Page 41 of Hard Bargain

Knox looked at the ceiling, eyes narrowing. “You always this bad at small talk?”

A faint exhale on the other end. “Yeah. Probably.”

That almost made him smile.

The silence that followed wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, but it wasn’t smooth either. It had that distinctly awkward quality of two people trying to figure out what they were supposed to be to each other and coming up blank. Two strangers, connected by blood and not much else.

Knox dragged a hand through his hair. “So what is this? Checking off some family obligation or something?”

“No.”

The answer came so fast Knox blinked.

Jacob was quiet for a second before speaking again. “I didn’t call because of some sense of duty. I just…” A breath. “I’m not good at this.”

Knox stared at the wall. “Yeah. Same,” he muttered.

Another pause.

“So,” Knox said, shifting against the pillows. “You still in LA?”

“Yeah. You still in Stockton?”

Knox snorted. “Where else would I be?”

“I don’t know,” Jacob said simply. “I don’t know anything about your life.”

Knox looked down at the book in his lap, tracing the crack in the spine with his thumb. “Yeah. Well. Not much to know.”

The silence that followed stretched long enough to become uncomfortable before another voice suddenly cut in. “For fuck’s sake.”

Knox pulled the phone away from his ear, staring at it before bringing it back. There was muffled movement on the other end, a quiet scuffle, and then—“You two are hopeless. Put it on speaker, Jacob.”

A second later, a click.

“Hi, Knox,” the new voice said. “It’s Liam. We met at the funeral.”

“Yeah. I remember you.”

“Good,” Liam said, warm and entirely too cheerful. “Because I’ve been listening to this conversation slowly dying and decided intervention was necessary.”

Knox smiled before he could stop himself.

“Was doing fine,” Jacob muttered.

“You weren’t, honey. But it’s fine. We’ll fix it.”

That got an actual laugh out of Knox, surprising enough that he sat there blinking afterward.

Liam shifted gears seamlessly. “How are you, Knox?”

“Uh… alright,” he said. “You?”

“Excellent,” Liam said. “Our lives are a bit of a mess lately, but we’re doing good.”

“Yeah,” Knox said dryly. “I’ve seen some of that. Looks like a pain in the ass.”

“Oh god,” Liam groaned. “Please tell me you didn’t see the celebrity articles.”