Page 7 of Doubling Down

The curtains at the front window moved. Eric spotted his brother and grinned. He had a hard time coming down after a shift. It usually took hours for Eric to relax enough that he could force himself into bed and sleep. Brandon had taken to staying up and waiting for him when Brandon wasn’t working the next day.

Brandon still hadn’t returned to work full-time, deciding that he would pick up shifts at the hospital a few times every couple of weeks. Eric wanted his brother happy and knew that Brandon loved being a nurse, but he’d miss his brother waiting up for him when Brandon did go back to work full-time.

He climbed out of his SUV before rushing up the front walk.

The door opened just as Eric reached the welcome mat.

“You’re late,” Brandon said.

“Ten minutes,” Eric defended. He just hadn’t been able to resist stopping to talk to Ezra. Not that he’d tell Brandon that.

Brandon scowled. “The popcorn is probably cold,” he grumbled.

That perked Eric up. “You made popcorn?”

“And I put a couple beers in the freezer for you, so they’d get icy. Just the way you like it.”

“Best brother ever!” Eric declared as he wrapped his arms around Brandon’s waist and lifted his little brother off his feet.

“Hey! Stop!” Brandon complained but he also wrapped his arm around Eric’s neck and laid his head on Eric’s shoulder.

Eric carried his brother inside before he stopped and locked the door. He took Brandon to living, where he already had two blankets and pillows on the cushions. There were two bowls of popcorn on the coffee table in front of the couch.

“What are we watching?” Eric asked as he carefully set Brandon down. He immediately started to yank on his tie.

Landing on his knees, Brandon batted his eyelashes.

Eric pulled the tie free from his collar before removing his suit jacket. “No!” He groaned. “We watchedHousewiveslast night!”

Brandon huffed.

“We have to be caught up on the latest episodes.”

“We are,” Brandon agreed with a pout.

“Then? What are we watching?”

“The newSurvivoris on,” Brandon told him.

Eric grinned. He would never admit to watching reality television to anyone, but he secretly adored all the shows that Brandon had gotten him addicted to. He did have his limit though. Eric could handle a few hours of Brandon’s favorite, but he really liked the survivor or competition shows. Okay, he liked the housewives too. He just couldn’t tell his little brother that. Brandon would probably make him rewatch old seasons.

“I’m gonna go change,” Eric said. “Get the show ready.”

“Fine.” Brandon grabbed the remote. “But if we’re still awake after this episode, we get to watch the cop drama onReels.”

Eric made his groan as loud as he could. “I deal with cops and criminals all day and night!”

“But that one host is so hot!” Brandon yelled after him.

He was chuckling as he entered his bedroom and removed his button-down shirt. Eric knew exactly who his little brother was talking about. And that host had quite the resemblance to one of his best friends.

Not that Eric was going to think about Dane and Brandon. He was waiting for Dane to approach him about his interest, but so far, the stubborn tattooed detective had remained silent on the topic of Eric’s brother. Maybe not silent. Every text that the two of them shared ended with Dane asking after Brandon. Yeah, there was interest there on both sides.

Chapter Two

Ezra

Ezra carried the three large trash bags down the dreaded hall while keeping his eye out for anyone else in the area. Dom hadn’t been feeling well and Ezra had demanded that his friend go home early. Tony was handling the coffee shop and Ezra could leave as soon as the trash was taken to the dumpster.

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