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“Not that I’m not glad to see you, but I thought you had a hot date tonight.”
“I said I was going to have dinner at Rusty’s,” says Sully.
“Same difference.” He’s got a crush on a bartender there, but he won’t tell me which one, which means I get to give him no end of grief since it’s not like Sully to strike out. Not like him to pine for so long, either. She must really be something to see.
“You know, I’m new in town. I need a place to hang out. Maybe I’ll come down there with you. You can point her out to me,” I muse, just to irritate him. Sully’s the one who kept Callie and me out of the foster system after our parents died. He’s only a few years older, but it was enough. As his honorary younger brother, I consider it my duty to give him grief.
Sully looks legit puzzled. “Her, who?”
“Your ladylove bartender. Come on, man. You’ve been hanging around down there for months. You’re not going to tell me it’s because you like the ambience.”
“Oh,” he says. “Yeah.”
Sully doesn’t elaborate. He must be really gone for her, whoever she is. Before I can open my mouth to poke him about it some more, he points at me and changes the subject.
“You need to talk to Callie.”
I roll my eyes. “We’ve been over this.”
“I don’t care,” he says. “Get over yourself. You’re being a prick, and she misses you. West, too. Lee is a pretty laid-back guy, but he’s getting pissed. He might actually take a swing at you at this point.”
“For what? I didn’t do anything to him.”
“You made Callie cry.”
I set down my beer. “Shut up.”
“It’s true,” says Sully. “Honestly, I’d knock you one myself if I thought it would help, but you’re so fucking stubborn it’d probably just set us all back another month.”
“They lied to me, Sully.” I glare at the wall over his shoulder.
“Yeah, they did. And you need to man up and get the fuck over it.”
“Just like that.” I scoff.
“You can choose,” he says pointedly. “Just like that. The thing is, Finn, life is going on with or without you. She’s about the only family you’ve got left.”
“I’ve got you,” I say, just to be a dick.
“You do,” he says. “And I’m not going anywhere. But I’m not your twin, dude. You need to get over this and make it right. Callie doesn’t need this shit. Not from you.”
The way he says it makes me go cold. “What are you talking about? I thought therapy was going well.” The thought of Callie shutting herself away from the world, after all the work she’s done the last few months to get out of her shell, turns my stomach to lead.
“It is,” says Sully. “That’s not what I’m talking about. What are you going to do, skip their wedding? What about when they have children?”
I blink, feeling the blood drain from my face. Sully nods, pointing at me again.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” he says. “Maybe they’re not there yet, but life goes on, Finnegan. Do you want to be a part of her life? Or are you okay just missing out on all that?”
“She’s not pregnant,” I say. “They’re not married.”
“Not yet.”
I want to punch him. I know by the tightening of his jaw that he can tell.
“We can go a round,” says Sully. “Won’t be the first time I’ve had to kick your ass, and I doubt it’ll be the last. But it’s not going to help.”
“That’s what you think.”
