Page 115 of Brim Over Boot
He scoffs. “After you dumped a pile of horse shit on my head, yeah, I did.”
I let out a pained sound. “I didn’t. I didn’t do that.”
“You invited me over,” he says.
“Yeah, I remember that part now.”
“And when I got here…”
“No,” I say again, trying to remember butknowingI didn’t do what he said. I never would have. He wasnice. And even if he wasn’t, I wouldn’t have.
It comes to me in fits and starts.
“Eddie,” I realize aloud. “He said you couldn’t make it or something? We played video games instead.”
Noah’s expression doesn’t change.
“Jesus, you really think I’d do that?” I ask him, frantic now.
“Like I said, we were just kids.”
As if that would excuse it. “Why didn’t yousayanything?”
“When would I have?” he all but shouts, standing up. “When I moved back to town? What for? What good would it have done, Colt? Should I have said something when Ikissedyou? When I jerked you off for the first time?”
“Oh myGod,” I groan, sucking in a breath. “That’s why you hated me? Because you thought I…”
I can’t even say the words. Bullied him?Assaultedhim? Noah shakes his head harshly, heading for the door.
“Where are you going?” I ask in alarm, following after him.
He stops so abruptly, I have to pull up short so I don’t ram into his chest. “All this time, and you had no fucking clue who I was. Unbelievable.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it?” he asks, the hurt in his eyes palpable. “I needa go.”
“Wait.”
Noah opens the door, stomping down the hall as I trail after him.
“Noah,wait.”
“I need to fucking think, Colt.”
“But I didn’tdoanything.”
He stops at the foot of the stairs, looking up at me, his jaw set in a tense line as he swallows heavily. “No,” he says, voice deceptively soft. “All this time, you didn’t do anything, did you? You simply hated me…for me.”
I pull in a breath as Noah walks down the hall. Jackson’s head peeks out from within the dining room, a frown marring his face, but I barely see it. I follow Noah to the front of the house, watching through the open door as he storms out of sight.
“Fuck,” I mutter, pulling in another breath and then another. “Oh fuck, oh fuck.”
“Colt,” my brother says, his hand landing on my shoulder.
I shake it off, turning and heading for the stairs. I keep my steps light as I make my way back past Remi’s room, only pausing for a moment to make sure he’s all right. Ash is still with him. I find my phone lying on my nightstand and pluck it up, searching for Eddie’s number.
I have no clue if he still has the same one. I haven’t talked to the guy in over a decade, not since he moved out of Montana. Luckily, he picks up after the third ring, sounding curious but not unhappy to hear from me.
