Page 33 of I'll Carry You

Jason gave him a quick glance, his brow furrowing. “No. My intention was to talk to my grandmother first and find out what she could tell me. We’ve been estranged for years, so I couldn’t call. But she’s apparently out of town.” He spooned coffee into the filter. “Running into Jen right away wasunexpected. I never intended to get involved with her.” He couldn’t tell Dan that she’d been into the idea of a one-night stand.

“But you did.” Dan crossed the room toward him. He squinted, a tired expression on his face. “And she has no idea who you are, does she?”

“No, she doesn’t.” Jason put the coffee maker on and came around to the other side of the island, leaning back against it. He crossed his arms. “But I’m going to tell her everything.”

Holding his hands up, Dan shook his head emphatically. “Hang on, I wasn’t trying to say you needed to do that.”

What?Jason furrowed his brow. “You don’t want me to tell her?”

“I’d prefer for you to get the hell out of this town, but there’s not a lot of control I have over that. But do I want you to bring up that jackass brother of yours? Not particularly. She’s finally put that to rest. It took her a while to get over him, though. Heisdead, right?”

Jason blinked at him. He peered at him, trying to make sense of his words. “He died over three years ago.”

“Right. And you’re not planning on staying long, right? I know you’re not looking for a long-term thing here with my sister. You have a life in Chicago. You’ll be out of her life soon enough.”

Just what had Dan looked up? No way he could know about the will—that was all done behind closed doors. But he wasn’t wrong, either. He hadn’t given Jen the impression he was searching for a relationship. They’d talked about a hookup. Jason cleared his throat. “I’m not planning on staying, no.”

Dan rubbed his thumb into the opposite palm as though thinking. Had he even thought out his reasons for coming here? Jason wasn’t so sure Dan knew what he was doing here. “Are you telling me you’re fine with—”

“I’m telling you I don’t want you to tell her who you are, so don’t get carried away.”

Jason waited for a few beats, the tension in the back of his neck increasing. “What are you doing here, then?”

Dan walked over toward the island, his shoulders drooping. He pulled out a stool and sat. “That depended on what you told me. Your brother didn’t leave a good impression, and that’s putting it nicely.”

Unsure of what to make of Dan, Jason strolled back to the coffee maker. He poured a cup of black coffee and let the steam uncurl from the surface, waiting to sip it. “I’m not proud of what my brother did to Jen. It’s part of why I came here. I wanted to find out more about the circumstances. To be honest, Kevin disappeared seven years ago, and I never spoke to him again. I don’t know much about what he did during that time period or where he was, and this was my first clue.”

Silence filled the space between them. Dan stared at his hands, clasped in his lap. “I’m sorry, that can’t have been easy.”

“It wasn’t.” Jason gave him a curt nod and sipped his coffee. “But what’re you gonna do? Siblings don’t always listen to other siblings—especially not younger ones.”

Lifting his head sharply, Dan met Jason’s gaze. He wasn’t dumb, that was for sure. “No, they don’t.” Dan’s mouth twisted, then he drummed his fingers against his thigh. “I love my sister. I want to protect her, which you seem to understand. But Jen is tired of me trying to protect her. She’d kill me if she knew I was here.”

Jason didn’t doubt that part. Dan was intimidating as hell. No wonder a woman like Jen had a dating problem. Dan had likely done his fair share of cock-blocking in the past.

He sighed. “I don’t want to interfere. But I don’t trust you, either. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t come and see what you were about. So I can’t stop you—or her—from doing whatever the hell you want. But my sister doesn’t deserve one-night stands with men who are lying to her. She deserves a lot better than that. And then some.”

The conversation was fraught with the potential of making his life more difficult, but Jason didn’t quite know what to make of it. Dan made him feel as though he should feel guilty, but Jen was a consenting adult who could make her own decisions. He’d been stupid to give her his phone number because it extended the situation beyond one night...but it had also been fun.

The inheritance part of it all complicated things. “Can I ask you a question?”

Dan frowned. “What’s that?”

They’d made a tenuous peace, and Jason didn’t want to backtrack to angering Dan, but his curiosity burned. “What was Kevin like when he was here with Jen? I’m assuming you knew him.”

A shadow crossed Dan’s features. “I didn’t know him well. He was quiet. Didn’t talk about himself a lot.”

The opposite of what Kevin had been before he left home. Still, not what he really wanted to know. “Yeah, but . . . what was his relationship with Jen like? Were they serious?”

Dan scowled. “How serious could they have been? No sooner did she tell him she was pregnant than he hightailed it out of here. Left no return address. Phone disconnected. Believe me, I tried to find him.” Dan stood again and glowered at Jason. “Jen’s a good person. Easily taken advantage of. She went right on believing Kevin would turn up again for a good year after he left. Thinking something must have happened.”

Jason stared at the inky blackness of his coffee. “She wasn’t entirely wrong. He died before Colby was even born.” Not that Kevin probably had ever had any intention of going back. Dan had confirmed what Jason had suspected. The relationship hadn’t been that important to Kevin in the first place.

That knowledge didn’t bring him the peace or relief he thought it would have.

“How did he die?” Dan asked.

“Homeless. From an overdose.” Jason prayed Dan wouldn’t make another comment about how wonderful it was that his brother was gone. As much as Kevin had his problems, he’d also been his brother and closest friend.

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