Page 77 of More than Need

“Have you told Mum and Dad?” Kellan asked.

“Not yet. What would I even say?” He’d been hoping that maybe if he ignored it all, it would go away. Dawson made that impossible.

Kellan gathered their plates and dumped them next to the sink, gesturing for Riley to follow him into the lounge. “You could start with what you just told me.”

Riley ignored that and perched on the stool of the bar. Kellan had considered it a necessity when he’d first moved in, and it was one of the first things he’d set up. Couch? Optional. TV? Also optional. Bar? Necessity.

Kellan poured Scotch over ice in a proper Scotch glass and slid it over to him. “What are you going to do?”

“What should I do?” Riley asked instead. If he had answers, he wouldn’t have come here looking for them in the first place. If he had answers, maybe he’d feel better.

“You haven’t seen her since she first came to you?”

“No.”

“And you’re not curious?”

Trust Kellan to get right to the heart of it. Riley fiddled with his drink, slammed it down in one go, and handed it back for a refill.

“Do you think that letting her in, giving the relationship a chance, will somehow take away your place with us?”

Riley didn’t answer. Didn’t have to. He knew he had it written all over his face. Of all his siblings, Kellan had the keenest eye. Maybe it came from being the oldest of six? Riley found a strange comfort in the fact he came in second to Kellan. Having a big brother to turn to… helped. Having someone that he could look up to. Kellan had never made him feel less than any of their other brothers. In fact, he put him ahead of some of them when they were being irritating. That didn’t change the fact that he’d lived in fear most of his childhood that he didn’t fit, that he didn’t belong. A feeling he'd long since buried. Until Sadie.

“If I had to pick a brother to discard, you wouldn’t be the first. In fact, you’d be the only one I’d keep. Though right now, I can’t decide if I want to tell you that you’re an idiot or explainwhyyou’re an idiot.”

“I think you just did both.” Riley wiped his thumb over his glass, the condensation catching on the pad. “Who would be the first?”

“It fluctuates. Right now, it’s Parker.”

“Parker?” The least problematic of the Sinclair brothers? “Why?”

“Don’t ask.” Kellan poured him another drink. “Do you want to talk to her?”

“No.” A half-truth. The parts of him he’d left behind in childhood hovered just under the surface, like if he made a concerted effort to lift them free, they’d rise and drown him. “I wish that she’d never come near me, and now that she has, I can’t pretend she doesn’t exist.”

“No one will think badly of you if it’s something you want to explore. It’s a pretty big deal, and I’d be curious too. No one would blame you either if you wanted that door to stay closed. Saying no and enforcing the boundaries that make youmost comfortable is more important than some arbitrary idea that just because you share blood, you owe her something. You aren’t obligated to do anything. Family is a choice that we make every day.Yourchoice.”

Riley swallowed down half his drink, the smooth alcohol going down easier now that he’d had a few. “I’m sleeping with her best friend.”

Surprise flickered in Kellan’s gaze. “Maybe we need something even stronger than this too.”

Riley wouldn’t say no. He had no intention of going home tonight. Wouldn’t be the first time. Kellan’s king would fit them both.

“Is that how she found out about you? Because you’re involved with her best friend?”

Riley wished it had been that easy. Maybe his attraction—and growing feelings—for Dawson could have been less complicated that way. “No. The photo, remember?” One still sitting in a drawer in his office, hidden away as if that could help him ignore that it existed.

“Oh, that’s right. Sorry.”

Riley waved him off. He’d tried to forget too.

Kellan thumped a bottle of tequila on the bar along with a salt container and a lime. “Weird coincidence that you happen to be sleeping with her best friend, of all the people in Sydney...” He trailed off, eyebrows raising. “Or is it not?”

Riley didn’t answer, staring at his almost-empty glass. A tendril of guilt tried to twist itself around his gut, and he cut it off. He had nothing to feel guilty about. He hadn’t asked for either of them to invade his space. The inconvenient attraction to Dawson didn’t change anything, at least when it came to Sadie. The situation they’d found themselves in had nothing to do with her.

Kellan pulled out a chopping board and knife from under the bar and sat them beside the rest of his goodies. “Let me get this straight. She found you, you kicked her to the curb—”

“—You don’t have to say it like that—”

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