“Why were you so upset that Ryder mentioned living in a car?” He lifted his head and sighed.
“It was a knee-jerk reaction. I don’t know, Rory. Honestly I don’t. I just hate talking about that part of my life and it got me upset seeing Ryder being so cavalier about it. I hope your parents didn’t notice.”
“Oh, I’m sure they didn’t,” I lied. My parents weren’t born yesterday. But I’d let Lucah believe that little white lie.
“That’s sweet, Rory,” Lucah said. “But I’m pretty sure they did.” Lucah wasn’t born yesterday, either.
“I’ll smooth it over. Don’t worry about that. Are you sure you’re doing okay?” I touched his shoulder and he took my hand and kissed it.
“I think so. Shit, now I have to deal with Ryder. Where the hell did they go?” He looked over his shoulder, but Ryder and Sloane were nowhere to be seen.
“Let’s go find them.” Lucah gave my hand back, but as soon as we both got out of the car, he took it again.
I wanted to ask him again if he was okay, but that might be a thing we could talk about tonight when we shared what was bothering us. We’d only been doing it for a short time, but I kind of loved it.
It took walking through a few levels of the garage before we found Sloane and Ryder leaning against one of the walls and looking out over the city.
“Ryder,” Lucah said, and they both turned. Ryder’s face darkened when he saw Lucah. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.” Lucah held his arms open, as if he was coming in peace.
Ryder shook his head. “Look, I don’t give a shit about your rich girlfriend or her rich family. But don’t ever talk to me like that again. Ever. I might be your f**ked-up little brother, but I’m an adult. Stop talking to me like a child. I’m getting really sick of it, Lucah. Do you know the reason I’m still here? It’s not to piss you off, or to make your life miserable. I realized, when I woke up in that hospital that you, and Tate, you were it. You were the only ones there. Mom and Dad are gone, and I might not like it, but you’re what I’m stuck with.” He shrugged and I could tell it was hard for him to express himself like this. Especially in front of Sloane and me.
I let go of Lucah’s hand and nodded my head at Sloane, and she followed me a little ways away so they could talk together. Brother to brother.
“That was intense,” Sloane said in a low voice so they couldn’t hear us.
“Agreed. I thought they needed a moment alone.” We might have been trying to ignore what they were saying, but that didn’t stop us from watching the interaction. Words were said on both sides, but there was no more yelling. Lucah still used his hands and Ryder made some of the same gestures. Must have been a family trait.
“Aren’t they supposed to punch each other to work out their differences?” Sloane said. “That’s what mine always do. But they’re usually really drunk first.” I’d heard plenty of those stories. Her life was one of those cases of truth being stranger than fiction. It would have made quite a reality show.
“Maybe they’re more civilized?” Sloane gave me a look.
“Most men are the same. They revert to cavemen when a football game is on, or some guy hits on their woman, or anyone questions their manhood. It’s primal,” she said as she stared at Ryder with her head tipped to the side as if she found the potential for him to be primal appealing. I had to say, that night when Lucah covered me with the sticky notes and declared me his was one of the sexiest nights of my life, so maybe there was something to this primal thing.
“Shit, they’re watching us,” Sloane said as both Blythe heads turned in our direction and we both tried to pretend that we hadn’t been eavesdropping on them.
“You can come back now,” Lucah said, waving us over. “Blythe crisis averted.” I looked at Sloane and she shrugged as we walked back over to the boys.
“What no man hug?” Sloane said to Ryder. He shrugged. “Come on, hug it out.” She bumped Ryder’s shoulder and he smiled and his ears went a little red. I turned my attention to Lucah.
“What are you waiting for?” I said. He just shook his head and then turned to face Ryder, his arms outstretched.
They hugged, banging each other on the back before releasing each other.
“Good enough?” Ryder asked Sloane.
“Congrats. You may be a member of the human race,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. Lucah waited for my assessment.
“Good hug, Mr. Blythe. Good hug.” He started laughing and then hugged me, but without the back slapping. He might have knocked the wind out of me if he had.
“I don’t know about anyone else, but I need a f**king drink,” Ryder said, not taking his eyes off Sloane. We were definitely on the same page.
“One drink,” Lucah said, holding up one finger to illustrate his point. Ryder glared. “Okay, two. And we’ll take a cab.”
“Don’t get too crazy now, big brother, you might actually have some fun.”
“I can have fun,” Lucah protested. Didn’t I know it. We had “fun” all the time.
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Ryder said as we headed for the exit of the parking garage.
They bickered all the way down the street to the closest restaurant, but it made my heart swell to see it. For the first time since Ryder had moved in with us, they seemed like friends. Not just brothers who had to put up with each other. Now we just needed to get Tate here, and they’d be one big happy Blythe family.
That gave me an idea and I immediately texted Marisol about it while the guys were getting the second round of Shipyard Summer Ale’s for all of us. It seemed like a beer kind of night.
I got an answer back immediately, and if you could squeal with delight via text, she definitely had. Now I just had to contact Tate and April and see if it was okay with them. The guys came back and we all started in on our second drinks and watched the rest of the patrons. A few women walked by and gave Lucah or Ryder the eye, but neither guy seemed to notice. Ryder didn’t seem to see anything but Sloane and the fascination was mutual.
“So I may have found an apartment,” Ryder said as he swigged his second drink. Lucah looked ready to jump in with something, but then he thought better of it and waited a moment before he responded.
“Where?”
“It’s actually a block away from yours. It’s a studio, and it’s not much, but I wouldn’t have to share it and I’d be close. So you could keep an eye on me.” He was joking about the last part, but the fact that Lucah’s previous occupation was keeping an eye on people made me wonder if he was being serious. I also noticed a little smile on Sloane’s face at the fact that Ryder would be nearby.