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The evening together was typical for the three of us. We were all different in our own way, but that didn’t mean we didn’t love spending time with one another. Since it wasn’t often that we were all in the same place, what with our crazy schedules in the service, we were all determined to enjoy one another’s company now that we could. Losing our mom all those years back had taught us that you can never take family for granted.
I watched the sun dip lower and lower into the Pacific, the sky turning a deep, twinkling purple above.
“Yo!” I said, calling over my shoulder at Duncan. “Thinking it’s time to peace out. I want to get an early night’s sleep in and hit the gym tomorrow.”
Duncan checked the time on his phone. “Not a bad idea. Might go with you, unless you were thinking of doing a solo thing.”
I shook my head. “Nope. Thinking seven.”
“Works for me,” he said. “Someone’s got to make sure you’re not slacking.”
He flashed me a grin and I let out a laugh, splashing a little water in his direction. It’d always been wild to me how much Duncan looked like our old man. He was tall, with dark, close-cropped hair, and a serious face. But unlike the old man, he was as gregarious as they came. Everyone in town knew the Wolf brothers, but everyone especiallyknew Duncan. He’d always been one of those guys who always made things happen, was always setting up social events and connecting people to one another. He was a nice balance to a guy like me, who preferred to keep to himself.
“I’m coming too!” Evan chimed in as he stood on the edge of the deep end of the pool, preparing for a jump.
Without waiting for a response, Evan jumped into the water, curling his huge body into a cannonball right before hitting the surface. The guy landed like a boulder, water splashing all over the backyard. He bobbed his head up from under, the usual big grin on his face.
Evan and I helped Duncan clean up, the three of us finalizing our plans to meet at the gym in the morning. Once that was taken care of, Evan and I headed out for the night, both of us giving Duncan a hug before he shut the front door behind us. Evan’s car, a bright red Jeep, was parked in his driveway. My black BMW convertible was on the street. Moments after saying our goodbyes to our big brother for the night, we were on our way.
I drove through the winding roads of Duncan’s neighborhood. The area was a mix of small, ranch-style homes like Duncan’s and huge mansions – one of which was our childhood home, and where our dad still lived. Evan’s place was downtown, close to the bars and all the rest of the action. My own pad was nearer inland, by the local parks where I loved to go for runs, or just to get away from it all.
“Man!” Evan said as he rolled down the window and stuck his arm out. “That was fun! Nothing like throwing back some beers with your bros, right?” He flashed me another huge smile. Evan and I…well, we didn’t have the same energy level. But in spite of my closer to the chest way of doing things, his friendliness and enthusiasm was still pretty damn infectious.
“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “It was a nice night.”
Evan nodded in response, then pursed his lips. I could tell there was something on his mind.
Just because he was more fun loving than most people didn’t take away the fact that he was smart as a whip. The three of us had all scored in the ninety-fifth percentile on the ASVAB, which meant that the military had all but rolled out the red carpet for whatever positions we’d wanted.
So, he was always thinking. That moment was no exception.
“You know what I’ve got on my mind?”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Well, more like who I’ve got on my mind.”
“Dream.”
The word came out of my mouth without any thinking involved. Truth be told, she’d been on my mind, too, ever since I’d found out that she was coming back to town.
He grinned at my response. “So, you’re thinking about her too, huh?” He ran his hand through his shaggy hair. “God, I don’t know what it is about her. But I can’t get her out of my head.”
“I’ve got a suggestion – it’s because she’s hot as hell.”
Evan chuckled. “I know. I mean, shit, how could anyone not notice that about her right away? But it’s not just that. There’s something more to her, something special. It’s something that I don’t know how to describe, exactly.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Silence fell over the car, as if both of us were trying to puzzle out that certain something about her.
“It’s like…it’s like it’s hard to be around her, like everything she does pushes me over the edge,” he said, breaking the silence. “I know it’s been years since we saw her, but I can’t think straight when I’m near her.”
I left Duncan’s subdivision, driving toward downtown. The streets became more crowded on both sides of us, lined with apartments and businesses, and plenty of people out for an evening stroll in the warmer-than-usual weather.
“Well, you’re going to have to get used to that,” I said. “Because she’s going to be back in town for a while – and so are we.”
“It might be temporary with her, right?” he asked. “Might just be that she and Adam are having some relationship drama and they need some space apart.”
I shifted in my seat, gripping the wheel tightly at the mention of Adam. Just like the mere mention of Dream’s name made my heart beat faster and my cock twitch to attention, hearing Adam’s name was enough to send a pulse of hot anger through my body. The guy had always been a prick, nowhere near good enough for Dream. To hear that he might’ve done her wrong…
