Gus filled the kettle and put it on to boil. “Why not? He hasn’t had a day off since he went back after that car ran him down, and that was like, a year ago.”
It had been eleven months. I knew it, because I’d attended the trial of the mentally ill stalker who’d terrorised Mia to the point of trying to kill my brother. It was the only decent thing I’d ever done for Luke, and it haunted me to the point where I wished I hadn’t done it.Brother of year, ain’t I?
Not in this lifetime. Luke, on the other hand, was a miserable git who’d sacrificed his whole life so I wouldn’t fuck mine up, and I’d fucked it up anyway.
“Hey.” Gus was beside me. Somehow I’d missed his large frame crossing the kitchen. “I didn’t mean anything by it. Just that he works too hard and doesn’t listen to me when I tell him to take time off. I was thinking maybe you could tell him too...or make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
“You want me to proposition my own brother? Told you Grindr was messed-up.”
Another Gus laugh warmed the kitchen. “I was thinking more ask him to spend some time with you. Do some stuff together. It’s been a while, right?”
It had been longer than that. The closest we’d come to an extended period of time together had been when Luke had visited me in the hospital after I’d smashed my shoulder. I’d been high as hell and told him to go fuck himself. He’d stayed a little while anyway. After that, we’d talked on the phone, frequently during the trial, but it had died off when we’d run out of shit to say about other people, and never come back. I was dreading him checking up on me, let alone what I’d do if he morphed into someone else and wanted to spend actual time with me.
Nerves and guilt threatened the home Gus’s beef sandwich had made in my stomach. People thought I was bad at controlling my emotions, but it was the opposite. I was a dab hand at convincing myself I didn’t care, about myself or anyone else. But something had switched in me since my brother had been run down by a speeding car and left for dead. Whether I wanted to or not, I did care. A lot.
Just not enough to spend time with him.
I got up and took Gus’s place at the kettle. “I have a better solution. You can do Luke’s job, and I’ll do yours.”
“Huh?”
“You heard.” I opened a random cupboard and fortuitously discovered the coffee. “I haven’t worked on the roofs since I was a teenager, but I don’t remember it being that hard. Tell Luke to take his fucking holiday, yeah?”
Gus said nothing for so long I wondered if I’d made the proposition in my imagination. Then he sighed in a way that kept my gaze on the mugs of coffee I’d made while he’d stared down the side of my head. “You’re kind of missing the point, but I guess that’s better than nothing. If I can persuade him, can you start in the morning?”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yeah. I leave at seven. That too early for you?”
“No.”
“Sure about that? You were out like a light when I left this morning.”
“How do you know that?”
Gus reached for one of the coffee mugs. “You left the door open, and I’m a creeper, remember?”
“Your words, not mine.”
“Uh-huh. See you in the morning.”
“You’re not coming home tonight?”
“Wasn’t planning on it unless you need me for something?”
I didn’t need him for anything, but somehow, the thought of him leaving and not coming back until morning made me feel sick. I shook my head and found my phone for something to do.
Gus left the room. A moment later, the front door opened and shut. Trepidation filled me, melding with the nausea in the pit of my stomach. I got up and treaded to the hallway. Gus had gone. His coffee cup rested on the windowsill, and the crumpled five pound note was still on the floor.