Page 24 of Always Right

Lord knows I was about to.

Chapter 9

Derek

The sound of my phone buzzing on the nightstand startled me awake. It was rare to sleep and being awoken by the sound when I had barely gotten any shut eye infuriated me. More so when I saw the name. I let the call go to voicemail and placed a pillow over my face, hoping it would block the sunlight starting to peek through the window, but no such luck.

The phone buzzed again.

I groaned. “What do you want?”

A low chuckle rumbled through the phone line. “Well, good morning to you, too, brother. It’s been a long time since we talked, and this is the greeting I get? Where are your manners?”

A long time, indeed.

Since the day I took Hannah to his restaurant. I ran a hand over my face, not prepared for the conversation ahead. Dylan and I didn’t have much of a relationship, and he’d refused to meet Evie since I had told him she existed, but I had the feeling he was done running away.

“Are you sober now? Or did I catch you with a hangover?”

“Sober.”

“Alright. So then, can we get this meeting going pretty soon before I back out?”

Scoffing, I sat up, shoving the sheets to the side and sitting up on the bed. “Listen...Evie has had a lot of people walk in and out of her life, including me. If you’re going to walk out on her you’re better off leaving things as they are.”

There was silence on the line. Dylan was the one to run away. Left me as a child to rid himself of our mother’s bullshit. He had the guts to run away before he was too fucked up. I waited, hoping he said he didn’t want to bother, but I knew I couldn’t protect Evie forever. She deserved to know him.

“I’m not walking away. I want to know her. Hannah has spoken wonders of her.”

“Hannah?”

“Well, yeah. Remember? That night she played the piano at the restaurant?”

Of course.

That night seemed ages ago.

Many things had changed since that night.

“I’ll give you her number, Dylan. Evie is a good person with a great family, so don’t fuck it up.”

Dylan chuckled, and I knew what he would say before he even replied. “Hey...we’re brothers. Can’t promise I won’t. See you soon.”

The line went dead, and I sighed, tossing my phone on the bed and not bothering to check it when I heard it hit the ground. One more thing to handle. Evie would be ecstatic to meet Dylan, but the thought of her getting hurt again made me uneasy. I’d hurt her enough for the both of us and though he had been clean for a while, I wasn't sure I knew who the hell he was. We weren’t a family. We were just acquaintances who were related.

I closed my eyes once again, knowing that the chance to sleep was long gone. I wouldn’t be able to, not when I knew that the meeting with Dylan was inevitable. Not while knowing that I had one more thing to pile on to the pile of shit that we were going through.

I stood, deciding to start the day.

Sleep was overrated anyways.

***

"Oof. You look like shit."

Lisa…always fucking blunt.

"Gee, thanks," I muttered as I pulled on my jacket. The fun thing about New York was finding parking. In our case, a parking garage would have to do. Nathan had offered to let us look at "statement pieces" whatever the hell that meant, for the new restaurant and Lisa was ecstatic.

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