that, E.”
“Gee, thanks for the permission slip, Taggart.”
There was no easier way to shut his youngest brother up than to use his full name. Tag’s lip curled in disgust.
Eli wasn’t going to psychoanalyze the way Isa made him feel or why he’d given in to the urge to invite her tonight. Better go with the easy explanation.
“You guys are the ones who wanted me to invite her to a dinner.” Now that he and Isa were being divided and conquered by his family, his guard was definitely up. At least Dad wasn’t here tonight to add his own brand of parental pressure. Though Eli suspected that Rhona and Isa would get along famously.
“It’s good you asked her,” Reese said. “Shows you trust your gut.”
“She’s different,” Eli said.
“Than Crystal?” his oldest brother asked.
“Than anyone.” Eli had been involved in several shortish relationships, each more trouble than they were worth in the end. Each with a shelf life of delicate, fresh flowers. It never took long for things to go from full bloom to wilting. Crystal had been the exception to the rule, but then she hadn’t worked out either, had she?
“Makes sense that the relationship is different,” Tag said. “You’re home for the first time permanently. It’s a game changer. No chance of you running off to another country to catch a breather in a few weeks.” Tag guzzled his beer and when he lowered it, Eli was still staring at him. “What?”
“Nothing.” He’d never thought of it in those terms before. Eli knew he wasn’t shipping off to war, but he hadn’t considered that was the reason the relationship with Isa seemed so much—what was the word?—heavier than his other relationships.
“Hey.” Isa popped into the room as if on cue. She snagged a bottle of red wine standing on the counter. “We’re in need of refills.”
No one spoke. Tag pursed his lips. Reese lifted an eyebrow.
“Seems serious in here.” Isa sent a glance around the room, her eyes landing on Eli. “You must be discussing Refurbs.”
“Re-what?” Tag asked, his face screwing into pleats of confusion.
“Refurbs for Vets. The charity?” she said.
Fuck. Eli scrubbed his jaw and took the hit. Isa didn’t know his brothers weren’t in the know. It wasn’t her fault they were going to lay into him the second she left the room. “Yeah,” he told her. “You guessed it.”
“I’ll…um…go open this in the living room.” She grabbed a corkscrew and swished out of the kitchen.
Eli could feel Reese drilling a hole through his head with the power of his mind. “What charity?”
Eli pulled in a breath. “One of the reasons I’ve been too busy for Crane business is because I started a charity for injured vets…with a focus on amputees.”
Reese set aside his beer bottle and folded his arms over his chest.
Tag, all ears, mimicked their brother, folding his arms and leaning on the countertop next to Reese.
Then, Eli told his brothers everything.
***
“You have to meet Alex,” Merina said again, her voice boozy. As if the family patriarch would answer every unanswered Crane men question.
They’d all reconvened at the dining room table, and a third bottle of wine had been opened. The aforementioned Crane men held fast to their beers—but they sipped slowly, letting the girls bottom out the wine. Isa had covertly switched to water a few glasses ago, but Rachel and Merina were set on taking down another bottle.
“What’s Alex like?” Isa asked, feeling relaxed and at ease around her new girlfriends.
“He’s like…” Merina paused to think, narrowing her eyes at her husband.
“A combo of Reese and Eli.” Rachel pointed at one, then the other.
