Page 1 of Fluttering Heart

ONE

Finn Heart

“You didn’t tell him?”Beau whisper-shouts from next to me as we stand on our older brother’s doorstep.

“No,” I answer simply and go back to pushing the doorbell incessantly.

I don’t have to justify shit to Beau. He’s been in a funk, and I’m doing what’s best for him by getting him out of Crushville and giving him a break from all the shit that went down just a couple of days ago.

I feel for him, I swear I do, and because I do, I’m doing everything I possibly can to help him out. That’s not only normal in our family—we Hearts stick together through it all—but it’s especially true for Beau and me. Being identical twins, I don’t exactly feel everything he feels, but I understand him better than anyone else, even better than his best friend. Well, ex-best friend now, I suppose.

And okay, maybe I should’ve called Charlie, but I panicked.

Beau was talking about quitting his job—the one he loves. He was spewing shit I never in my wildest nightmares thought he’d say, like,“I’ll quit and I’ll move away. I bet they need firemen in California. That way I never have to see Lu or Tanner ever again. I’ll never have to come back to Crushville or to Chicago.”

What the hell else was I supposed to do but call Beau’s boss, beg him to approve off days for Beau until Monday and get him on a plane to Vegas?

I didn’t think to call Charlie because I know damn well he has a home game today and on Sunday. So we’re here, we’re gonna have a brothers weekend, and we’re gonna have a fucking good time until Beau forgets about his awful ex-girlfriend and his surprisingly traitorous best friend.

I never expected Tanner to betray Beau the way he did, and that’s going to takemesome time to recover from too since I considered him part of our family just like Beau did. But I have to get over it because getting Beau out of this shit show and back to his old self is the only thing that matters right now.

“Come on, fucker,” I mutter at nothing as I keep my finger pressed down on the doorbell button. “Open up.”

“What if he’s not here?” Beau asks, super helpfully.

“Then we’ll go to the hotel and call him.”

“Why didn’t we go straight to the hotel?”

Good question,I think to myself. Why didn’t I tell the cab driver to just take us to the Winner resort directly? Because Beau keeps getting more and more depressed the more space he has from what happened, not less. If anyone can cheer him up it’s Charlie.

The door opens suddenly and I see Charlie pulling on a shirt, and some pillow creases in his cheek. I guess he was taking his mid-morning nap after he probably?—

“What the hell?” I mutter when Nikolay Brotnik, a.k.a. Santa and the bane of Charlie’s existence, appears behind him. Shirtless and with a murderous glare.

“What are you guys doing here?” Charlie asks.

“What the fuck ishedoing here?” Beau explodes, and points over Charlie’s shoulder at Santa.

“It’s a long story,” Charlie says with a sigh and opens the door wider to let us in. “Come in, but seriously what’s going on?” He directs the question at me. I grab our duffels and carry them in only to dump them in the living room.

I recognize the look of genuine fear and worry in Charlie’s eyes, so I pat his shoulder and try to be reassuring.

“Nothing like what you’re thinking.”

“Then what the fuck? You show up here out of the blue, without any warning?”

He turns to look at Beau, who’s already getting a Coke out of the fridge, and before I can come up with an answer that might explain “the shit show” in the fewest words possible, Beau finds the perfect words without any problems at all.

“And on Valentine’s day—” Charlie exclaims but Beau cuts him off after taking a sip.

“And I had great plans for today, but they were shot to shit when I found Lu and Tanner naked.”

“Motherfucker,” Charlie mutters. I see the protective-older-brother gleam come into his eyes so I try to stave off any murderous impulses he might have.

“Two days ago, yeah,” I try to say brightly. “So now we’re here until Monday, to spend Valentine’s Day in the City of Sin. Any chance you can get us tickets for tonight’s game? And you up for going out tonight?” Charlie stares at me, open-mouthed, so I just keep rolling. “I thought we could hit a casino, maybe a show, and then watch you kick Atlanta’s ass for the first time in your career on Sunday, then we’re heading back home with our souls healed and ready to face our lives with a brighter outlook.”

I give them a winning smile, the one I use when I have to tell a new client how much money they’re gonna have to pay in taxes.

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