Page 58 of Totally Geeked

“I haven’t had this since…”

“Yeah, me, too. Dad taught me before he went into the hospital. It was Mom’s recipe, and he wanted to be sure it wasn’t lost when he…”

Noah wipes away the tear that slips from his eye and puts the lid back on.

“Coming at him from all angles, love it.”

“Well, we should send the message, right? He’ll be on his way home if he’s not there already.”

“I’m ready if you are?” I say, and Noah claps his hands in front of him.

“Let’s do this. Operation Gordie gets a wake-up is a go.”

Arlo shakes his head. “How long have you been working on that one?”

“A while, was it bad? I also thought maybe Waking up Gordie, but it sounded too much like a children’s song.”

“Just send the text,” Arlo says, turning the burner down on the stove and then joining me on the couch.

“You ready?” he asks me, lacing his fingers with mine on my knee. The nervous swirl of my gut settles just a little, and I smile down at him.

“For you, always.”

Chapter twenty-two

Arlo

What feels like aliteral second after Noah sends the text his phone is ringing.

“Do I answer?” he asks us.

“What exactly did you text him?”

“I said that I popped over ’cause you invited me for dinner but you won’t open the door, and I’m pretty sure I smell something burning inside.”

“Don’t answer, we need him to come here to find out what’s going on,” I say, and Harrison nods.

“He’s probably dialing from his truck and is on his way over already.”

Noah flicks his blaring phone onto silent and puts it on the counter.

“Okay, the door is unlocked. Noah, you go up there in the hallway, and we’ll stay here on the couch so he can’t see us until he comes in. I can’t believe we’re actually doing this. It’s like an intervention or something,” I say, my knee bouncing.

“It’s exactly like an intervention,” Noah calls back to us from the hallway. “We are intervening with our brother being a dick. I hope he gets here soon though, cause my stomach is grumbling so badly after smelling dinner. Do you think there will be leftovers I can take back to school?”

“If he doesn’t stick around you can have the whole pot,” I reply, and then we hear him. Gordon yells for Noah as he runs up the hall.

“Noah, where are you? Is he okay, Noah?” Gordon yells, barreling through the door of my apartment.

“He’s in the living room,” we hear Noah reply, and then Gordon freezes in the doorway the second he spots us on the couch.

“What the fuck is this?” he asks, turning back.

“This is your intervention, big brother. Now sit the fuck down,” Noah says, slapping him on the shoulder and pushing him toward the living room. He tries to shrug him off, but Noah is just as strong and helps lead him over.

“I don’t have anything to say to them,” Gordon tells Noah as he sits in the armchair opposite us. Harrison’s fingers tighten their grip on my hand. This is it.

“Well, we have things to say to you,” I tell him, my voice is nowhere near as strong as I would have liked it to come out, but not bad either. Noah nods and takes a place behind Gordon, his hands resting on the back of the armchair like he’s preparing to hold him down if needed. Fuck, I hope it’s not needed.

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