Page 44 of Shy Girl
“So why are you acting like I kicked your dog?” Grady snapped. “I’m getting married, Vik. I’m not sacrificing myself to a pagan ritual.”
“Disagree,” Bastian muttered, but acted like he hadn’t said anything when Grady shot him a glare. Vik schooled a bark of amusement, but only barely.
When I glared at Bastian in question, he shrugged and mouthed, “Antiquated.”
“You’re the first to go,” Vik said to Grady. He leaned forward, his forearms leaning on his thighs. “You’re breaking up what we have as brothers.”
“We meet once a year to do something stupid and dangerous.”
“Don’t diminish all the years before it,” Vik cried. “You know it’s more than that, and if you’re going to make it small so you can stab us in the back, that’s a low blow.”
“This decision has nothing to do with you.”
“Exactly!”
“You want me to keep you involved in my life?”
“That would be great.”
Grady blinked. “Don’t be stupid, Peter Pan. We can’t be idiotic teenagers forever. At some point, we have to grow up.”
Vik pointed to himself. “I’m a fully functioning adult with a job and a rent payment and plenty of women that love me. I can still have fun as an adult. Don't put that adult crap argument to me, Gray. It will lose every time.”
“Counter,” Bastian muttered. “Fully functioning is up for debate.”
Vik glared at him.
Bastian sent him an innocent look of question.
“You don’t have to be married to have fun and be free,” Vik said. “That’s all I’m saying. You’re killing our plan to be bachelors and have fun the rest of our lives.”
“That was your dream, Vik,” Grady said. “Not mine.”
“It was ours!”
Vik shot to his feet and Grady followed. Grady was broader through the shoulders, with big hands that could span a basketball and a fierce expression that helped him navigate the most challenging situations. Vik was strong, but a scrapper. He won through sheer mental brawn and the power of surprise. In a fight, no one saw Vik’s next move coming, but no one could endure Grady’s raw strength.
Bastian slid off the counter to interfere, but I held him back with a shake of my head. “They need it,” I muttered.
“I’m not making it small,” Grady barked to Vik. “We had awesome years together, and we’ll have more. But I don’t have to be single and angry at women to have fun with you.”
“I’m not angry at women.”
“Disagree,” Bastian called.
Vik flipped him the bird, then turned back to Grady.
“You can’t go back, Grady. Once this ball starts rolling, it takes you down the other side of the mountain. You leave behind adventure and excitement for diapers and fences and mortgages. You know you won’t make the time to do the crazy things. Not when you have a five-year-old tugging on your pant legs, or something.”
“Maybe our definition of adventure differs.”
Vik huffed a breath. “Fine. You’re gone, I can see that. And Helene is fantastic, so I wish you the best. But you at least need to acknowledge what you’re doing here. You’re the trigger that changes everything we’ve had the last ten years. We deserve that.”
“You want an apology?”
“No. I want you tosayit.”
Grady’s nostril flared, and tension built in the room like a brewing storm. On some level, it felt good. Vik vented what Bastian and I had also thought, but didn’t have the balls to say to Grady’s face. Vik had always been the voice—mostly of insanity—but sometimes of truth. If nothing else, Vik gave everything at face value.
