Page 46 of Worlds Collide

I actually know what’s wrong with him. He’s a selfish little prick.

“That boy can talk, huh,” Clive says, like that’s all he focused on about the whole thing.

“Don’t play stupid, Clive.”

“I was only doin’ it for your benefit, boy. Now if you wanna talk about it, then I got two listenin’ ears.”

“Shut up and watch your games,” I grumble at him, and he actually guffaws at me but does focus on the screens again.

CJ lost his job?That’s insane—no, that’s fucking illegal, isn’t it?

He didn’t do anything wro?—

FUCK!I scream internally while glaring at the TVs.

Wolf

Fine.

That’s all I write back, and it’s definitely all I’ll say on the subject.

“He’s manipulating me!” I scream and stand to pace in front of the recliners. “All that rambling and,oh Wolfie, I defended your honor, and in the end he’s not fucking respecting me at all. He knows damn well there’s no way I’dwantthis.”

“How would he know that?” Clive asks, way too calmly, and when I turn to look at him, he’s practically hanging off the side of his recliner trying to see the TVs.

I groan and walk to the back of the chairs to keep pacing.

“Hawkknowsme. He didn’t even have to listen to what actually happened between CJ and me, he just knew I was mad at him.”

“Why were you mad at him?”

“Because I believed he was the one who arranged for someone to take pictures of us in the hotel.”

All the screens pause at the same time and Clive lets out a big sigh.

“All right,” he says and groans when he gets up from his chair. “You need to stop your moanin’ and bitchin’ and pull yourself together, boy.” He slaps his hands on his hips and looks at me like I’m an alien.

“What are you talking about?” I ask in a quiet growl.

“I’m saying you need to apologize to poor CJ. The boy’s been through enough and now he’s been fired from the job he’s been working damn near all his life for?” He throws his hands up and doesn’t lower them until it hits me. “Exactly. Now, you can be mad at your brother—the boy shouldn’t have invited CJ to your place—and it might be too late right now, but you don’t take out your issues on CJ, you get me?”

“Yeah, I get you,” I mumble.

“Good. Now, can we get back to watching football, please?”

“Sure.”

“You know, my son and daughter-in-law are flying down tomorrow. They’re gonna spend the week here and they love CJ like he’s their own, so he probably won’t even spend that much time over at your place,” Clive tells me a few minutes later.

He’s clearly trying to make me feel better, and in a way he achieves that, but the fact is there’s no way I can avoid CJ for more than a few days. It’s a big ranch, but still...

I’ll just have to find a way to give him his space. Actually, I could finally work on getting all the boxes unpacked and start setting up the studio in the attic.

Yeah, that should take me a long time. Maybe long enough that I’ll only finish once CJ is gone.

The next fourdays I stay mostly inside. Like I promised myself I would, I unpack every single box and I find a place for everything.

I also go to town once to attend a meeting, and then hang out with Linda at the diner where I can bitch about my brother freely—unlike with Clive.

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