Page 11 of It's Just You

“Sam, they’re not brainless,” Kane interrupted him with an exasperated-sounding sigh, probably knowing Sam would have a not-so-nice description of guys who practically lived in the gym. “Stop calling them that.”

Sam shrugged, then stage-whispered to me, “They are, but don’t tell them that. He’s just afraid he’s going to turn into a—”

“That’s enough, you two,” their mother finally interrupted.

Sam grinned, Kane cast his brother an annoyed glance, and I chuckled. Sometimes I was jealous of Sam for having a brother. It had to be pretty awesome.

“What are you up to today?” Sam’s mom asked.

“There’s a bonfire later, so we might go hang out there. Aside from that, just hanging out,” Sam answered before I could.

“Not playing with makeup?”

“Kane, stop it. Don’t make fun of Finn.” This time, his mother sounded even more annoyed.

“I’m not making fun of Finn. I was making fun of Sam,” Kane said. “Sorry.” He didn’t sound sorry. “I just thought it took a lot of time to put all of that on.”

“It does, but it gets to be routine after a while. And no worries. We won’t play with dolls and do each other’s hair. Not that there’s anything wrong with either of those things, but the plan was really just to hang out and catch up. Boring stuff.” Did he get the hint?

“I meant on Sam,” Kane said, though now he sounded a little awkward as he cringed. “I figured you were going to try to do his makeup, which would take all day. You might be talented, but I mean… considering the material…”

Sam elbowed him. Hard.

I winced at the same time Kane did, but he rubbed his ribs.

“Kane, stop it right now. You two are like—” Their mom ran a hand through her hair, making it stick out in a weird way. She, too, looked thinner than the last time I’d seen her. More tired. Maybe it was the age? My mother certainly wasn’t a good standard to hold someone up to.

“Sorry, sorry.” Kane didn’t sound any more remorseful this time than he had the last, and Sam gave him the evil eye. “But you have to admit, it might help. And if an expert like Finn can’t help you, no one can.”

This time, their father cleared his throat, and Kane instantly stopped talking. The mirth that had started to dance across his features went abruptly blank.

“I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean to cause trouble.”

Their dad waved a hand. He looked even more exhausted than their mom. “Just try not to fight. Sam’s only home for the summer, and we want to have a good time, right?”

“Right,” Kane instantly agreed. “Sorry. Do you need anything, or is it okay if I head out for a while? I won’t be long.”

“No, I’m fine,” his father said. “What are you up to? Something fun, I hope.”

“I just need to do some reading.”

“Reading? I thought you weren’t in college?” I asked curiously. There was something odd about the interaction, but like hell could I figure out what that was all about. Were they having some kind of issue with each other?

“No,” Kane said, shaking his head. “We just got a new machine, and I need to go through the manual and instructions. I’ll be doing the maintenance for the most part, things like that.”

That sounded… incredibly boring. I nodded. “Not my choice of reading material, but I can see where it might be… interesting?” I offered.

Kane snorted. “It’s not supposed to be interesting, but it’s the downside of being a trainer. Well, I’ll get it done, then I can call out the others who didn’t bother reading it or even watching the YouTube promo videos.”

I laughed. “Sounds like that actually makes it more fun.”

“Not really, but it will be fun when they come to me for help because they don’t know the first thing about it.” Kane cast me an almost mischievous smile, something that looked very nearly genuine, then stood up to start clearing the table.

The smile looked much better on him than brooding did, and it was something I wanted to see more of. Maybe getting the chance to be around him would be more entertaining than I’d thought.

And maybe I’d get to see him smile more, too.

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