Page 52 of Brother to Brother

“You stayed faithful to him the entire time, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” so quietly I barely heard her; I sighed.

“Always thought you were wasted on my brother. I loved him, don’t get me wrong, but where you were concerned, I always thought he was a seriously dumb fuck. You knew he was fuckin’ around on you, why did you stay?”

“Because he said he loved me…” she smiled a little sadly, “No one had ever said that to me before him.”

Aw, Jesus.That just about killed me. I swiped a hand over my face and turned down the dock. Melody following alongside. We reached the end and she sat down, letting her feet dangle over the water. I sat behind her, one leg to either side of her and snugged right up against her back. She gripped the edge of the dock tightly and squeaked.

“Don’t push me in, I can’t swim!” she said quickly and I wrapped my arms around her tight, frowning.

“I wouldn’t do that to you, why would you even think that?”

She laughed, a bitter and incredulous sound, “Grind would have, and he would have laughed. No guarantee he would be the one to jump in after me though. He could be an ass like that sometimes.”

I gritted my teeth. Man, I hadn’t come up with Grind so he could be that way. I found myself wondering what else I’d been blind to. If maybe I’d made too many fucking excuses for his ass-tastic behavior…

“You don’t thinkI’ddo it though, do you?”

“I… I don’t know Archer. I hardly know anythingaboutyou. You’ve always been the quiet one, until you weren’t and when you aren’t, you’re always soangryall the time. I’ve seen you punch a brother in the face for as little as someperceiveddisrespect…”

“It can’t be tolerated, Baby. Respect isn’t something that can be held on to from a position of weakness.”

“Okay, but does it always have to be held on to through violence? Through fear?” she asked.

“They’re effective tools,” I countered.

“Okay, then what about Dragon?”

I frowned, “What about him?”

“Have you ever seen him raise a hand to one of the brothers?”

I thought about it…Well shit… she has you there.

“I’ll take your silence as a ‘no,’” she said gently, “Let me ask you this, how would you like to see Noah raised? Do you want him to turn out to be like his biological father?”

“No,” I answered quickly.

“What about his father now?” she asked softly and I wished I could see her face, because her words sort of undid a hurt that’d I’d never speak on.

“I’d like to think I’m not so bad,” I said with a wan smile.

“You’re not, now… once you let someone in even the slightest little bit. Still, getting there, getting to a point where anyone can evenbeginto know you or even learn about you, you don’t make it easy Archer.”

“Insightful,” I murmured, nuzzling behind her ear. I pressed a kiss there and felt her shiver. I smiled, secretly to myself, glad I could elicit something other than a fear response out of her; that she was loosening up around me even just a little.

“Be that as it may, I would really like to break the cycle of hurt with my son. Grinder may have had his moments of being a complete asshole but, I think… no… Iknowthere was good in him. I really do believe he would have come back to us or that if he were still alive, he would have let us in and lived up the situation and been a father to his son at the very least. I don’t think he left us in a bid to shirk his responsibility. I think he left out offear.”

“What makes you give him so much credit?” I asked.

“You’re angry, I get it. Do you ever stop to wonder though?”

“Wonder about what?”

I could hear her smile, “You hold yourself to a very high standard, Archer. I can see that now. Your word is your bond and you follow through with everything you say, no matter what.”

“A man is only as good as his word,” I said.

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