Page 6 of Synced to Us

“Fuck off.”

Mason grins, clasps my shoulder, and shoves me until my groin smacks into the stove’s dials. Brotherly love at its finest.

“I hate to admit it, but you have a point.” I glance sideways at him. “The baby’s coming soon, and I doubt McKenna’s aiming to take care of three of us.”

Mason’s shove turns into a punch to my bicep. “Funny guy.”

“I just…” I trail off. Focusing on whisking raw eggs seems easier than admitting defeat. “Is it my fault the money’s like fucking water when it hits my hands?”

Mason quiets. “You’re taking care of a lot of people, bro.”

“That’s no excuse. All of you have people to look after, and you’re doing fine.”

“What happened to your composing? Songwriting?”

“A work in progress,” I say, but don’t expand.

Mase, good friend that he is, doesn’t push. At least in that direction. “Then maybe you should look at growing the funds you do have in a portfolio.” Mason has to stop when he snorts, unable to take himself seriously. I stare at him like he’s an alien changeling.

“We grew up on the same tracks, asshole,” I say. “Don’t be throwing those Wall Street words at me like you know what they mean.”

“Think fast, dickwad.” He plucks from the pile of shredded cheese and tosses it at me. I duck, but I swear a clump goes in my ear. “I do know their meanings. All I’m saying is, yeah, my solo career took off, and McKenna’s book was optioned into a series, but do you seriously think we’re just accepting that cash and letting it sit in our bank to do nothing?”

Grumbling, I pull cheese out of my unbrushed mane. I do my best not to react to Mason’s prodding because there’s no way he could know what happened. The fact that me, my mom, and my brother moved home after Mom found her footing again, and even then, we had to scrape by. Mason never had to witness the devastation of falling and the type of destruction circling vultures wreak, and I’m too old and jaded to enlighten him.

But I’ll forever hold onto the lesson I learned as a young kid: Never trust strangers with your money. Hell, I can’t trust myself, either.

“Forget it. I’m not doing it. Can we move on?” I say.

“No. We’ve invested our cash. Grew it. Put some aside for our unborn child. That’s how prepared I am for my future, bro.” Mason pounds his chest. “Terrified, yet?”

“At the guy who jacked off to free internet porn when he holed up in my closet instead of going to school? Never.”

“I’m serious, man. Dee changed our lives.”

I drop the spatula and whirl on him. “Nuh-uh. You did not just mention that she-dragon’s name.”

“She’s called that for a reason.”

“Because she wants to char my dick and then feed it to all her other dragons?”

“No, because she’s good at what she does.”

I fight against a massive eye-roll. “That chick has hated me since the day we were introduced. I doubt she wants a bankrupt has-been as her next client.”

“She’s Mack’s best friend. She’d do us a solid.”

“Yeah, because that’s what I want, a fucking pity meeting.”

“You’d get something out of it.”

“Nothing worth setting aside my pride over.”

“Come on.” Mason spreads his hands. “It’s a Wyn-win situation, don’t you think?”

I unleash the eye-roll. And a warning growl. “The answer is no. I mean it.”

“I’m trying to help.”

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