“Why did Evie have you down as her emergency contact?”
“You sure you want to know?”
Zach paused a moment and ran through all the worst-case scenarios. The one that topped the list had his brother and Evie in a sexual relationship that they somehow managed to keep under wraps for ten years. Luckily, even though Jesse could keep some secrets, he rarely left Charming. A secret affair was out.
“Yeah, tell me.”
“I didn’t know she made me her emergency contact. She didn’t tell me.”
“But you know why she did. From where I’m sitting, I don’t see the difference between her putting down you or Sam. Or Miss Leona.”
“Are you saying if there was an emergency you’d call our baby brother, who is available two months out of the year, or our eighty-year-old grandmother before you called me?”
“’Course not. You’re my emergency contact. Then Lilah. Then Pops.”
“I answered your question. This little chat is over.”
“I have a few more minutes and you’re still not being all that slick. Why you?”
“I’m going to tell you and then you are immediately going to let this shit go. I would like to at least get an hour of sleep before we land.”
“Fine. Go.”
“We’ve kept in touch.”
“This whole time?”
“Yeah, this whole time.”
“Woooooooow,” Zach said as he leaned back against the headrest.
“Now. Let it go.”
“You mean to tell me—”
“That since you broke her heart and she decided she couldn’t deal with your wishy-washy noncommittal crap—”
“Noncommittal?!” Zach hadn’t meant to disrupt the peaceful quiet of first class, but his brother was on some first-class bullshit.
“Hey, maybe don’t get us arrested as soon as we step off the plane.”
“Sorry.” They might be wealthy, but Zach couldn’t forget they were still flying while tall and black.
“Anyway. You couldn’t decide whether you had feelings for her or not, and she was the one who ended up getting hurt. End of story.”
“That’s not what happened.”
“Right now, man, I don’t really care. We have to do what’s best for Evienow. You have to deal with your revisionist history on your own time.”
“Whatever.”
“Your time’s up. Watch a movie or something.”
Zach just grunted in response. A movie wasn’t going to distract him. “When you say you kept in touch, how often are we talking? Like birthdays and holidays, or do you and her have a group chat with Sam and you’re just yukking it up seven days a week?”
Jesse opened his eyes and leaned against the armrest between their seats. He fixed Zach with the glare he’d learned from their father. The glare that meant if they pushed one more step they were going to get worse than a spanking. Luckily the glare had been so effective, none of them had had a chance to experience Jesse Sr.’s full wrath firsthand. Not that Zach thought his brother would actually fight him mid-flight, but he didn’t really wanna see what pushing Jesse to the limit meant for him. Fired up Jesse and the Hulk had a lot in common.
“Drop it, Zach.”