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“Oh, don’t be ridiculous. I will do nothing of the kind.”
“Put him on!” Josh’s voice was obstinate. “I want to talk to him.”
Becca put her hand over the receiver, and gave Nick a pained look. “I’m really sorry,” she said. “I don’t know how this happened. It’s my little brother. He wants to talk to you.”
“How much does he know?” Nick asked.
“Nothing about the rest of it,” she whispered. “Just about you.”
Nick hesitated for a moment,and took the proffered phone as if it were a live bomb. “Yeah?”
The kid lit into him like a fighting pit bull. “Who the hell are you? And what do you think you’re doing with my sister?” His youthful voice cracked with the force of his emotions.
Nick coughed. “Who wants to know?”
“I’m Becca’s brother, Josh Cattrell. And if you mess with my sister, I’m going to kick your ass.”
“Oh-kay. I’ll keep that in mind,” he said. “But just for the record, what exactly constitutes ‘messing with her?’”
“You know exactly what I mean,” the younger guy hissed. “So you’re this foul-mouthed, tattooed lowlife we’ve been hearing about?”
An involuntary grin wrapped around his face. He slanted a look at Becca and put his hand over the mouthpiece. “Foul-mouthed, tattooed lowlife?” he repeated softly.
“Oh, no,” Becca moaned, clapping her hands over her cheeks. “This isn’t happening. I did not say that!”
Nick shifted back onto his knees, still grinning like a fool, and realized, startled, that he was enjoying himself. It had been so long, he’d forgotten the sensation. “Your sister and I have this really great mutual respect thing happening,” he said, eyeing her.
“Are you seducing my sister?” the kid bellowed.
He wished.“None of your damn business,” he said mildly. “Butt out.”
“Fuck, no! No way am I butting out! If I don’t butt in, who will?”
Nick had nothing to say to that, having never had siblings, or any family at all who gave a fuck about him after Mom died. The concept of family butting into his business was foreign to him. Still, he liked the feisty kid, even if he was getting reamed out. Josh was protective of his sister. He put his heart into it. He got points for that.
“Bad enough what that slimy buttface of an ex-fiancé did to her,” Josh fumed on. “Now she’s picking up punks off the street? Jesus!”
Punk?Nick stomped on the laughter before it escaped. It wouldn’t endear him to the guy. “She didn’t exactly find me on the street.”
“I don’t care what gutter she scraped you out of. Like, what the fuck are your intentions?” the kid bellowed.
“Intentions?” he repeated, at a loss. Christ, he lived from second to second, just trying not to get killed. He never intended anything.
“Are you just going to dip your wick and then fuck off?”
He had the odd sensation of something or someone speaking through him. “No,” he said slowly. “That is definitely not my intention.”
“Uh, good.” Josh sounded nonplussed. “Because if it was, I’d, like, have to kick your ass.”
“Gotcha,” Nick soothed. “I get the ass-kicking part. Loud and clear.”
“Do not hurt her.” Josh’s voice wobbled with intensity. “She’s taken enough shit from worthless bastards. She deserves better.”
“Yeah, she does,” he said. “And, uh, I won’t.”
He felt like a lying prick. Christ, with his track record? He’d never gotten close to a woman without eventually hurting her.
Josh hung up. Nick let the phone drop from his ear, dazed. Another surreal vignette. Fending off the furious brother while his dick waved wild and free outside his jeans, like a flag in the wind. Wow.
