Page 31 of Keep

My kid brother let out a sigh. “He feels weird about going back to play at Dalton’s field when his brother is technically the one who killed Dalton’s brother.”

Cassie gathered the coffee mugs. “Dalton doesn’t hold a grudge, especially not against Thomas. He had nothing to do with what happened.”

Brecken shrugged. “That’s how he feels. The whole thing’s fucked up. Sorry, I mean messed up.”

I wiped the table down with a damp dishtowel.

“No, it is fucked up,” I said.

Brecken yawned. “I’m gonna head to bed. Good night, Cassie.”

“Good night, Breck.”

“Good night, kid,” I said.

Instead of heading to his bedroom, Brecken suddenly swerved and grabbed me in a ferocious hug. He was getting pretty strong, this baby brother of mine.

“I couldn’t take it,” he said, his voice cracking.

I was alarmed. “What?”

“I couldn’t take it if something happened to you, Curt.”

I patted his head and hugged him back “Nothing’s gonna happen to me, Brecken.”

“And Tristan?”

Hearing the name of my other brother always set off a bunch of conflicting emotions. Ever since he dropped out of school and returned to Emblem, Tristan was rarely in contact and the last time I’d heard anything from him was four months ago. And even that was just a ten minute check in call. Tristan was out of my reach and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. But I couldn’t say that to Breck, not when he was feeling so vulnerable over lost brothers.

“Tristan will be fine too,” I said and hoped like hell it wasn’t a lie.

Brecken backed off and wiped at his eyes, obviously embarrassed by the surge of emotion that would be considered totally uncool by fifteen-year-old boy standards. He muttered another good night and closed the door to his bedroom.

Cassie watched him go and set down the coffee cups in her hand. I held out my arms and she came to me without a word. When I kissed her she kissed me back with hungry eagerness and we said nothing more as we moved to our bedroom and shucked our clothes off.

We had things to talk about. We had to talk about Cami’s suspicions and Dalton’s possible danger and Brecken’s fears and the sad realities hanging over the Gentry family.

But we could deal with all of that later. Right now we just needed to get lost in each other for a little while.

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