“You’re getting Cheeto dust on me, Conleigh! And you’re messing up my perfectly-styled hair!” Cody moaned.
I hugged him tighter but made sure to curl my fingers around his face so that I could run my Cheeto-dust covered fingers over his face for good measure.
“Ack!” he cried out, dropping like a stone.
I let him go and moved both of my arms around my mom.
Then I started to cry.
My mom squeezed me tighter for a few long seconds, and eventually, I felt my brother sigh and throw his arms back around both of us.
He squeezed us harder than we ever squeezed him, and I was hit once again with how big he’d gotten.
“When did you start to get so strong, Booger?” I sniffled.
“When you used to sit on me and put makeup on me when I made you mad, I realized that I had to start lifting weights and get ready for a war,” he teased. “I’ve been doing CrossFit. I’m a badass.”
“Your badass brother can barely lift the goddamn bar, but he’s getting better,” Steel muttered, coming out of my kitchen with a beer in his hand and sitting down on the couch to watch the game.
The game!
I gasped and let both of them go, hurrying to my previous spot where my snacks were all strategically placed and waiting for me to imbibe while I watched my man—my ex-man—play.
“I missed them score?” I cried out.
Steel grunted. “He who shall remain nameless scored by running the ball ten yards when none of his receivers were open.”
I felt my heart sink, and then picked up the remote and rewound it until I could watch the play.
Linc did, indeed, score.
He also didn’t look happy about it.
He didn’t celebrate like he usually did. He didn’t smile. Didn’t even stay on the field long enough for any of his crew to congratulate him. And when the kicker completed the kick yielding them another point, he didn’t even clap.
Holy shit, did he look like he was in a bad mood.
But so was I!
“What was that look for?” Steel asked me.
I sniffed and fast forward again, ignoring the way that the cameras kept going back to Linc, again and again. I also ignored the way his eyes scanned the crowd, almost as if he was searching for someone.
“You’ve seriously lost your freakin’ mind,” Cody grumbled. “Just get on with it already. I’m tired of sitting here watching her eat her body weight in junk food. It’s honestly disgusting.”
I looked down at the Cheetos, Fig Newtons, Oreos, cheese platter, and buffalo dip that I’d set out to watch the game, and then back at my brother. “Are you calling me fat?”
Cody gave me a level look that looked really close to the one that Steel sometimes aimed our way.
“Um,” he hesitated. “No. What I was calling you was pathetic. Everyone else knows that what happened to Linc was a bunch of bullshit. Especially since he’s been in love with you forever. Steel practically had to beat him off with a stick to keep him away from you. Did you know that he called Mom every week to ask how you were doing, regardless of whether you were talking to him or not, and nearly always asked if he could ask you out on a date yet?”
I felt something inside of me loosen just the tiniest bit.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, finally peeling my eyes away from the game and turning them toward my mother. “Linc used to call you?”
My mother smiled. “Every Sunday for the last few years.”
I blew out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and turned to Steel. “What’s your take on all this?”
“Do you want honesty, or do you want me to sugarcoat it?” he asked.
I snorted. “Since when did you sugarcoat anything that you’ve ever told me?”
He shrugged, then let me have it with both barrels.
“I think that both of you are too stubborn and bull-headed to see what’s right in front of your faces. You’re trying to protect yourself, while he’s trying to protect you. He won’t watch his own back because he’s pulling double duty making sure yours is covered. He won’t ask for help. He’ll ruin his career and possibly get himself hurt in the process. While on the other hand, you’re fighting so hard, sabotaging your own relationship, because you don’t want to get hurt like your mother was twice.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he continued speaking before I could get a word out edgewise.
“I think that you are incredibly naïve. I think that you’re fighting something that’s inevitable. You both love each other. You know damn well that he didn’t cheat on you. Plus, all those hospital photos of him looking like absolute shit are the result of him being drugged.”
Everything inside of me stilled.