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He didn't challenge me with anythat's your namebullshit which was smart. "Is she even legal?" I asked him.
He raised his chin. "She's twenty-one."
Well, shoot. Coulda fooled me. She looked like she'd just been excused from prep school with the way she dressed. She was only seven years younger than me and four years younger than Gavin.
She didn't have an accent or give off any signs she wasn't a local, but I was grasping at straws. "Is she looking for a green card?"
He frowned and glared at me, fury brewing in his eyes. "No. She was born here. Stop insulting her."
"I'm just trying to figure out her angle."
"That's what's great about her. She has no angle. Can you just be nice for once?" His mouth turned down and his eyes pleaded with me to understand him. My little brother was still in there. Young and vulnerable, looking to me foracceptance like he always did. I wanted to give that to him, but something wasn't right about this.
"I just find it hard to believe a girl like her would be interested in a guy like you."
"Why? What do you think she is and I'm not?" His voice reeked with indignation and wounded pride, but Gavin needed my guidance right now. In order to give that to him in the right way, I needed to understand the full situation.
"She's a good girl." I motioned back toward the dining room where she was sitting dutifully waiting for her knight in shining armor to return to her.
"I'm a good guy," he insisted.
"Since when?"
He stepped back and gave me that smarmy grin he gave when he knew he was lying and no one was buying. "Since I found God." He raised his palms up flat like he was in church jamming to a praise song.
"Bullshit."
Our combined laughter broke the tension. We both knew there was no way he'd turned into a God fearing man in the last six months since I'd seen him. He liked sinning way too much.
"No, really, man, since I met her."
"She's wearing fucking pearls and loafers. You're gonna wreck her."
"I'm wearing a bow tie and a suit." He held out his hands and performed a comical twirl for me.
"You look ridiculous."
"So what, Mag? Let me have this. Let me have a taste of goodness. Just a taste. Maybe I fuck it up. Maybe it goeswrong, but if it goes right? Can you imagine the old gator rat making good for a change? Don't I deserve a chance like everyone else?"
God, how did I get so jaded that I didn't see it that way? I didn't even give them any benefit of doubt. So maybe. Maybe this was legit love. Perhaps she was the monumental change that Gavin needed to get his life off the rails, and I was the one holding him back by not believing in it.
"Anything is possible, bro." He saw me deliberating and kept making his case. "Might even be a hot chick with a pearl necklace out there for you somewhere."
"Not a chance. That's why this doesn't make sense. What's she after? Protect yourself, bro. Don't let pussy lead you astray."
"Oh, now you're giving advice like you know shit about relationships? How many times has a bitch led you astray?"
"Never."
"Remember Sheila?"
Sheila was a mistake on my part. "Do not mention her name."
"Every fucking day you're chasing women when you should be working, doing your training, making money. You spend half your time either getting it or getting rid of it. You risk your life for it, so don't go telling me you wouldn't jump on the chance to hit that virgin cunt right there."
I flinched and looked away from him as I checked out the traffic on the street. "Ah, man. Nice way to talk about your future wife."
He glared at me sideways and brushed his shoulders like he was shaking off the insult. "We done with thisconversation? I'm presenting this to you as something I want you to be a part of. If you can't cope, then don't come to the wedding. That's your choice, but I'm asking you to be there. Maybe we can be a family again, a fucked up imperfect family, but maybe she's what we need to heal from all the crap we've been dealt in our lives. Maybe we're due some goodness for a change."
