Page 21 of Shallow Remains

Anchor Management was a busy, local gem that had been around since before they were born and was still run by a local family. They specialized in West Coast fare, but their breakfasts were legendary and served until three every day. It was located right next to Cod Almighty, the best fish and chips shop in town with food every bit as awesome as its name.

He slid into the vinyl booth next to the large window overlooking a side street as raindrops gathered and ran down the glass. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Grey’s short black hair was mussed, his hands wrapped around a turquoise ceramic mug full of coffee. “Thanks for coming.”

“Course.” Grey looked like shit. Like someone had just run over his dog, if he’d had one. Lachlan’s concern hitched up another notch. “What’s up?”

His brother looked down into his mug. “Beth left.”

Lachlan barely masked his shock. Whoa. “When?”

“Right before I texted you.”

Oh. Ouch.

He waited a beat, but Grey didn’t say anything else. It surprised him that his brother had brought him here to talk about this. They were close but Grey didn’t talk about personal things often and never in a public place. Maybe he’d just wanted to get out of the empty house and all the memories inside it.

Lachlan knew all too well what that was like. “What happened?”

“I dunno. The inevitable, I guess.”

Huh. So it hadn’t been a complete surprise, then. He’d wondered for a while how his brother really felt about the relationship. From the start it had been obvious to him that Grey had settled for her. Apparently Beth had known it too. “Sorry, man. You okay?”

Lachlan couldn’t get a true read on him. Grey kept his feelings to himself, was hard to read at the best of times because he was so quiet and stoic. Lachlan couldn’t tell whether his brother was actually gutted by this, just sad, or…he wasn’t sure what else.

Grey nodded. “I’ll be fine. And you don’t need to sit there and pretend you’re sorry she’s gone.”

“What? I liked Beth. She was…nice.” That was all though. Definitely not the right match for Grey in his opinion. Which he’d kept to himself this whole time. Or at least he’d thought he had. He didn’t keep secrets from his brother.

With one notable exception.

“Yeah. She is nice.” There were deep shadows under Grey’s pale blue eyes. He looked done in. Like he hadn’t slept in too long.

Lachlan didn’t think it was because of the situation with Beth. “When’s the last time you got some decent sleep?”

“Couple days. My crew was on scene at the slide near the highway until end of shift this morning. When I got home, Beth already had her bags packed. Must’ve been thinking about it for a while. Had everything packed up and a plan in place.”

“That’s rough.”

Grey nodded. “She said neither of us are happy. That we both deserved more.”

Good for Beth. His opinion of her had just gone up a few notches. “Was she wrong?” he said in a quiet voice. Grey had cared about her, sure, but Lachlan had never believed his brother was truly in love.

Grey exhaled. “No.” He took a sip of his coffee.

Okay, if Grey thought Beth was right, then Lachlan didn’t understand why he was so dejected. Seemed to him that Beth had done Grey a favor by ending things cleanly. Unless… “Did she cheat?”

“No.”

He didn’t ask if his brother had cheated on her because he already knew the answer. Grey wouldn’t cheat and had really strong opinions on the matter due to their family history. “You decided what you’re gonna do yet?”

Grey frowned at him. “Whaddya mean?”

“With the house and whatever. You think things’ll get messy?”

“No, the mortgage is in my name. I can afford all the bills on my own for at least a while. I’ve got time to decide whether to sell and downsize.”

“If you need a loan⁠—”