Page 78 of Love Thy Brother
Nash blinked. Then frowned. “Course it is. He thinks you’re banging Embry.”
“Yeah, and he’s over it.”
“Since when?”
“Dunno. Ask him.”
My tone was bland. Cold. Not on purpose, but apparently I was opening my mouth and a moody cunt was falling out.
Fuck it.It was my turn to bail. “I’m gonna take a piss and find Saint.”
“Rubes—”
I waved Cam off. “Leave me alone.”
Flouncing wasn’t really my bag, but the air in that fucking chapel was starting to get to me.
Being a dick to Nash ain’t gonna fix that.
Nope. But neither was staying in the same room. So I left and retreated to the great outdoors, following my instincts and years of experience to track Saint down to the far side of the compound, at the highest point, where me and Nash watched the sunrise when we’d been up all night.
Naturally, Saint was halfway up a tree.
I craned my neck, wincing at the annoying ache at the base, willing it not to turn into a soul-sucking migraine. “Feeding the squirrels?”
Saint jumped down, landing like a cat at my feet. He didn’t answer my question, but the bag of nuts in his hand gave him away. “A month feels like a year.”
“Aw, you miss me?”
He nodded and my affection for him grew a little bigger.
“I’d hug you if you wouldn’t stick a knife in my eye for my trouble.”
“You can hug me.”
All right then. My insatiable grump was instantly vanquished. Hugging Saint was a rare thing. A privilege I’d have to be brown bread to turn down.
Still, I embraced him with careful arms. Saint was unpredictable and I’d fucked this up before. We all had, but it felt different this time. Saint held me like it was easy, and I didn’t know how much I needed it until it happened.
I fought hard not to dissolve on him. To push him too far. I was fuckingshakingby the time he pulled back and spoke again.
“I saw you kissing him that night and I never told anyone.”
Okay. That I was not prepared for.River.It had to be River. As much as I didn’t remember kissing him any time before the last few days, I hadn’t kissed anyone else either.
Not really.
And definitely no one who identified as a dude.
“You’re gonna have to be more specific,” I told Saint wearily. “My head is totally fucked.”
“It hurts?”
“In here?” I tapped my chest. “Like a motherfucker. In my skull, it’s basically soup right now. Every time I catch a thought, it becomes something else.”
Saint kicked at the earth beneath our feet with his boot, revealing a dug-out hiding place. He poured the rest of his nuts into the dirt and pocketed the bag before he treated me to the sagest look in the history of sage looks. “It hurt me too when I realised I loved them. I didn’t like feeling fragile. Then I got hurt and I learned what that word really meant.”
I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly cold. I didn’t want to think about Saint hurt any more than I did River at the bottom of the sea with his head bashed in by the rocks. “Bet knowing stuff didn’t make it easier.”
