Page 72 of Filthy Sweet

Reggie frowns and pulls his face back. When he gets over his shock at my outburst, he turns back to the bag. “Am not.”

I feel all worked up, the stirred emotions coursing through me like drugs. “Yes, you are. You always do. You act like I can’t take care of myself, but I can, Reggie.”

He pulls a sandwich out of the bag, still frowning. “It’s my job to take care of you. There’s no one else to do it.”

“And it’s my job to take care of you,” I tell him. “We’re brothers, Reggie. And you have to understand that I’m not too delicate for the world. I can be hurt and disappointed and sad, like every other person. It’s okay. I don’t need you to protect me from that. I just need you to be there for me.”

Reggie grunts under his breath, my words sinking in. “Brothers,” he says reluctantly. “Fine.”

I sigh, relieved. “Thank you.”

He scratches the back of his head. “But… Fox?”

“He’s good,” I say, then tap my brother’s chest. “You know that.”

He shakes his head, disbelieving. “But you’re, like… And Fox is so nasty in the sack. I could only hear a little of what you were saying to each other, but… really?”

I feel myself blushing. “I don’t know what you want me to say, Reggie!”

Reggie looks horrified, his brain probably working over the reality of me and Fox having sex. “Oh shit. Oh no.” He turns and starts walking around the table, shoving the sandwich in his mouth. “Fuck no. You can’t.”

I groan. “Reggie, come on. I deserve to have fun, don’t I?”

“It’s nasty!” He turns and points the sandwich at me, and I swear he looks pale. “You can’t be nasty with him! That’s nasty!”

“Reggie, stop staying nasty! I’m trying to tell you that I want to be with him. I’m trying to tell you that I want that stuff, too! It’s not Fox defiling me. It’s me getting what I want!”

“What?” Reggie roars, the anger replaced by total disbelief. “You pranking me? Is this like when Fox convinced me it was cool to wear my boxers as workout clothes at the gym?”

Frustrated tears start leaking from my eyes. “Reggie, I need you to snap out of this,” I say, as fiercely as I can. “I know it sucks how this went down. We really didn’t mean for it to happen this way, I swear. We both love you, Reggie, and I hate that we hurt you. But I need you to get over it because Fox is already retreating behind his walls again, and I’m terrified that he’ll disappear entirely if you yell at him like this.”

I collapse in the wooden dining chair, exhausted. Reggie shoves the rest of the sandwich in his mouth, studying me, and concern grows on his face.

“He acting like when we were in high school?” he asks softly. “He retreating?”

“Yeah,” I answer, sad. “Something is happening at work. His past might get exposed. There are pictures and everything. I think he’s really scared.”

“Shit.” Reggie goes and sits next to me, then pats my shoulder. “Sorry I was yelling. I got kind of upset.”

“I understand.”

My brother sighs. “I’ve been mad at myself for years that I didn’t go after him the first time he ran away.”

I look up, comforted to see his familiar face. “Yeah?”

“Fox didn’t have anyone to care about him, no one but me, and I didn’t do enough,” Reggie says, glum.

“He didn’t even tell you where he was going,” I remind him. “You couldn’t have.”

“Doesn’t matter. You and me, we’ve always had each other, and we had Mom. We know what it’s like to have someone there for you.” He gives me a lopsided smile. “Maybe sometimes a little too there for you, in my case.”

I frown. “I hate that his family didn’t give him that. I hate everything he’s had to go through.”

Reggie scratches the back of his head. “Yeah, me too,” he grumbles, then tightens his fists. “Fine.”

“Fine what?”

“Are you really telling me that you and that overpriced flirt have something special here?”

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