I started to smile, but it fell away when I realized the reason he looked so haggard was not a good one. Had someone done something to him? Did I need to find them and confront them?
Ugh. Who was the overprotective brother now?
28
LEA
“Ileave you alone for a few weeks and you go and fall in love on me?”
I jerked my head up at Shea’s voice, watching warily as he sat down with a heavy sigh on the other side of the couch.
I dropped my head back into my hands and said, “Shea, I’m so sorry, I know what it looks like but I swear, IswearI love him. I really do. Please don’t hate me, I don’t think I could handle it if you weren’t in my life anymore, please?—”
“Still as melodramatic as ever, aren’t you?”
Shocked at the amusement in Shea’s voice, I raised my head and stared at him. “What?”
He sighed. “Look, I’m sorry, I…I really shouldn’t have put my hands on you like that. I walked in and saw you on top of him and I just—fuck. I just reacted. I’m sorry I did that, because you didn’t deserve it.” He leaned back and stared up at the ceiling. “I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone. Beau is gay, you’re in love…what’s next? Riley likes men, too?” He snorted. “No, what would be truly weird is seeing Monroe smile.” He cut his eyes to mine and gave me a smile of his own, and the heaviness in my heart lifted.
“You really don’t hate me?”
Shea scooted down to me and wrapped me in his arms. “I could never hate you, dummy. I might give you weird looks for a while, but that’s it. I love you, Lee Lee. You’re as much of a brother to me as Beau is. I just want you to be happy.”
“I’m so happy with him, Shea. You have no idea.”
“Good.” He pulled back and tipped my chin up. “Did I hurt you?” There was a wealth of regret in his voice, so I patted his knee.
“No, you didn’t hurt me. Youalmostdid, but my knight in shining armor came to my rescue. Did you see my fierce man back there? Ugh. Amazing. But where the hell did all these muscles come from?” I wrapped a hand around his bicep. “Have you been weight training or doing scientific research?”
“Why not both?” he said, flexing in my grip.
“Damn, babe, you could crack nuts with these bad boys. You’re seriously swole. Where’s your backwards hat? Where’s your tiny tank and your shaker bottle full of protein? That should be glued to your hand at all times. What will I do if you get hangry on me? I know I’m edible but this is all for Beau.” I gestured down my body.
“Okay, stop. I’m not that big,” he laughed, pushing my wandering hands away.
“You’re bigger than you were. How did it go out there? We missed you,” I told him, sincerely glad to have him back. “Plus you look a little rough, did something happen?”
Shea bit his lip and glanced away.
What was this? Did something juicy happen?
“It was fine, nothing happened.”
Something definitely happened.
I narrowed my eyes at him. He was keeping something from me and I would absolutely find out what it was. “Ah, so it was all just veryfine,” I remarked. I decided to let him off the hook for now because he really did look tired. “Maybe you should gotake a nap. The guest room is free again now that Beau has moved into mine.”
Shea sighed and stood up. “Yeah, I think I might. Drinks tonight?”
“How else would we welcome you home? The marching band was busy, unfortunately. Wait, wait, wait, did you see any UFOs?”
“Not this time, sorry. But there was a portal to another dimension that appeared out of nowhere. We avoided it by just a hair.”
“You should have been the good little scientist you are and gone through it, taken some samples or whatever it is you do.” He laughed, and, seeing the weariness in his eyes tugged at my heart. Softly, I said, “Go rest, hon.”
Shea stood up, hesitated, then leaned down and gave me a hard hug with those big new muscles. “I’m glad it’s you,” he said softly. “Be good to him.”
I hugged him back and murmured, “I intend to.”