Page 70 of Until You

When the waiter came over, Tyler ordered Gringo Dip and Eric ordered a chicken strip platter. When the waiter walked away, Eric beat him to starting the conversation. “So why are you hanging out with me? Couldn’t get a date?”

Tyler considered reminding him it was three o’clock in the afternoon on Labor Day, not exactly prime dating time, but said, “I haven’t been dating lately.”

Eric snickered. “Define lately. You mean the last few days?”

“Five months.”

Eric’s eyes widened, and he sat up, finally showing interest. “You’re kidding? Alex says you have a new woman every week.”

Tyler shifted in his seat. “Let’s just say I had a situation that made me reconsider dating.”

“Did you get someone pregnant?”

Tyler’s eyes narrowed. “No. I know how to use birth control, moron. Do we need to have that talk?” The edge in his voice softened. Maybe they did need to have that talk. Their father had never given it to him when he was a teen. “I’m not sure what they teach you in school, but you need to use condoms every time, Eric. The girl might be on birth control, but it’s not always 100 percent foolproof, and you need to protect you both against STDs.”

Eric squinted his eyes closed and shuddered. “Oh. My. God. I am not having this conversation.”

“Tell me you’re smart when it comes to sex.”

Eric pushed out a loud sigh. “Not everyone is like you, Tyler. We don’t all have women falling at our feet.”

Tyler studied him for a moment. Eric hadn’t mentioned having a girlfriend, not that Tyler had ever told the family about the girls he’d dated back then either. But Eric wasn’t Tyler—he seemed more sensitive and not as cocky. Maybe that was why his grades were slipping. Maybe he had an unrequited crush on a girl. “True, but sometimes that’s a good thing. Is there anyone you’re interested in?”

“I’m not talking about girls with you.”

“Have you had a girlfriend?”

“What part of ‘I’m not talking about girls with you’ do you not understand?”

Defeated, Tyler picked up a package of sugar and twisted it in his fingers. “How’s band?” When Eric didn’t answer, he glanced over at him. “Are you still in band?”

Eric held his gaze. “What instrument do I play?”

Tyler dropped the sugar packet on the table, stalling. “Uh…the trombone?”

Eric’s mouth pinched, and he crossed his arms, glaring out the window like he could catch one of the cars in the parking lot on fire if he concentrated hard enough.

Wrong answer, apparently.

The waiter brought their food, and Tyler realized this was his little brother, and he didn’t know jack shit about his life.

“You were a cute baby.”

Eric gave him a look that said he was sure Tyler had lost his mind.

“I remember one Christmas, Mom dragged us to the mall to see Santa. I protested that I was too old to see Santa, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer. You were a baby. I was sixteen.”

Eric’s expression softened. “What was she like?”

Well, shit. She’d left six months later. Eric wouldn’t remember her at all. “Sometimes she was nice. Fun when she was around and…herself. When she acted like our mom, she used to do the stupidest things, like dance contests and gingerbread decorating contests between Alex and me.”

“I bet Dad hated that.”

“He did.” Looking back now, he wondered if his father had pushed her into her madness. He was a cantankerous, practical man. But she had been like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. When she was on the upswing, she was giggly, fun, and lit up the room when she walked in. He’d adored that mother. Worshipped her. But toward the end, she became the dark side of herself, especially when she became pregnant with Eric.

He hadn’t understood it back then, but he’d talked to his grandmother and researched it later. Their mother had been bipolar, and when she became pregnant with Eric, she’d stopped taking her medication and refused to go back on it after he was born. She’d suffered a deep postpartum depression. She’d started doing drugs and hooked up with her dealer, and the next thing he knew, she was gone. They never heard from her again.

She’d abandoned them all. Even the bubbly baby that shared her temperament when she wasn’t deep in her madness. Only there was no sign of that carefree temperament in Eric now.

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