Page 46 of Trust Issues
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MAXWELL
I was starting to think I was getting too damn old to play ball with my little brother. The way my muscles ached and sang once we were chilling in his apartment was no joke. I stretched out on his couch with a bag of frozen vegetables on my knee. It was probably a bag that he had since he moved in and never bothered to crack open.
I looked at the shelf above his TV and smiled at the old pictures of us sitting in frames stretching from end to end. When I got to the picture with all three of the Parker boys, I frowned. “You still have this old ass picture up?”
Owen followed my line of sight to the picture with me in the middle him on the left and Nathaniel on the right. “Yeah. I do. You’re both my brothers, Max or did you forget?” He tossed me a bottle of cold water and flopped down in the chair beside me.
“Nah, I didn’t forget. I wish I could though,” I grumbled. Every time I saw Nate or heard anyone in our family talk about him, my hackles raised. Owen knew it too but I could tell he was about to dig into my raw spot regardless.
“You need to stop that shit and reconcile with Nate, man. He’s your big brother.”
“I’m aware of our biological connection. That doesn’t mean I have to have a relationship with him. He knows what he did was fucked up. I didn’t hear anyone reminding him we were brothers when he fucked me over.” Owen looked at the deepening scowl on my face and groaned.
“You know what? I’m not going to get into the middle of this shit. I’m going to leave that to Mom and Dad.” He cracked open his bottle of water and took a long drink like fussing back and forth with me was draining him or something. “Now, what I really need to know is…what the fuck is going on between you and Kyle?” He slid to the edge of his chair and rested his elbows on his knees like I was getting ready to tell him the most interesting story.
“Nothing. We had sex once. The end.” I tried to make it sound as anticlimactic as possible even though the mention of Kyle had my chest tightening to uncomfortable levels.
“And how did that shit happen because I know she didn’t just fall from the ceiling onto your dick, Max. What the hell led up to last night? You started off with Sadie and ended up with Kyle of all people.”
“What’s wrong with Kyle?” I furrowed my brow and sat up straighter.
“Nothing. She’s beautiful. If I thought I had a chance in hell I’d shoot my shot,” Owen chuckled.
“Well, you don’t have a chance in hell or any other realm.”
“Calm your nuts, Max. I’m just saying that you two are always going at each other’s throats and now all of a sudden you’re sneaking around.”
“I don’t get it either, Owen. She drives me nuts but when I look at her I can’t shake how fucking beautiful is. She doesn’t even know it. She knows what a badass she is in the courtroom and she knows her personality is killer but I don’t think she knows or understands how gorgeous she is because of all that. I don’t thinkIknew.” I pushed out a breath and shook my head.
“You actually like Kyle, don’t you?” I’d never seen that kind of smile on my brother’s face before. I couldn’t tell if it was pride or what.
“We decided to be friends before we slept together. We didn’t call a truce or anything but we figured we might as well stop pretending like we didn’t like hanging out.” I ran my palms over my face and tried to stop picturing Kyle naked. It was absolutely useless though. All I could see were those long tight lines and insane curves that constructed her perfect body.
“Are you two going to start dating now?”
“I’m going to take her out tonight. I wouldn’t say we’re dating. We’re figuring this shit out because we both said we were done with casual dating and sleeping around.”
“You also both pretended to hate each other for years. I’m not trusting anything out of your mouth of hers.”
“Fair enough,” I shrugged but I knew in my mind tonight with Kyle would just be dinner. That was it. We needed to talk some things out and put our bickering to the side.
…
At 7:45 PM, I was staring at myself in the mirror with a gut full of nerves. I’d gone out on plenty of dates before with tons of beautiful women but a date with Kyle was what had my palms sweaty.
Go figure.
At 7:50 PM, there was a knock on my door. I didn’t have to open it to know who it was. Kyle stood in the hallway wearing a lacy red dress that made every circuit in my brain short out. I forgot what words were. The last two functioning brain cells I had left were fighting over what to say to her.
A simple hello wasn’t enough.
Not for that dress.
While my brain was busy fighting over words, I was left standing there, blinking at her deep brown skin that looked like it had been dusted in gold and her thick mane of locs that cascaded to one side. I had no idea what she used to line her eyes but they looked like amber when she stared at me.
I was in so much fucking trouble.
