Page 82 of D!ckhead

The silence extended, making Dex nervous, but just as he considered filling it with a compliment on the chandelier, Cynthia spoke.

“Anyway, your sexuality is no issue for us. Whatever makes you happy. And if you’re staying for dinner, you will get to meet your brother. Who has most certainlynotpassed.” She glanced at Dex with disapproval. “Wolfgang! Please come for dinner!” she raised her voice and led them down the stunning corridor.

“‘Wolfgang’? Do you sometimes call him Wolfie?” Dex asked with a wide grin before settling his gaze on Hammer’s concrete-stiff face. “What a pair. Wolfgang and Florian. You two sound like two medieval princes.”

“I’m no longer called that,” Hammer protested, drawing the attention of his parents.

“You’re no longer… what?” Peter asked, and Hammer plucked his driver’s license from his wallet.

“I legally changed my name,” he said, offering the card to his father, whose thick brows lowered until they were close to squashing his eyes.

“‘Hammer’? Is this a joke?”

“But… Florian is such a unique, beautiful name,” Cynthia said as if he’d done it to spite her.

Hammer sighed. “It is, but I never felt like aFlorian.”

“But you feel like aHammer?” Peter asked with a deepening frown.

Dex grabbed Hammer’s driver’s license as it was changing hands. “I can’t believe you legally changed it. That’s so cool!”

Cynthia sighed. “Right. Verycool.” She didn’t sound amused though.

Dex worried he might end up being scolded for something he didn’t understand but when they entered a dining room with white wooden panels covering the walls and antique paintings depicting vegetables and dead animals hung on each side, their hostess’ attention turned to a boy waiting for them there. He couldn’t be more than ten, but had the same dark hair as Hammer. His mouth fell open when he spotted the surprise guests.

Peter approached the large table set for three on one end. At least they sat together, like a normal family, not on opposite sides, just to make use of the whole thing. “We told you about your older brother, remember? He’s back.”

“So he’s no longer missing?” Wolfie asked, staring up at Hammer with wide gray eyes.

“Y-yes. The police found him,” Cynthia said.

"Oh, fuck! He's like a mini-you!" Dex exclaimed, to which Peter tsked with a twist to his lips.

"Language. He's ten."

"Sorry! I’m not around kids much." Dex needed to keep his mouth on a shorter leash.

Cynthia walked out in hurried steps while her husband took a bottle of wine out of a Chinese-style sideboard.

“I’m assuming you both drink?”

Dex smiled. “Yep, I’m twenty-two. He can only have one though, since he’s driving.”

Wolfie pouted. “If you drive, you shouldn’t drink at all.”

Hammer stared at the kid, as if it was a rattlesnake that fascinated him yet was too dangerous to approach. “You’re too young to know.”

“That’s what Mom says,” the resolute kid told him, entwining his hands behind him like an old man. “Maybe that is why you went missing.”

Dex scooted lower to be on Wolfie’s eye level. “Your brother didn’t go missing because of alcohol. He was abducted by aliens.”

Peter butted in, pouring drinks. “I can see you mean well, Dex, and that you are an entertainer at heart, but we don’t lie to Wolfgang about fantastical concepts.”

Oh, but it was okay to lie about Hammer being missing.Got it.

Hammer offered the kid his hand, but Wolfie didn’t take it and only greeted his brother once he got an okay from his father.

“Could you add two more covers to the table?” Peter said.

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