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Micah rubbed her back while I looked on with jealousy snaking through me. All through my teenage years and twenties, I thought for sure my older brother would be a playboy bachelor for life like I’d planned on. No one had tempted him to settle down. It had taken a younger woman with touch issues to snag hold of his heart and ensnare him thoroughly.
Fuck, how my future expectations had flipped—my heart no longer beat for myself.
Even if it meant making do with one man’s body for a lifetime, to share in something like Micah and Jasmine did… Yeah. I wanted that.
But with a man who was determined to keep me at arm’s length.
Micah pulled back to cradle his wife’s face in his hands even though their entire fronts touched from chest to knees. “Why don’t you go lie down,” he suggested quietly. “I’ll finish cleaning up our mess then come check on you. We can decide then if we’re going.”
She nodded, and he kissed her forehead.
Turning, she caught my eye. I’d noticed she’d seemed a little off earlier, but she’d gone from pale to green around the gills.
“Still not feeling well?”
“Haven’t been for a few days, but I’m definitely on the mend.” She attempted a perky tone but failed.
“Take a nap for me while you’re at it,” I said with a grin, hoping to make her smile. It worked just enough to curl her lips upward.
“I’ll try.”
“See ya later, Sis.”
“You too, brat,” she murmured, quietly slipping away to leave me alone with my brother again.
“So no partying, huh?” He went right back to it, and once more the muscles in my body tensed in preparation for flight like I tended to do whenever I got into trouble.
“Nope.”
“Are you drinking at home instead?”
“The six-pack I picked up Tuesday night is still sitting in my fridge untouched.”
My brother stared with widened eyes as though I’d shocked the hell out of him.
I used to down beer every night and partied a few times a week when I wasn’t escorting, so he had every right to be surprised. Dry evenings were definitely not my norm unless I was out to prove I could have them on occasion.
I leaned forward, elbows on my knees. “Outside Elite, all I’m doing is school shit. Studying. Writing papers. Attending lectures. I even have someone tutoring me on Thursday nights at the library. I haven’t been to the gym in weeks, and I’m popping little blue pills to help me please clients.” I ended my spewed unload abruptly, my face heating as I shifted back on the couch.
“Damn,” Micah murmured, staring from where he sat on the ratty recliner he refused to part ways with. “Maybe you need to take a break.”
“The semester is far from over?—”
“From Elite.”
I snapped my jaw shut.
And there it was, exactly as I’d expected. I was being let go for fucking up.
“Stop escorting until you’re settled in with school,” Micah continued before I could mutter a word—but again, he didn’t say what I had expected. “Or better yet, wait until you’re done.”
“You aren’t firing me for this clusterfuck situation? Or the fact I overslept?”
“Fuck no.” Micah gave me a baffled look. “You aren’t responsible for what this fucker is doing to us, and considering how you’re stretched to the cracking point, I’m not surprised you overslept.”
Well, fuck.
I sank into the couch boneless, my lungs emptying as I stared at my brother. He’d never been outright unkind to me, even while joking, but the blatant…kindness, his understanding spread warmth through me. Tears suddenly stung my eyes.
