Page 56 of Swim To Me

At the bench press, Blake stacks up his weights first, ignoring the playful scoff from Hudson. I stand to the side, pretending to watch and wait my turn, while Hudson steps up, thighs beside either side of the headrest, spotting Blake.

“What were you two talking about before I came in?”

Blake grunts. I’m not sure if that’s his answer to Hudson’s question, or simply from the weights he’s beginning to bench press.

“You.” I toss back some water from my own bottle I grabbed from the complimentary fridge. “Why didn’t you show up on Saturday night?”

“Told you. I was busy.”

“Doing what? I—”

“I got kicked out, alright?” Hudson bursts, not looking at me, or at Blake really.

“Kicked out from where?”

Blake grunts again, biceps straining. “His apartment I’m guessing, G.”

My eyebrow rises. “Is that true?”

Hudson doesn’t answer verbally, nodding his head once instead.

I’d helped set him up with that apartment, had found it and paid his first instalment of rent and—“But—”

“There is no but,” grits Hudson. “I need a new job too.”

Pretty typical of Hudson, there’s no real explanation, nothing to sugar coat, just cold hard facts. The truth. I have no fucking clue what’s gone down, but if my brother’s telling me something, something like this, then it means he needs me and I’m here. I’m always here.

I clap my hand onto his shoulder. “We’ll figure out what to do about a job later. You can move in with me until you’re ready.”

I expect Hudson to pull away, shake his head and disagree with me, but he doesn’t. Instead, he flashes me a genuine look of gratitude, before moving back to help Blake lift the weight back into its rack.

When Blake stands, he pulls our youngest brother to him in for a split second hug, his words unspoken and then shoves him onto the bench. “Your turn, Hudson boy.”

Hudson adds an extra twenty pounds onto the weight rack and then lays down, securing his grip upon the foam, non-slip hand holds. “Tell me something to take my mind off my shit.”

Blake bites off a corner of the granola bar stuffed somewhere in his shorts back pocket. “Grey got laid.”

I choke on air, while Hudson mumbles, “Fucking finally.”

“I didn’t even—”

“That smile you’re wearing speaks a thousand words.”

Hudson bench presses down with a loud exhale through his lips. “So, who’s the girl?”

I don’t answer, I can’t. Staring down at my feet, I focus on the noise surrounding me – the grunts and groans, the monotonous whirr of the treadmill as it runs, the clink clank of metal weights being shifted – wishing I was six feet under the water right about now.

“Sorry?” Blake bumps his shoulder with mine. “We didn’t quite catch that, G.”

“Delilah.”

“Hmm?”

“Her name’s Delilah. The woman I’m teaching to swim. The woman I’ve just slept with.”

Silence.

“The hot one?” Hudson puts the weight back on its rack, swinging his legs until he’s sitting upright, forearms resting on his upper thighs.

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