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Drew
“You aren’t gettingout of doing your time at Paths of Purpose.”
I hadn’t been back to the health care facility for five seconds when Easton started in.
“I’m not trying to, but our mother needs me. I’ve let her down enough in my life. I’m not going to do it now.” I flopped onto the sofa in the room we’d commandeered to rest.
“What’s with the blood?” He pointed his chin at my shirt.
“Long story.”
“Looks like somebody landed a hit on your face. You need an ice pack?”
“Probably, but I’m going to skip it. That punch wasn’t nearly as bad as the ones you’ve landed.” I sank lower in my seat, leaning my head against the back of the sofa.
His jaw worked at the mention of our brawl. It still seemed inconceivable we’d come to blows.
“What’s up with the girl? I haven’t seen you with a woman in about twenty years.”
I stiffened at the observation. The walk back, after I’d seen Sonya safely inside, had my mind churning. I didn’t do one-on-one, yet the thought of anyone interfering with our time together made me want round two with those sons of bitches, just for the hell of it. That my brother had noticed my blatant lack of intimacy and never said anything had me confused. I’d thought it was because he didn’t care. Maybe it was because he didn’t know what to say as he’d explained before.
“I don’t know what’s up with her,” I said in frustration. She had me upside down. I was pissed as hell she wasn’t with me now. Pissed that she’d gotten under my skin. I wanted her to be mine. Shewasmine, and damn it, I had a sneaking suspicion I might be hers too. She could crush me, and I wouldn’t know until it was too late. That was a road I’d been down before, and I had no intention of making another pass.
I was a grown man getting in fights on her behalf. A grown man who was in a perpetual state of arousal and couldn’t keep my hands off her. A man who was letting a dangerous tigress infiltrate his life with zero power to stop it. She was very likely using me. I didn’t care because I was going to use her too. She couldn’t take anything from me anyway.
I had nothing.
Not even seven dollars in my wallet.
“I have to hand it to you, she’s bold,” Easton said with a twitch of his lips. That was one way of putting it. “Where’d you meet her?” I didn’t immediately answer, knowing full well he would go off when I told him. Light dawned in his sky-blue eyes, immediately reminding me of my son—no,Gabriel. “The remnants of a black eye. You son of a bitch. How could you take advantage of a woman from Paths of Purpose?”
“Does it look like I took advantage of her?” I countered. No way could he argue with that. My tigress had straight-up told them we were fucking.
“That’s not the point. After all you’ve done, I was delusional enough to think you’d put your head down and do the time. I should have known better. You will never be the person I used to know.”
Those words hurt worse than any punch I’d ever taken. He thought so little of me, and all I’d done was prove him right time and again.
I folded my arms. What was the point in arguing? I would never be the person he used to know. “Any word on when Mama is getting out of here?”
“A couple of days, hopefully.” Lines of worry framed his eyes. He looked exhausted, beaten down. Exactly how I felt when I stopped moving for a minute and let our mother’s illness catch up with me.
“Is the treatment working?” I hadn’t been able to corner the doctor, my father or brother always monopolizing his time.
“I don’t know. It’s too soon to tell.”
“She’s going to get better,” I said resolutely. That was the only option. If she died, there would be nothing holding us together. I couldn’t lose the person I loved most in the world.
“Is she?” Easton whispered, voice cracking, haunted eyes pleading.
“She has to. I can’t—” I couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Me neither.” He moved to the sofa and sank down beside me as if his legs would no longer support him. I patted his knee, a totally unmanly thing to do to another guy, but he was my brother. His head snapped to me in surprise, though I sat there impassively as if it were nothing.
“Are you going to stay with them once she’s released?” Talking about things that could be controlled was easier.
“Yeah. The doctor wants her close by. We figured it would be easier on them, and they’ve got plenty of room.”
“Don’t try to keep me from her. I get it if you don’t want me around when Dad’s there, but I do love her. I’ve hurt her. She’d probably be better off if I stayed away, but it would hurt her more if I did. I can’t stand her thinking I don’t care.”
