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Luck was not with him as he shimmied past the two cars, pulling open the side door through the kitchen to instantly hear voices.
“See, here he is now! I told you it was him.”
Vanessa was leaning on the kitchen island, wielding a pair of chopsticks she used to wave in his direction and holding a takeout container in her hand.
“Lowell, please,pleaseeat. I ordered so much food, I don’t know what I was thinking.”
He hadn’t planned on slowing.
It wasn’t that he disliked Grayson’s girlfriend; he’d not taken the time to get to know her, quite honestly. But everything about her confounded him. She had thick dark hair, bright, wide eyes, and a girl-next-door prettiness that didn’t quite align with his brother’s extravagant luxury tastes. He wasn’t sure what exactly she saw in Gray, for Lowell knew well that beyond the handsome, muscular exterior, he was argumentative and petty, and this woman looked far too nice for his combative, egotistical bravado. He could only assume she was temporarily addicted to the sex, an affliction that would surely pass. His stomach growled, reminding him that all he had to eat that day was the less than stellar fruit plate at the café, and he was, in truth, starving.
Grayson entered the room, taking in Lowell with a long hard look, causing him to clench in panic, uncertain of what he had done to earn his brother’s ire this time.
“If you finally got laid, I don’t even care.”
His relief manifested as a choked laugh, gladly taking the container of beef and broccoli Vanessa offered him. He’d been tasked with taking the Truck for an oil change the previous afternoon, and the credit card he’d been left for that task had been the one he’d charged for the hotel room. Gray must have alerts sent to his phone when his cards are used.
“I did,” he admitted before stuffing his mouth, talking around the broccoli a moment later. “My balls feel ten pounds lighter.”
Grayson’s laugh was a rich, deep scrape, and it would always sound like home, no matter how old he was or where he was, Lowell thought, warmth pooling in his belly as he remembered Moriah’s words. He lashed out when he was mad, but she was right. He called him because he cared. Grayson’s deep laugh and biting sarcasm and Trapp’s bright smile and bark of a laugh would always be home, a testament to how much time he had spent trailing after his two older brothers growing up instead of playing with his twin.
“Well, thank fucking stars for that. I can only hope you won’t be such a mopey bitch now.”
Instantly, the warmth froze over.So much for that. Grayson was an asshole, and he always would be.And what did he call you? A malicious little shit?
“Yeah, I met her for lunch this afternoon by the commerce parkway. You know that place next to Burgess Coffee? Some satyrs were gossiping about you, actually.”
Lowell realized he was holding the mail, a thick stack from the box at the curb that no one ever checked.
“What else is new?” Grayson grumbled, shuffling through the envelopes and tossing junk mail onto the island. “Probably all a’twitter over Jackson officially running. How do we have this much mail if we have post office boxes? I don’t understand it.”
Lowell shook his head. “Nope. You specifically. You and Sulya, actually.”
Grayson’s head lifted, dark eyes narrowing to slits in Lowell’s direction, but the damage was done. Lowell took another bite of his beef and broccoli, savoring the sauce as Vanessa perked up.
“Sulya Slade? She’s one of the owners of the Greenbridge house with you, right? What about her?”
“Mhm, her and a handful of other people. The charity document is registered in her name. Harmond mentioned something about opening it for tours after the holidays. I think that’s a good idea. Let people see what we’re preserving.”
“That is a good idea! You should start it before the holidays, actually. Get everything all festive. People love that shit.”
Grayson was a professional. Lowell understood why he was so successful, for there was no trap he didn’t see a mile away, sidestepping with ease. Vanessa was talking about pine boughs and uplighting at the front of the Greenbridge Glen house and how nice it would look in the snow, wholly rerouted, with a few mildly spoken words from his brother. It was a superpower Gray had inherited from their father, one for which Lowell had missed the gene. Fortunately for him, what he had missed out on in strategizing, he earned back double in shit starting.
“No, they weren’t talking about a house. It was about the car accident. And how you left her in jail that one time, remember? With the cocaine?”
He was feeling poorly about the way the evening had ended with Moriah. He’d laced his fingers with hers as they walked back to their cars, laughing at the sight of the satyr’s vehicle still sandwiched between their own, opining that someone probably had to call for a ride. He kissed her at her car door, rubbing a strand of her dark red hair between his thumb and forefinger, trying to memorize the silky glide of it and the soft, sweet smell of her, before she pulled back first, giving him a smile that melted a piece of him.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you in a few weeks. Thank you again for taking the time today, this was . . . this was really nice. I’m so glad I picked you. I’ll see you before the full moon.”
She hadn’t said anything wrong; hadn’t said anything offensive or upsetting, but each word had reminded him that was all he was; her donor. An instrument of insemination. This was a transaction. She was a patron, not his girlfriend, not even a date. Even though it had been the best date he could remember having in years, despite the fact that he felt an actual connection with her beyond his loneliness and desire for attention . . . she would see him in several weeks when he would be fucking her again in the clinic, and that would be that. He didn’t like the heaviness in his head and the ache in his heart, and Grayson was mean and an easy target.
Vanessa’s mouth dropped open, and the look his brother gave him was positively murderous.
“Thewhat?! What car accident? Jail?!”
Grayson sighed heavily, already playing it off as nothing.
“It was a long, long time ago. I was a stupid kid, like 23 years old. You know what law school is like. Cocaine is actually an extremely effective agent in migraine control; did you know that? It’s human purity culture bullshit that keeps it off the market as a viable drug when it used to be used for everything! Have a headache? At the dentist? Take some coke. Fucking ridiculous, to be honest.”
