Hunter’s promotion had been easily nine months prior, and of course I hadn’t seen Andrew since then. Hunter was the one who acted as the talking head of the family. He was the one who tried to maintain contact with Andrew. I knew Smith talked to him, and I imagined Marshall probably did as well. There was a group chat between the five of us that I did my best to ignore.
“No.”
“No, you won’t talk to him or no, you haven’t seen him?”
“Both probably,” I grumbled, turning and heading for the door of Hunter’s bedroom. “Definitely the latter.”
“Maybe you should. San Diego is a short trip and maybe a change of scenery would do you good.”
He wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
And besides, the last thing I wanted to do was burden a brother who was a practical stranger with whatever emotionalhardships I’d gotten myself into. Andrew already had a bad first impression of me. I didn’t need him seeing me at my worst as a follow up.
“Appreciate the feedback,” I told Hunter sharply, making the turn out of his hallway and back into the living room.
Silas and Lincoln were still on the couch, but at some point one of them had gotten up to get the sandwich. Both plates were empty, save for the crumbs and some leftover chips.
“Are you staying awhile?” Lincoln asked, stretching his legs out and propping his heels on the coffee table.
“I don’t think so.”
“You can.”
Lincoln dropped his head against the back of the couch, undoubtedly to get a better look at me. There was something about the invitation coming from him that rubbed me wrong. Maybe not wrong, but…it was my brother’s apartment and Lincoln was the one inviting me to stay. I mean, he lived there. The two of them were in love. I was just being unfair.
It made perfect sense for Lincoln to be the one to invite me to stay because he’d want me to know even though thingshadchanged in Hunter’s life, my relationship with Hunter wasn’t meant to be one of them. I appreciated the sentiment of it, even if I didn’t know what to do with it.
“Thank you, Lincoln. But I’m fine.”
I walked around to the front of the couch and took their empty plates into the kitchen. Hunter was already there with ours, and I faced a flashback of earlier in the morning. Sophie at the sink with me and Daniel on either side of her, three used plates between us.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive, Lincoln.” My voice cracked, and I put their plates into the sink beside mine and Hunter’s.
“Andrew, at least,” he said to me under his breath.
I leveled a sharp glare at him, and he rolled his eyes. “Thank you for lunch. Thank you for coming over.”
“I’m not sure I brought a real value add today.”
“You always bring a value add.” Hunter turned off the water and used my shoulder to dry his hands. “But please go home and change your clothes before you force anyone else to be around you for longer than thirty seconds.”
I lifted my arm and sniffed my armpit. “I don’t smell.”
“Not like BO,” Lincoln called out from the couch.
Groaning, I bracketed my hands around my hips and stared up at the ceiling. I probably smelled like sex and liquor, but if that was true, Hunter ignored it and wrapped his arms around me anyway in a hug I didn’t ask for.
“She smells pretty,” he said, clapping me on the back and shoving me toward the door.
“Yeah,” I muttered. “She is.”
Hunter walked me to the door and we said our goodbyes. On the walk back to the car, I texted Andrew.
He was quick to reply and two hours later, I was in San Diego.
CHAPTER 14