I furrow my brow at him, but stay silent. He’s right and he fucking knows it. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop any time soon.
He smirks at me and raises a finger. “Oh, and one more thing.”
I tilt my head to the side, waiting for him to say something. Instead I suck in a breath when I feel the sharp pain of a backhanded slap to my balls. I grab my groin in both hands, nearly doubling over.
He leans down and whispers into my ear.
“Mention her again and next time, that’ll be my fist.”
“Noted,” I say, barely managing to find the air in my lungs to form the word.
He laughs and pats me on the back. “Good. Now, let’s go to the diner.”
I nod and he extends a hand toward me. I grab it and pull as hard as I can. The move catches him off balance and he tumbles to the floor in front of me. For a second, I worry that I might have hurt him—an instinct that is still hard to shake after his accident years ago—but that thought is short lived when he bursts out laughing.
“Fine. Just remember you’re still my little brother.” I toss him a wink before walking out of the garage.
“Why are you both so dirty?”Sisi asks from across the booth in the diner.
I’m sure we both look ridiculous with me covered in grease from working all night and Sly from being yanked down onto the floor at the garage. Then again, Sterling Springs is a largely blue collar town with farmers, local craftsman, and a few stray miners. It wouldn’t be the first time two grimy men have come into the old diner on Silver Street for breakfast.
I look to Sly sitting next to me and he gives me a little smirk. Instead of saying anything, he just shrugs and takes a bite of his breakfast sandwich.
I follow his lead for two reasons. First, our sister is a horrible meddler and if she knew that I had Kelsey’s car here, I would never hear the end of it. The other is that she’s already stressed enough with her upcoming wedding while still running the motel. We don’t need to add to it and make her worry about the garage too.
“No clue what you’re talking about,” I say dryly before taking a spoonful of my deliciously sugary breakfast cereal.
She looks at the bowl in front of me and rolls her eyes. “I can’t believe they keep that junk food here for you. You’ve worked in some of the best restaurants in the world and that’s what you pick for breakfast?”
On the surface, she’s one hundred percent right on both counts. If my Gloria’s patrons saw me eating this every morning, they might question my culinary credentials. I’ve had a notorious sweet tooth ever since I was a little kid. We’ve been coming our whole lives because our grandparents knew theold owners. It’s also only a couple blocks from the garage and across the street from the motel. That’s why they kept cereal here for us. Despite new ownership taking over a few months ago, they’ve kept it on the menu. Clearly I’m not the only one ordering it but I’m probably the oldest based on the look I got this morning.
“I like what I like,” I reply before crunching another spoonful in my mouth.
“Whatever.” She sighs and props her elbows up on the table, resting her chin in her palms. “So, how’s Slade?”
Her concern for our oldest brother catches me off-guard. I thought if anything, we’d be talking about her wedding or things in Sterling Springs.
“Wound so tight you could use him as a diving board.”
Sly snorts a laugh. “So the same as always.”
I laugh halfheartedly. “Yeah. Something like that.”
Taking a sip of my coffee, I wonder if I’m doing the right thing by hiding some of the truth from them. Part of me wants to say that he’s burning himself out and nearly taking me down with him, but I don’t want either of them to worry. It might be too late for that because when I look at my sister, I can see the concern in her eyes.
She looks like she wants to say something, but her attention is pulled away when her phone buzzes on the table.
“Ooo, is that Jared?” Sly asks. We both make kissy faces, taunting our younger sister. Neither of us know her fiancé that well, but he seems decent enough. Maybe a bit boring compared to our sister who seems to always be taking on a new project to pour her creativity into, but she seems happy.
She glares at us and mouthsnobefore giving us the middle finger.
I clutch my chest and feign shock. “There are children in this fine establishment, Sisi. Mind your words.”
That happens to be the exact moment the new ownercomes by to top off my coffee. She shakes her head at me, probably thinking that my childish bowl of cereal is fitting right about now.
Sly snickers. “I think you mean hands, not words.”
I look back to my sister, but instantly see that she’s no longer amused by our stupid antics. Her face is ghostly white as she nods and ends the call, clutching her phone to her chest.