Page 53 of The Brothers Next Door

Chapter 21

Nate

It was one of those rare days where we got to start a shift together, so at 6 am I was pounding on Darrin’s door. He may have always been the responsible one growing up, but I was the early riser of the two of us. Waking Darrin could sometimes be the equivalent of stirring a resting dragon.

After a series of knocks, Darrin appeared, groggily, but awake, already dressed in his uniform.

Not bothering with a good morning, I brushed past him and into the apartment. “Listen, I was giving it some thought and we need to go see Layla.”

He gave me a perplexed look. “I thought you wanted a little more time to mull it over.”

“I did and I did. If it were anyone else I’d have told them to go fuck themselves, I won’t share a girl with anyone. But it’s not anyone else. You’re my brother, man, and we’ve shared everything all our lives, how can we not share the one woman in the world that makes us both happy?”

Darrin returned to the bedroom, with me hot on his heels, and proceeded to finish getting dressed. “So, you figure waking her up at 6 in the morning is the best way to go about reconciling with her? Neither one of us have spoken to her in days. Maybe she doesn’t even want us at this point, have you received a call or text from her? A drop in, maybe?’

“No.” The possibility that she wouldn’t want us hadn’t even crossed my arrogant little mind. It deflated my sails a bit.

“I hadn’t either until I got home and got into bed and started thinking about it. For all we know while we’ve been pussy footing about whether or not we want to be with her, she’s already found someone else.”

“That’s insane. Its only been a few days.”

“The worst of it is that instead of taking this full off approach we could have talked this through with her days ago and had it settled.”

“I didn’t know what I wanted a few days ago.”

He shrugged and exited the bedroom, making his way to the door.

I eyed him with suspicion. “Why are you bringing this up all of a sudden?”

“Reality, man.” He stopped at the door and pulled on his boots, lacing them up. “I did a lot of thinking after I got home and it occurred to me that it’s all been about what we wanted. What we could handle. We’d never really given a thought to how fucked up her thoughts and emotions were. We hadn’t even told her about our pact, but she got a chunk of the blame.”

Hot fuck! Why was he raining on my parade? I felt like Superman when I originally stepped through his door, now I was lucky to feel like Clark Kent. “Just come on. All this talking is bumming me the fuck out. She doesn’t have someone else.” Opening the door, I proceeded down the hallway to her place, Darrin at my heels.

Who was he to think she’d do a thing like that. She loved us. And we loved her. That was the bottom line. Sure, the past few days could have been handled better and maybe I should have heeded Darrin’s advice from the beginning, but my feelings for her were more than a little complicated and I needed time to mull it all over.

Knocking on her door, I waited for her to answer. She normally didn’t wake until 6:30, but we weren’t all that early. We’d be forgiven. I knocked a second time and heard faint footsteps in the background moments before the door swung open to reveal a blond dude with glasses. The man on the other side of the doorway was bare-chested and looked like he’d just woken from a hard night.

Hard night of what? Fucking?

“Hello, officers, can I help you?” He looked bewildered as he stared at me and my brother, who was now at my side.

“We’re looking for Layla, is she home?” Darrin chimed in.

I glanced over at Darrin, who appeared to be as confused as I was, despite being the one that pointed out she may have already found someone new to warm her bed.

“She’s in the shower. She had a long night. Is there something I can help you with?”

I wanted to punch him in his dorky fucking face, but I kept my cool. “For starters, who are you?”

“I’m Craig Vance.” He stared hard at me for a moment, as if in consideration of something before replying. “She’s my fiancé. I dropped in for a visit. Again, is there something I can help you with? She just hopped into the shower, so knowing her, she’ll be a while.”

“As a matter of fact…” I took a menacing step into her place, but didn’t get far as Darrin’s hand shot out and grasped my upper arm, pulling me back. I knew who Craig Vance was, he was that piece of shit that cheated on her!

Darrin whispered, “Just simmer down. We’ll figure this out later.”

I didn’t want to figure it out later. I wanted to punch that smug fucker in the face and then find out what in the hell was going on. Engaged? To that loser? No way. She was in love with me. Us. She’d been sincere. What in the fuck was this guy doing here and claiming to be engaged to her to boot? That was long over.

It was complete and utter horseshit as far as I was concerned. But the evidence was standing right before me.

---