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“It’s no God damn statue of David, that’s for sure,” he whispered, and we both laughed again. He took my hand and held it as we slowly walked through more impenetrable works of art.
“Lana, it’s fun watching both your admirers trying to impress you.” His tone was playful, but his eyes were serious.
I scoffed. “What? You know I’m dating Todd, right?”
“I know. And he’s buzzing around like a bee, hoping you’ll notice how popular and in-demand he is.”
Was that what he was doing? I was starting to think he was just self-absorbed and being rude. But I wasn’t going to say that out loud.
“He’s a busy guy,” I said instead.
“Maybe he doesn’t realize that his brother’s picking up the slack for him, doing all the things he should be doing.” Grandpa smiled at me, then squinted at a painting that was, unbelievably, all one color. “It’s amusing to watch. Except it’s not that fun to see Dylan so moody sometimes. Especially when he thinks Todd is neglecting you.”
“You must be really bored to be coming up with such tall tales,” I said, teasing him. “They’re just brothers, and you know how brothers are. Nothing more to it than that.”
He looked at me skeptically and said, “I know there’s no rivalry quite like the one you can have with a brother.” Then he squeezed my hand and raised his eyebrows. “But Dave and I both wonder if you’re with the wrong one.”
The guys came back, saving me from having to say anything. Todd wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me on the cheek. I smiled up at him and then caught Dylan glaring as I looked back.
6
DYLAN
Todd walked upto Lana and put his arms around her from behind. And I wanted to drop him like a rock.
He’d been on his damn phone nearly the entire day. I was close to snatching it out of his hand and throwing it in the trash. We started making our way through the museum when I saw him making another call.
“Can you get off the damn phone for five seconds?” I glared at Todd and crossed my arms. “You can’t possibly be selling cars over a call.”
He shushed me and turned his back to finish his conversation while Lana was talking about a wire sculpture with our grandfathers.
“I’m not selling cars,” Todd finally said when he hung up. “I have other business deals to worry about, you know.”
I gritted my teeth. “Yeah? So that wasyour dealer?”
“Lay off it, Dylan,” he spat out, glaring at me.
I took a deep breath and turned away to look at the art, trying to calm myself down.
Todd had always been a heavy drinker and a casual drug user. He smoked pot, which didn’t really bother me. It had never really interfered with his life.
But when he did coke, he became a real asshole and started letting things slip. I wondered if he’d gotten back into that. Or something worse.
There was a time when he got trashed every night to the point of unconsciousness, not remembering what he did or how he got home.
By some miracle, he was able to get clean and his life back on track. He was doing really well for a while, but I worried that he was back to his old habits again.
When I turned to him, he still had an arm around Lana’s waist. And he checked his phone five times in the course of a few minutes.
“That’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen,” Grandpa said about an abstract painting all in browns and blacks. I had to agree with him.
Todd tried to explain its artistic merit, like he fucking knew anything about art. He sounded like a know-it-all, and the look on Lana’s face made it clear she thought the same thing.
Then Todd kissed her, and all I wanted to do was get between them to make sure that didn’t happen again.
I’d fully intended to take my grandpa back to the senior center after he got tired. I had a meeting with Brent a little later, but I’d given myself time to make an afternoon of this outing.
I wasn’t going to make it. Being around Todd and Lana together was driving me fucking crazy.
