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He nodded. "Sure."
I picked up my niece and carried her to the room she still shared with her sister. Despite being big girls now, they preferred not to sleep alone. They sometimes got scared at night, and it comforted them to be together. I loved seeing how well they got along. I hoped they would grow up to be closer siblings than their father and I had been.
I came back to the living room after tucking Carla in, and sat on an armchair next to the couch Ace was lounging on.
"How was dinner?" he asked.
"Where are Deb and Caitlyn?"
"Deb's in bed. Caitlyn is out with the bridesmaids."
"Is there anything to eat?"
"Yeah. Some sandwiches and stuff that housekeeping left for lunch."
I got myself a chicken salad sandwich and a beer. I ate as I watched my brother laugh at something on TV that didn't register for me. I hadn't eaten since breakfast. I skipped lunch to get away from the apartment, and then dinner to find Isha.
"Turn the TV off," I told Ace after I finished eating.
"Why? This is a fun—"
"Turn the fucking thing off. We need to talk."
He did as I asked.
"In the study," I suggested. We could close the door there in case there was a screaming match.
I sat on a leather chair, and Ace took the matching one across from me. The study was more of a bar with a desk and chairs, something my father liked to have, so we had one here in New York, as well as the ranch house.
I picked up a bottle of Ardbeg 10 on the coffee table between us and Ace nodded. I poured us both a glass.
We clinked our glasses. "Cheers," he said.
I took a sip of whiskey and looked straight into eyes that were as blue as mine.
"I saw Isha George today."
Ace froze midway, his glass to his lips. He drank some of the pale, golden liquid and nodded as he set the glass down on the table.
"Talk about a blast from the past, eh? How's the old girl doing?"
"Ace?"
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, which was as dark as mine used to be. Now, at thirty-five, I already had some flecks of gray like my father had at my age. I was getting old. And fuck if I didn't feel older after talking to Isha.
"She told you." He didn't have to explain what she'd revealed. We both knew.
"She'd told me before, but I believed you instead. I didn't think my brother would lie to me."
Ace snorted. "Yeah, well, I did."
"Why?"
"Why?" Ace grunted. "You can't be that oblivious?"
"I guess I am."
"You're the better Ledger. The smarter, more handsome, more successful brother. I mean, I dabble around and do stuff that you ask me to, but I'm not running the ranch. I don't know how to—and fuck it, I never wanted to, would never be able to." Ace downed the rest of his whiskey, a look of disgust on his face. "I was jealous for many years. Isha was friendly, but she wouldn't sleep with me. She wouldn't sleep with anyone. But she did with you. Fucking hell…I couldn't…."
