Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 95080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
I swallowed hard and looked at him. “We’ll talk at some point,” I assured him, because we had to. We were both involved in an investigation after all.
“Can I hug you goodbye?”
The last thing I wanted was to touch him. “Not today.”
He took a step toward me, hesitated for a moment, then came over to the bed and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. I didn’t recoil. I didn’t have it in me to pull away and end things like that. No matter what it was now, once, not so long ago, I had been in love with Breckin Alcott.
I watched him leave the room without a backward glance, and then I lost it. It needed to come out, all of it—the sadness and the finality and the end. I grabbed the pillow and sobbed. And really, they weren’t tears for him, but for the whole shitty situation, for things that would never be. A moment later, strong arms wrapped tightly around me, and I was squeezed gently.
“Do not cry,” Dimah ordered, which was kind of funny and made me smile through my tears. “Yes. Better,” he said, leaning away and passing me tissues so I could blow my nose. “This is problem with you.”
“What’s that?” I asked, my voice sounding nasal.
“You need to learn to say no. Just no. This is whole sentence, the one word. No.”
I chuckled. “You’re laying it on a bit thick.”
“This is for your benefit.”
“Of course.”
“I understand sarcasm.”
Just him being there was helping so much. He was just like my brothers. I counted on him. “Okay, so…no,” I said with some flourish.
He shook his head at me.
“No,” I repeated with nothing extra that time.
“Very good,” he commended me.
“I know it’s done, him and me, you get that, right?”
“Yes, but you worry for his feelings, which you should not,” he apprised me. “That man has not only fucked others, but he has also placed target on your back.”
“I don’t think that part’s his fault.”
“Myself, your brothers, your inspector—”
“He’s not my inspector,” I rushed out, needing to make a point.
He scoffed. “You do not remember saying to me, oh, green in this marble is same color as Cord’s eyes?”
“What?”
“When we brought in the Italian marble for our client in Marin.”
“I don’t—when was this?”
“It matters little when, only that your first thought was of your inspector. You are very smart man, and I know your head has taken hit, but try, my friend, to use your brain.”
I squinted at him.
“Now hug me, as I must go see to office renovations.”
The word renovations perked me right up. “So like, the mudroom can go in?”
“Yes, yes, whatever that is,” he allowed.
I smiled at him and opened my arms, and he filled them. At least the office getting shot up was good for something.
Alex returned minutes after Dimah left, muttering under his breath.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, wondering if he’d seen my partner.
“Fuckin’ Breckin was downstairs talking to the staff, all the doctors and nurses were around him, and you’ll be happy to know I didn’t shoot him. I didn’t even swear.”
“No fun being a grown-up, is it,” I teased him.
“Nope. Not at all.”
And minutes later, as I watched him unpack his army-green duffel bag, now full of my stuff, something occurred to me.
“I’m having kind of a fucked-up week.”
His grin fired his eyes and made his dimples pop. “Yeah, you are.”
“Maybe I need to be cleansed by a shaman or something.”
“Maybe you need a new job and a faithful partner.”
“Or just a vacation,” I threw out.
“Or that,” he agreed, passing me a pair of jeans and ordering me to go take a shower. Apparently he didn’t want me stinking up his car on the way to the airport later. I couldn’t blame him.
“I talked to your nurse, by the way, and he said I could get you breakfast. So whatever your heart desires, just tell me.”
And suddenly, between Dimah and the renovations and Alex and breakfast, I felt like everything was going to be just fine. I was still me, and my brother was going to get me a mushroom, tomato, and cheese omelet, hash browns, and my favorite turkey sausage from that place two blocks over. I even enjoyed his revulsion over my sausage choice.
“Orange juice too,” I yelled after him.
“I know I gotta get goddamn orange juice,” he roared from the hall.
Hopefully he wouldn’t get in trouble for waking up the other patients. His voice really did carry.
SIX
My father, Raymond Brandt, did what he always did when conflict arose. He took no one’s part and refused to pass judgment until he’d heard both sides of the story. He was going to wait and talk to Breckin before he said anything. That was his way. I had always looked to my father to be fair. He never let his emotions get the better of him. Alex, Evan, and I, on the other hand, were much more like my mother, riding the emotional highs and lows at every turn. She’d been a yeller, and the three of us were as well.