Page 69 of Until You

Chapter Nineteen

What the hell had he gotten himself into?

Tyler watched his younger brother pack away two hamburgers, an order of fries, and a chocolate shake. And now he was snatching an onion ring off Tyler’s plate.

After their shower, he’d tried to get Lanie to go out to breakfast with him, but she only had her bridesmaid dress and one shoe—they couldn’t find the other anywhere, but he’d promised to check with the building manager on Tuesday. He’d suggested he take her home to change first, but she’d insisted she needed to get started with her paperwork, with writing her resignation letter at the top of the list, and said she’d see him at the barbecue.

So after he’d dropped her off, he’d thought about their conversation about his brothers and called Eric and invited him to Five Guys for lunch. And now he was about to go broke feeding the kid.

“Does Dad cook?” Tyler asked, finally caving in and shoving his tray toward the teen.

Eric laughed through a mouthful of food. “Yeah, right.”

“What do you guys eat?”

“Frozen dinners. Takeout when Dad leaves money. He’s at the garage most of the time. I’m trying to get a part-time job, but the car Dad got me broke down.”

Tyler frowned. “Why doesn’t Dad fix it? He owns a garage.”

Eric shrugged and grabbed more of Tyler’s onion rings.

Dammit. No one was taking care of his brother.

His chest tightened, and he felt claustrophobic even though they were in a restaurant with thirteen-foot ceilings and walls of windows. He knew it wasn’t the restaurant making him feel closed in. It was memories of his childhood, when he’d been responsible for himself and Alex for as long as he could remember. Sure, his mother hadn’t left until Tyler was nearly seventeen, but in reality, she’d checked out long before she’d gone.

Now Eric had no one taking care of him, and Tyler felt that old familiar noose tightening around his neck.

But anxiety or not, this was his brother, who hadn’t asked for their shitty family any more than he had. “Say,” Tyler said carefully, testing out the words as he said them, “I need to go to the mall and get a few new dress shirts and ties. Want to come with me?”

Eric glanced up at him as though there was a catch, and Tyler felt like a dick. He’d created this gap between them. It was up to him to repair it.

“I need some jeans, too,” he said. “Maybe you could help me pick out a pair.”

Eric snorted. “I thought you had swagger.”

“Is that a good thing or bad?”

His brother laughed, relaxing a bit. “Good, but now I’m reassessing.”

“Then obviously I need your help. What do you say?”

Eric studied Tyler’s face, and Tyler purposely remained impassive. He suspected it might be easier to lure a bear into a cage than to get his brother to go shopping with him.

Finally, Eric shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”

Two hours later, Tyler had two shirts and ties he hadn’t needed, along with a pair of jeans, a pair of shoes, and some T-shirts. But Eric had multiple bags of new clothes and shoes of his own. If it took pretending that Tyler needed new athletic shoes to convince Eric to go into the store and try a pair on and buy them, then so be it.

“I’m hungry,” Eric said, after they left a trendy clothing store for teens. He was carrying a bag with several name-brand shirts and jeans. The only way Tyler could get Eric to let him buy them was by lying and telling him he’d gotten a coupon for 50 percent off at the register.

Tyler laughed. “Why am I not surprised?” But when he saw the smile fall from Eric’s face, he quickly added, “But you read my mind. I’m hungry too. What will it be? I say we skip the food court. How about 54th Street Grill? I could go for their Gringo Dip.”

Eric shrugged, trying to look indifferent. “Yeah. Sure.”

They took their shopping bags to Tyler’s car and put them in the trunk before they drove across the street to the restaurant.

After the hostess showed them to their seat, Tyler racked his brain for a subject to talk about. School was out. When he was seventeen, what was he interested in? Football and girls. Since Eric didn’t play football, that left girls.

Shit. He was in trouble.

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